Feuerstein Method / Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment programme (FIE)

The Feuerstein Institute has a Head Office in Israel. The Institute is operating in 80 countries but has only
bee nextended to NZ since July this year. Since then demand for training in the programme has been
overwhelming. Lecturers at Massey University who are in full support are seeking research on the effect
of the programme in the NZ context for the MOE. One class at Royal Oak Intermediate School has been
selected as one of first in the country to be part of this research and benefit from this international
programme.
Training for a class at Royal Oak Intermediate School in 2014 is in the use of 4 Feuerstein Instruments
which are outlined below along with a brief history of the origins of Feuerstein theories.
Brief history of Feuerstein:
Reuven Feuerstein studied under Piaget and was nominated for a Nobel Prize his work in psychology
and education. After the Nazi invasion of his home country, Reuven was able to escape and pursue
professional studies with some of the greatest minds of the 20th century. During his time of study, he
continued to question every belief and assumption that would give someone a reason to give up on the
learning capabilities of children. Recognizing the learning difficulties that the years of oppression and
hardship had brought to the surviving children of the Holocaust, he devoted all of his energies to both
understand their plight and find ways to help them.
During many years of practice and direct interactions with students, he developed his theory of
Structural Cognitive Modifiability and the Mediated Learning Experience. He demonstrated over and
over again that the cognitive ability of students could be radically improved through the intervention of
the skilled mediator. Thus it could no longer be acceptable for educators to believe that intelligence is
fixed and that nothing can be done to improve its functioning.
He developed practical applications to his theory, both in terms of assessment and in terms of
intervention. The assessment technique is known as the Learning Propensity Assessment Device (LPAD),
and the intervention program is known as the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Program (FIE). The
FIE Program has a Standard version for school grades of four and up through all stages of adulthood, and
a Basic version for pre-school and the first three years of schooling.
FIE: is a strategy for the development of a learners cognitive structures.
Designed and developed over 40 years ago as a direct and focused attack on the mental processes that,
because of their absence, fragility, or inefficiency, are responsible for inadequate intellectual
performance that occurs when learners are confronted with challenging and / or unfamiliar tasks.
FIE can be used as a remediation programme for individuals with special needs and as an enrichment
programme for individuals with normative performance.
FIE is highly structured and non-subject-specific.
Age range: 5 to adulthood and these are often, but not always, people who experience problem with
learning.

Is based on the understanding that intelligence is not a fixed state.
Feuersteins theory of structural cognitive modifiability (SCM), suggests that cognitive functioning
(neuro-plasticity) can be changed. SCM is the increased ability to become changed through the learning
process. It goes beyond the acquisition of academic skills, and depends on the ability of individuals to
use their-own resources in drawing inferences, making decisions, and planning ahead to anticipate
future contingencies.

Deficient Cognitive Functions are addressed:
Input: E.g. blurred and sweeping perception, impulsivity
Elaboration: E.g. Inability to select relevant vs. non-relevant cues in defining a problem.
Output: E.g. Deficiency of visual transport.

Feuerstein developed criteria for mediated learning experience (MLE), a special and focused interaction
in the learning situation, which aims to promote quality teaching and learning.

The FIE programme consists of 14 instruments, each of which works to improve habits of mind and to
correct deficient cognitive functioning. Bridging from the instruments to other areas of learning is an
essential element of the work. The programme emphasizes the metacognitive classroom.

Instruments are explicitly designed as vehicles for the development, refinement, and crystallization of
the operational prerequisites of learning.
We will be doing the first 4 with the class.
1. Orientation in space 1
2. Analytic perception
3. Comparisons
4. Orientation of Dots Thinking Strategies
5. Categorization
6. Transitive relations
7. Syllogisms
8. Instructions
9. Illustrations
10. Orientation in time
11. Numerical progressions
12. Family relations
13. Orientation in space 11
14. Representational stencil design