Bruner’s Three Modes of Representation


According to Bruner (1957) the outcome of cognitive development is thinking and the intelligent mind creates from experience "generic coding systems that permit one to go beyond the data to new and possibly fruitful predictions" (p. 234). Children are supposed to acquire a way of representing the recurrent regularities in their environment. Hence, Bruner (1957) postulated that important outcomes of learning include not only the concepts, categories, and problem-solving procedures but also the ability to invent things.  Jerome Bruner’s research on children’s cognitive development proposed three modes of representation namely as 1) Enactive representation, 2) Iconic representation and 3) Symbolic representation. Those modes of representation are related to people’s storage and encoding knowledge or information in their memory.
The first mode of representation which is enactive representation is based on action. This mode lasts from 0 to 1 years. This mode involves encoding action-based information for storage in our memory such recalling shaking a rattle by developing a muscular memory of the task since infants as well as adults recall tasks with the help of muscular memory. The second mode of representation that is iconic representation is based on images and this mode lasts from 1 to 6 years. This mode includes the ability to store a mental picture and therefore, while learning something new, it is helpful to use pictures as well as diagrams in order to support verbal explanations. Finally, the third mode of representation which called as symbolic representation is based on language. This mode lasts from 7 years to above and this more-sophisticated mode is the last to develop due to the fact that it is much more flexible than previous modes. With the help of the medium of language, information is stored by using codes as well as symbols that can be manipulated, sorted and classified. Thus, learners are not restricted to using only actions or images yet data storage is carried out with the help of words, mathematical signs as well as other symbol systems.
To sum up, each and every learner is able to learn any material provided if it is appropriately organized to match learners’ current level of ability. In addition, not only Bruner but also Vygotsky gave importance to a child's environment, regarding their social environment much more than Piaget since they Both agreed the fact that adults play an active role in terms of assisting the child's learning. Bruner emphasized the social nature of learning, mentioning that others need to help a child in order to develop skills by means of scaffolding which is a very similar concept to Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Scaffolding refers to helpful and structured interaction between an adult and a child in order to help the child achieve a specific goal. In other words, “scaffolding refers to the steps taken to reduce the degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring” (Bruner, 1978, p. 19). 




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