Reuven Feuerstein: Ph.D - Chairman

Education
Feuerstein attended Teachers College and Onesco College in Bucharest (1940-44). In 1944-45 he also studied in the Teacher Training Seminary in Jerusalem. He resumed his education in 1949 in Switzerland where he attended lectures given by Carl Jaspers, Carl Jung, and L. Szondy. From 1950-55 he studied in the University of Geneva, under Andrey Rey and Jean Piaget, completing degrees in General and Clinical Psychology (1952) and obtaining a license in Psychology (1954). In 1970 Feuerstein earned his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the Sorbonne. His major areas of study were developmental, clinical and cognitive psychology from a cross-cultural perspective.

Current Positions
Professor Feuerstein is the Chairman of the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential (ICELP) in Jerusalem. From 1965 he has been director of the Hadassah-WIZO-Canada Research Institute in Jerusalem, which became part of the ICELP in 1993. His life's work, and the central focus of the ICELP activity, has been the development of the theories of structural cognitive modifiability (SCM) and mediated learning experience (MLE), and the applied systems of dynamic assessment (LPAD), Instrumental Enrichment (IE) program and shaping modifying environments. Research, training, and service activities have been integrated in his work with populations of children and adults in need of cognitive development and enhancement. From 1970 Feuerstein was Professor of Educational Psychology in Bar Ilan University School of Education (Ramat Gan, Israel). From 1978 he has held an appointment as Adjunct Professor at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education (Nashville, Tennessee, USA).

Professional Experience and Activities
From 1940-44 Feuerstein was Co-Director and a teacher in the School for Disadvantaged and Disturbed Children in Bucharest. From 1945-48 he was a special education teacher and counselor in youth villages in Israel, working with survivors of the Holocaust.

During the period of 1950-54 Feuerstein served as Director of Psychological Services of Youth Aliyah in Europe, responsible for assigning prospective candidates for emigration from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and European countries to various educational programs in Israel. In the early 1950s he was involved in research on Moroccan, Jewish, and Berber children in collaboration with several members of the “Genevan" school, including Professors André Rey, Marc Richelle, and Maurice Jeannet. It was during this period that much of the psychological data was gathered that contributed to his development of concepts of cultural difference and cultural deprivation. This period was also seminal in the development of his working hypotheses concerning low functioning children and their potential for change.

In 1955 the basis was laid for the Youth Aliyah Child Guidance Clinics in several sites in Israel, which Professor Feuerstein directed from their inception until his retirement from this position in 1983. Together with Professors David Krasilowsky, Yaacov Rand, and Mr. Shimon Tuchman, Professor Feuerstein founded the Hadassah-WIZO-Canada Research Institute, which continues to function within the structure of the ICELP.

Among Feuerstein's research and development activities are studies on Holocaust survivors, new immigrant students, Down Syndrome children and young adults, brain injured individuals and children with autistic features. He is involved in ongoing development of the dynamic cognitive assessment and Instrumental Enrichment techniques for children and adults.

The seminal nature of Professor Feuerstein's work is evidenced by the thousands of people who have studied his theories and programs. The models of dynamic assessment and Instrumental Enrichment procedures have been adapted and disseminated throughout the world. The IE program has been translated into 18 languages, and there are more than 70 Authorized Training Centers throughout the world affiliated with the ICELP, carrying on the work by providing training, services, and program development.

Honors and Recognition
(A selected listing):

1986 Detroit Public Schools, Special Commendation
1990 Médaille d'Or of Aix-les-Bains, France
          Médaille d'Or of Nevers, France
1991 Variety Clubs International Humanitarian Award, Vancouver, Canada
1991 Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques, France
1992 Yakir Yerushalaim (Distinguished citizen of Jerusalem)
           New York Academy of Sciences
           Israel Prize in Education
1997 Honor al estudio y la investigacion en el campo de la formación             profesional. National Organization for Professional Training, Valencia,             Spain.
            Special Resolution of Commendation, Assembly, State of California, USA
1998 Miembro de honor; Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
1999 Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Turin, Italy

Publications
Professor Feuerstein has published over 80 books, monographs, chapters, and journal articles. In addition, his theory and methods have inspired several thousand research publications, reports, master and doctoral dissertations in different languages (See Bibliography and Publications)

Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein - Deputy Chairman

Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein was born and educated in Israel. His higher education began in the‘Merkaz Harav’ Yeshiva in Jerusalem and continued at the ‘Pesagot’ Institute for Higher Education in Dayan Studies [to become a Religious Judge]. In 1994 Rafi Feuerstein was ordained as a Rabbi and he began studies for an MA in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1995 he acted as founder and member of the Board of the ‘Tzohar’ Organization. He also spent five years as the rabbi of Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, until the year 2000.

Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein has also held the position of Vice-Chairman of the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential from 1994 to date. He delivers workshops and lectures in Israel and around the world, in academic international conferences and other settings, on theoretical areas of Cognitive Psychology and dynamic assessment (LPAD – Learning Propensity Assessment Device). Together with his father, Prof. Reuven Feuerstein, he has developed the LPAD-Basic Battery of Tests for the cognitive-dynamic assessment of pre-school children, as well as the Downward Extension of Instrumental Enrichment (IE-B) program. Rabbi Feuerstein is presently working researching his doctoral thesis, which aims to appraise the link between air force cadets’ meta-cognitive functioning, using mediated learning techniques, and the decrease in in-flight stress and its repercussions.
Contact information:
Phone: 972-2-5693334
e-mail: rafif@icelp.org.il

Alex Kozulin: Ph.D - Director of Research

Alex Kozulin is the Director of Research at the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem. Born in Moscow, Russia he earned his Ph.D. in Psychology at the Psychological Institute. In 1979 he immigrated to the US. For the following ten years he conducted research and teaching at Boston University. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and a visiting professor at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He also taught at Ben-Gurion University, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University in Israel. His interests include cognition, learning, and cross-cultural studies. Prof. Kozulin is one of the major specialists in Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the theory of mediated learning experience.

He is the author of Vygotsky's Psychology: A Biography of Ideas (Harvard University Press, 1990), Psychological Tools: A Sociocultural Approach to Education (Harvard University Press, 1998), a co-author (with Erica Garb) of I Think, Therefore…I Read: Cognitive Approach to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Jerusalem: Academon, 2002), and a co-editor (with Y.Rand) of Experience of Mediated Learning (Pergamon Press, 2000).
Contact information:
Phone: 972-2-5693344
e-mail: alexk@icelp.org.il

Steven Gross: Ph.D - Director of International Services

Director of Brain Injury Rehabilitation and Cognitive Development
Professor Steven Gross has worked with Professor Reuven Feuerstein at the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential and the Hadassah-Wizo-Canada Research Institute in Jerusalem since 1989.

Before coming to Israel with his wife and three children he was Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, and clinical therapist in the Department of Health and Counseling Services at Loretto Heights College in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. While in supervised private practice at the Rose Medical Center Professional Office he specialized in the areas of medical psychology, neuropsychology and family therapy. Prior to holding those positions he was Assistant Administrator and Director of Rehabilitation and Social Services at a 250 bed residential rehabilitation hospital for disabled youth, adult and geriatric populations. In addition to his current assessment and treatment responsibilities at the Center in Jerusalem, several times a year Professor Gross lectures, gives professional training and supervision, and conducts clinical assessments and therapeutic treatment programs for children and young adults throughout Europe and North America.

During the past 15 years he has concentrated on the clinical and educational development of higher, more effective, and more permanent cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions in young and low functioning children with developmental disabilities and neuro-trauma. Professor Gross directs, under Professor Feuerstein's daily leadership and inspiration, a highly successful multidisciplinary treatment team approach to cognitive development based upon the Theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability, Mediated Learning Experience and Parental Training.
Contact information:
Office tel. 972-2-569-3318 / 972-2-569-3337
Office fax 972-2-561-9815
e-mail: steveng@icelp.org.il

Professor Lou Falik has been ICELP’s Clinical and Training Associate since 1988. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the Wayne State University in the US. Since 1966 he has been teaching at the Department of Counseling, School of Education, San Francisco State University. He was the Acting Chair of the Department, in 2000-2001 academic year. The primary focus of his teaching was mental health counseling, clinical skills practice, legal and professional practice, marriage and family counseling. Prof. Falik was a visiting scholar at the Michigan State University, visiting professor at Konan University, Kobe, Japan, and visiting lecturer in special education and counseling at Haifa University, Israel.

Prof. Falik conducted training workshops in the Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) and Instrumental Enrichment in North America, Europe, Asia (India, Singapore, Indonesia) and Australia. He has published extensively on learning disabilities, counseling and dynamic assessment. Many of his articles and book chapters are co-authored with Prof. Reuven Feuerstein.

Selected Bibliography:
Falik, L. H., Markoff, A, and Herman, M (Eds.)(1971) Basic Concepts and Intervention Strategies in Learning Disabilities. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Falik, L. H. (Ed.) (1995) Feuerstein, R. Revised LPAD examiner's manual, Jerusalem: ICELP Press.

Feuerstein, R., Falik, L. H., & Feuerstein, R. S. (1998) The Learning Potential Assessment Device: an alternative approach to the assessment of learning potential. In R. Samuda, R. Feuerstein, B. Sternberg, A.S. Kaufman, and J. Lewis (eds.) Advances in cross cultural assessment. New York: Sage.

Feuerstein, R.. Falik, L. H., and Feuerstein, R. S. (1998) Definitions of Essential Concepts and Terms: A working glossary. Jerusalem: ICELP Press.

Falik, L. H. (2000) Mediated learning experience and the counseling process. In Kozulin, A. and Rand, Y. (Eds.) Experience of Mediated Learning: An impact of Feuerstein’s theory in Education and Psychology. Oxford: Elsevier Science.

Feuerstein, R., Feuerstein, R. S., Falik, L. H., Rand, Y. (2003) The Dynamic Assessment of Cognitive Modifiability: The Learning Propensity Assessment Device: Theory, Instruments, and Techniques. Jerusalem: ICELP Press.
Contact: lfalik@sfsu.edu
Phone: 415-863-4989 (USA)
972-2-6718126 (Israel)

Prof. Roman Gouzman

Holds Ms. in Electronics, Physics, Ms. in Mass Media Education,
PH.D in Cognitive Psychology
The European IST PRIZE Winner 2005

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Twenty-eight years of psychological research and development in cognitive psychology, special education, and scientific experience in the fields of, Tactile Instrumental Enrichment and Mediated Learning, Visual-Tactile-Kinesthetic Perception and Focusing, Special Education and Modern Technology, Cognitive Modeling and Multimedia, Theory and Practice of Zones of Proximal Development, Meta-Cognitive Processing and Interactive Strategies, .

1993-present. Head of Tactile IE and Tactile MLE Department,
International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential

• Designing new Tactile methods to improve Focusing and Developing of Adequate Mental Images in learners with perceptual problems and ADHD syndrome for enhancing their learning potential.
• Development and Implementation of Tactile Instrumental Enrichment (TIE) programs with various groups of students in schools, seminars, and universities.
• Training and supervision of teachers implementing the Braille IE program.
• Researching the uniqueness and effectiveness of Tactile Mediated Learning Experience interactions in visually- impaired individuals and ADHD learners.

PATENTS
Three USA-European –Canada, - Japan patents of the Virtual Touch technology and methodology.