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Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment (FIE)
Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a cognitive education
program that was developed in the 1950’s by Professor
Reuven Feuerstein. The program has been successfully
used in seventy countries as a tool for the enhancement
of learning potential in challenged individuals and
those in high-risk environments. IE materials are organized
into instruments that comprise paper and pencil tasks
aimed at such specific cognitive domains as analytic
perception, orientation in space and time, comparative
behaviour, classification, and more. The IE program
is mediated by a certified IE instructor and can be
implemented in the classroom setting or as individual
tutoring. The Instrumental Enrichment program has received
world wide recognition and has been translated into
sixteen languages.
Mastery of the tasks in Instrumental Enrichment is
never a matter of rote learning or mere reproduction
of a learned skill. It always involves the application
of rules, principles, or strategies in a variety of
tasks. Thus, IE systematically reinforces the cognitive
functions that enable learners to define problems, make
connections and see relationships, motivate themselves,
and improve their work habits.
Instrumental Enrichment consists of fourteen instruments
that focus on specific cognitive functions. Learning
how to learn takes place through repetition –
not repetition of the IE tasks themselves, but of the
cognitive functions that enable individuals to think
effectively. Tasks become increasingly complex and abstract,
and the instruments reinforce cognitive functions in
a cyclical manner. Deliberately free of specific subject
matter, the IE tasks are intended to be more readily
transferable to all life situations. Through IE, students
develop the ability to apply their cognitive functions
to any problem or thinking situation.
www.icelp.org
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Bright Start
Bright Start is a flexible cognitive curriculum for young
children, designed for use with children functioning at developmental
levels from 3 to 6 years, including those who are ‘normally
developing’, those who are sociologically at risk of
school failure (for example, children from very poor families),
and those who have low IQs. The primary goal of Bright Start
is one of ‘stretching the mind’, that is, broadening
children’s understanding and thinking processes, thereby
increasing their educability. It is a structured approach,
with strong emphasis on the child’s induction of rules
and explanatory concepts. Teachers emphasise the orderliness
and predictability of the world, beginning with principles
of organisation, rule following, rule making, rule applying,
and the systematic processes required for orderly perception,
analysis, understanding, learning, and problem solving. Children
learn to:
Conform their behaviour to internalised
standards for rational reasons
Perceive the existence of problems
Identify processes for finding solutions
Apply those processes according to logical
functions
Abandon unsuccessful strategies to seek
new ones
Be critical of their own solutions
Offer logical support of their thinking,
learning and problem-solving processes
Bright Start can also be used with small groups of children.
A Speech-Language Pathologist, for instance, may want to work
with the classroom teacher by providing Bright Start training
to a smaller group of students as part of the Bright Start
curriculum delivery.
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LPAD/Dynamic Assessment
The term ‘Dynamic Assessment’ has become recognized
as a generic term applied to a pre-test – intervene
– post-test approach to assessment. It differs from
normative assessment in that it is specifically constructed
to yield information about how a student learns and about
what factors are able to produce changes in the student’s
learning.
‘Dynamic Assessment’ is not intended to produce
scores comparing students to each other, but it is designed
to produce scores comparing pre and post-test performance
(gain scores). In this way the student is compared to him/herself.
The most important aspect of Dynamic Assessment, however,
is what happens in the intervention phase. Intervention is
most meaningful and successful when it takes the form of Mediated
Learning, a type of interaction that is goal-directed, fosters
connections between new learning and what a student already
knows, helps apply new learning to academic subjects and to
life experience, and creates feelings of competence.
In Mediated Learning, the learning experience is a shared
experience. In this context intervention implies working to
success. Normative assessment is always constructed in such
a way that the testing is discontinued after a certain number
of successive failures, e.g. wrong answers, no responses.
In Dynamic Assessment, the criterion for stopping a test is
when a student has achieved success. Consequently, the test
experience is an extremely positive experience for both the
assessor and the test taker. It is because of this that Dynamic
Assessment in and of itself often serves as a catalyst for
long-term change, even though it has never been intended for
this purpose.
The tools (tests) used in Dynamic Assessment are called instruments.
The Learning Propensity Assessment Device (LPAD) and the Dynamic
Assessment of Young Children (DAYC) are two sets of such instruments.
The are constructed to assess a wide range of functioning
(ranging from memory and attention processes and need for
precision to higher level thinking processes, such as hypothetical
reasoning, as well as to output functions, such as use of
precise language), in visual, figural, numerical and language
modalities. They are relatively culture-free and require only
limited content knowledge. They are, thus, uniquely suited
to students from different cultures or students of low socio-economic
background. In any case, the assessor is free during the intervention
phase to teach concepts, language and background knowledge,
as required.
Most of the instruments can also be used for group assessment,
making Dynamic Assessment not only a rich and positive experience,
but also a cost effective means of assessment.
In order to begin the Dynamic Assessment journey, training
is required (about 1 week), in the theoretical foundations,
the administration and interpretation of the instruments,
in mediated learning and in reporting the results.
The ‘payoffs’ can be manifold, and range from
an increase in skills to greater understanding of cognitive
functions to renewed joy in the assessment process. It is,
in the end, as much a professional as a personal journey.
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Saturday Class
These classes are designed to help students who are 1-2 grade
levels academically behind.
Math and Language arts are concentrated on. They are not meant
for students requiring more intensive help, specific homework
tutoring or behavior support.
The teacher uses Bright Start and Feuersteins Instrumental
Enrichment (FIE) used in conjunction with Language Arts and
Math programming with the students. Links are made between
real world and academics with links to underlying cognition.
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Summer School
Grades K - high school accepted.
This is for children who are
struggling academically. The Mediated learning approach is
used with Bright Start/FIE and dynamic assessment. Each child
receives a mini dynamic assessment during summer school by
a certified Speech Pathologist or Psychologist. NO SEA SUPPORT AVAILABLE.
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Parents as Mediators
School-based program parents. Parents learn how to use the
principles of mediated learning to facilitate their childrens'
social, emotional and cognitive development using daily life
events and the families' cultural heritage
www.mindladder.com |
Tutoring
Please phone to inquire about tutors in your area. Most tutors
will work in the home, some tutoring occurs at the Centre.
We employ mediation and cognitive program tutoring. |
Bridges To Change
Classes:
Elementary and High School
Eight to Ten Students Per Class
Staff:
1 ‘Teacher’ per class
1 ‘Dynamic Assessor’ per class (1st week only)
1 Director
1 Administrative Assistant
Classroom Assistants as needed
Volunteers
Parent Program:
8:30 PM to 12:00 Noon during second week, followed by Individual
sessions during third and fourth week. (the program is provided
by the Director and is optional)
Parent Interviews:
Individual Sessions are booked by parents with the Director
or the Assessor and are optional.
Time Line
First Week
All students take part in “Dynamic Assessment’
reports are available by the end of the second week.
Second Week
Parent Program
End of Third Week
Garage sale
Third and Fourth weeks
Individual discussion sessions with parents.
Last Day
Pizza Party
Fifth Week
Teachers submit reports
Sixth Week
Reports are mailed out after Director reads and approves them.
Follow-up
Some students continue with programs. Parents program and
support continues.
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