Cognitive Programmes
Feuerstein
What is Instrumental Enrichment?
The Instrumental Enrichment programme (IE) is a curriculum in thinking, which is designed to enhance cognitive functioning, and is based on Feuerstein’s theory of Structural Cognitive modifiability and a philosophy that all children, young people and adults can learn and change their level of functioning.
The goal of the IE programme is the development, refinement, and crystallisation of thinking processes that are needed for effective thinking, problem solving, and decision making. It focuses on transforming passive and dependent learners into more active self-motivated students.
For students who have previously experienced failure in school, IE creates opportunities to gain insights into their way of thinking, attitudes, and feelings. They can begin to appreciate that the source of their difficulties is not due to their inferiority, inability, or lack of intelligence, but is due to inefficient strategies or lack of thorough planning.
Basic IE
The Basic course is designed to accelerate cognitive development and develop social competence. The Basic course is aimed at learners working at a developmental age of 3 to 8 years, and for the older student who has a low performance level and needs a more systematic and developmentally based approach.
IE Basic consists of a set of learning activities that develop basic concepts and thinking skills. Through a series of increasingly complex tasks, learners explore the operations of comparison, orientation in space, analysis of geometric shapes, numerical skills, empathy for others and the like – all with the help of a mediator who guides the learner to develop strategies for problem solving and analytic thinking.
​
In Europe, IE Basic is delivered as a full curriculum subject in schools, delivered 40mins per day for two years - this achieves optimum meta-cognitive change and the significant, measurable outcome.
Standard IE
The Standard IE course has been developed for learners working at a developmental age of 9 years and above. IE Standard is a series of structured paper-and-pencil exercises that gradually increase in levels of difficulty and abstraction.
The materials are organized into workbooks called “instruments” and each instrument focuses on a specific cognitive area such as analytic perception, comparison, classification, orientation in space and time, and so on. They may include verbal, mathematical, logical and even emotional skills, depending upon the needs of the learner.
Learners are guided through the tasks by a mediator who helps them develop strategies for problem solving and analytic thinking that they can then carry on into the rest of their lives.
IE Standard can be used in a classroom or workplace setting, with small groups of targeted learners, and as a one-to-one therapeutic intervention.