{"product_id":"toward-a-theory-of-instruction","title":"Toward a Theory of Instruction","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis countrys most challenging writer on education presents here a distillation  for the general reader  of half a decades research and reflection. His theme is dual: how children learn  and how they can best be helped to learnhow they can be brought to the fullest realization of their capacities. Jerome Bruner  Harpers reports  has stirred up more excitement than any educator since John Dewey. His explorations into the nature of intellectual growth and its relation to theories of learning and methods of teaching have had a catalytic effect upon educational theory. In this new volume the subjects dealt with in The Process of Education are pursued further  probed more deeply  given concrete illustration and a broader context. One is struck by the absence of a theory of instruction as a guide to pedagogy  Mr. Bruner observes; in its place there is principally a body of maxims. The eight essays in this volume  as varied in topic as they are unified in theme  are contributions toward the construction of such a theory. What is needed in that enterprise is  inter alia  the daring and freshness of hypotheses that do not take for granted as true what has merely become habitual  and these are amply evidenced here. At the conceptual core of the book is an illuminating examination of how mental growth proceeds  and of the ways in which teaching can profitably adapt itself to that progression and can also help it along. Closely related to this is Mr. Bruners evolutionary instrumentalism  his conception of instruction as the means of transmitting the tools and skills of a culture  the acquired characteristics that express and amplify mans powersespecially the crucial symbolic tools of language  number  and logic. Revealing insights are given into the manner in which language functions as an instrument of thought. The theories presented are anchored in practice  in the empirical research from which they derive and in the practical applications to which they can be put. The latter are exemplified incidentally throughout and extensively in detailed descriptions of two courses Mr. Bruner has helped to construct and to teachan experimental mathematics course and a multifaceted course in social studies. In both  the students encounters with the material to be mastered are structured and sequenced in such a way as to work with  and to reinforce  the developmental process. Written with all the style and lan that readers have come to expect of Mr. Bruner  Toward a Theory of Instruction is charged with the provocative suggestions and inquiries of one of the great innovators in the field of education.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44968241856565,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674897005","price":59.41,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674897007.jpg?v=1770650019","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/toward-a-theory-of-instruction","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}