Dr Bruner, who invented the term ‘scaffolding’ to define the role of adults in children’s learning, was instrumental in changing the way people thought about thought, developmental psychology and early years education. The breadth of his contribution included his latest role as adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, studying how psychology affects legal practice.
His achievements date back to the 1940s, where, as a researcher at Harvard, he began to question the then-predominant theory of behaviourism. This was where learning was seen in simple terms of of stimulus and response, which had been shown in experiments involving animals such as the chime of a bell to indicate mealtimes inducing salivation in dogs.
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