Introducing Bruner: A Guide for Practitioners and Students in Early Years Education

Sandra Smidt takes the reader on a journey through the key concepts of Jerome Bruner, a significant figure in the field of early education whose work has spanned almost a century. His wide-ranging and innovative principles of early learning and teaching are unpicked here using everyday language and the links between his ideas and those of other key thinkers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries are revealed.

Introducing Bruner is the companion volume to Introducing Vygotsky and is an invaluable work for anyone involved with children in the early years. The introduction of Bruner's key concepts is followed by discussion of the implications of these for teaching and learning. This accessible text is illustrated throughout with examples drawn from real-life early years settings and the concepts discussed include:

• how children acquire language
• how children come to make sense of their world through narrative
• the significance of play to learning
• the importance of culture and context
• the role of memory
• what should children be taught: the spiral curriculum
• how should children be taught: scaffolding and interaction.

The book also looks, crucially, at what those working or involved with young children can learn from Bruner, and includes a helpful glossary of terminology. This fascinating insight in to the life and work of a key figure in early years education is essential reading for anyone concerned with the learning and development of young children.

Sandra Smidt is a writer and consultant in early years education. Her most recent books include: Playing to Learn (2010); Planning for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2009); Key Issues in Early Years Education, 2nd edn (as editor) (2009); Introducing Vygotsky (2008); Supporting Multilingual Learners in the Early Years (2007) and A Guide to Early Years Practice, 3rd edn (2007) – all published by Routledge.