Bruner, Jerome

Bruner was a constructivist who made many contributions to learning theory and education in general. One important idea that relates well to EFL teaching methodology was the concept of scaffolding. Bruner believed that teachers should facilitate learning by allowing learners to ‘put ideas together’ in a process of self discovery, rather than through didactic teaching. Initially the input from the teacher (to scaffold learning) may be high, but as the learner becomes more proficient this help can be reduced.