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Unit 5:
Feuerstein’s Theory of Structural Cognitive
Modifiability (Part C)
Core reading for Part C:
Donald, D., Lazarus, S. and Moolla, S XXXXXXXXXXEducational psychology in Social Context:
Ecosystemic applications to southern Africa. 5th edn. Oxford University Press: Cape Town.
Pp. 82-84; XXXXXXXXXX.
EPS401 Course Reader: Green, L. 2014. 'Thinking students: how children and adolescents
develop as thinkers'. In Green, L. (ed.). Schools as thinking communities. Pretoria: van
Schaik: Pp. 29-34.
EPS401 Course Reader: Lomofsky, L. 2014. ‘Instrumental Enrichment (IE)’. In Green, L.
(ed.). Schools as thinking communities. Pretoria: van Schaik: Pp XXXXXXXXXX; XXXXXXXXXX..
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Enrichment of learning
• Part C of Feuerstein’s Theory focuses on the enrichment of
learning: How we as teachers use his theory of MLE to enhance
the cognitive functions of learners so that they can maximise
their learning potential and widen their knowledge base
• The main focus reading for this section is the chapter by
Lomofsky from your EPS401 course reader (pages given); the
pages from other readings will be noted when relevant
• We will cover: Cultural transmission and MLE, criteria for MLE,
mediation of cognitive functions, instrumental enrichment,
enrichment as a process being implemented in South Africa
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your text is covered• We have discussed the SCM theory and the important
principle of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE)
• Feuerstein and his followers put together a number of
assessments to identify the strengths and difficulties of learners
and exercises and to develop cognitive functions
• e.g. Learning Propensity Assessment Device (LPAD): assess
learners strengths and difficulties
• e.g. the Instrumental Enrichment programme (FIE): practical
exercises to enhance cognitive functions
• e.g. Shaping modifying environment (SME): identify
environmental, social and academic support needs to building a
more facilitative general environment for learning
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Cultural transmission and MLE
• As covered in Part B, children learn through Direct Learning
Exposure and Mediated Learning Experience (MLE): a mediator
is required to facilitate the process
• In so doing, mediators (starting with parents) mediate the ways
of doing things and understanding things from their own cultural
experience and thereby enhance the learning of their children in
particular ways
• Teachers continue this by exposing learners to the culture of
learning in the classroom and school environment and thereby
extend on the learners’ abilities in terms of their cognitive
functions and their knowledge base
See example on page 181 of your reading
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• Remember talking about cultural deprivation and cultural difference in
Part B of this unit? In linking the points of the previous slide to this, can
you see that we are talking about cultural transference of the ways in
which children understand, reason and think about things in the world
as they learn? It’s not about culture per se but culture does have
something to do with this because it influences how we might go about
problem-solving or goal-setting within our cultural understanding
• The aim is to develop children’s cognitive functions so that they can be
successful within the expected cultural framework of learning at their
particular institution: pre-primary, junior primary, senior primary, high
school and/or higher education studies
Andreatta, B. 16 June 2017. Creating a
Learning Culture. [online]. Available at:
https:
Lynda.com/Business-Skills-
tutorials/Creating-Culture-Learning/585003-
2.html [Accessed on 27 April 2020].
https:
lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Creating-Culture-Learning/ XXXXXXXXXXhtml
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Criteria for MLE
• This was also covered in Part B but it is important to
highlight here as well in that, however we are going to go
about building enrichment programmes for children in our care, we
need to be mindful of these criteria which are needed to make it
happen
• You already know about Intentionality and reciprocity, mediation of
meaning and transcendence: these have to be present in everyday
interactions with learners in any given teaching and learning situation
• They guide how we develop lessons: we have a purpose, we want to make
sure that we engage with learners meaningfully, we need to find ways to
assess that learners have indeed understood and can use what they have
learned, and then we want to know that they can use what they have
learned in novel situations and apply their learning
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• Feuerstein also talks about situational parameters of
MLE: they are used when the situation requires it. We will
iefly go through them now (summarised in a diagram
for you as an added word document)
• Feelings of competence: children must experience success to
uild their own sense of worth
• Regulation and control of behaviour: metacognitive skill to monitor
own behaviour and ways of thinking
• Sharing behaviour: learning skills of cooperation and collaboration
• Individuation and differentiation: value children’s uniqueness and
differences in sharing their contributions
• Goal-seeking, goal-setting and goal-achieving behaviour: how to
plan, set and achieve goals for learning
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• Search for challenge, novelty and complexity: encouraging
learners to adapt to new and challenging situations
• Self-change: awareness of being a modifiable entity:
changes to be strengthened and rewarded
• Optimistic alternatives: expectation of achieving positive
outcomes in learning
• Sense of belonging: encourage a sense of belonging among the
learners, acknowledging diversity and range of experiences
• All of these criteria are important in enhancing the development of
cognitive functions: some are used for the enhancement of a
particular cognitive function that the teacher would like to focus on
e.g. being able to compare two ways of going about a Maths problem
• What cognitive functions would be useful to use in
this situation?
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Mediating cognitive functions
• Each learner comes into the classroom with his/her set
of cognitive functions that have been mediated by parents and
the learner’s community
• Once at school, the teacher needs to acknowledge these but
slowly
ing the learner to reach the level of cognitive functions
as required by the cu
iculum of the subject at the specific grade
level (those critical outcomes and learning outcomes)
• Children coming from more deprived environments in terms of
their opportunities to learn are likely to require a lot more MLE in
a sustained way to enhance the child’s overall functioning and
each his/her potential to learn
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Instrumental enrichment
• As indicated
iefly in the introduction, the FIE can be
used to enhance cognitive modifiability
• By enriching the learning experience for learners through practical
exercises to move learners towards the specific cognitive function
eing targeted, learners get to experience this in MLE and to
develop their own repertoire of skills for learning
• With practice, they will be more likely to learn how to apply this new
learning to new situations as they arise and also to build on them as
they progress through their phases of education
• The FIE can prove to be very motivating for learners and encourage
them to become more independent in their learning
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• In shaping modifying environments (SME), teachers work together
with parents, the school as a whole and the community from which
the learner comes as a means to provide opportunities that take into
account the rich diversity of children, their past and cu
ent
experiences and at the same time orientate them to the needs of the
national cu
iculum
• It would be useful to communicate with parents and the wider
community in terms of the cognitive functions being imbued at the
present time, so all can work together in participating as an
ecosystem in the enrichment of children’s learning
Learne
Teache
School Parents & community
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Conclusions
• Feuerstein’s work
ings us as South Africans much hope for the
children we serve as teachers: the
ain has the capacity to be
dramatically changed with the right kind of stimulation, mediation and
care
• He and his followers provided evidence that new neural pathways can
e laid down with the appropriate MLE in very deprived communities
and the
ain appears to have what we call ‘
ain plasticity or
neuroplasticity’ (p.32 of reading) as it is constantly restructuring and
eorganising with the inclusion of developing cognitive functions and
thereby enlarging the knowledge of learners and giving them the tools
to continue to develop their knowledge
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• Children’s
ains have been shown to have developed new neural
pathways and connections in the
ain after being exposed to a
period of sustained MLE
• Consider how much can be developed with the cooperative MLE
from parents, teachers, schools and communities if they could work
together (whole school approach: See Donald, Lazarus & Moolla
eading: p XXXXXXXXXX)
• Even without the use of expensive assessments from the Feuerstein
Institute, a teacher can apply these ideas within the every day
classroom
• What challenges do you foresee in achieving this in an SA milieu?
Creating neural pathways. 01 May 2019. [online].
Available at:
www.jassalchiropractic.com/2019/05/creating-new-
neural-pathways/ [Accessed on 27 April 2020].
http:
www.jassalchiropractic.com/2019/05/creating-new-neural-pathways
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• This marks the end of the presentations on Feuerstein’s Theory:
Ensure that you have participated in Parts A, B and C
• Do the readings as suggested in each PowerPoint
• Then do the Activities associated with this unit
• Following this, you will be fully ready to tackle your assignment
Children in Africa need your help. n.d. [online]. Available at:
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Children-in-Arica-
Need-Your-Helps XXXXXXXXXX [Accessed on 27 April
2020].
http:
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Children-in-Arica-Need-Your-Helps XXXXXXXXXX