Who needs metacognition more
Diversity of Instrumental Enrichment applications
“Bridging” in Instrumental Enrichment
Didactics of teaching Instrumental Enrichment to children with special needs
Braille IE for the blind learners

The goal of this presentation is to explore cognitive and metacognitive skills of teachers engaged in cognitive program training and to compare them with the cognitive skills of students receiving this type of program.
Metacognition is often considered to be the highest level of mental activity involving knowledge, awareness, and control of one's lower level cognitive skills, operations and strategies.....
Read more (Download Word Document)

Back to Top

Alex Kozulin

The Foundational Study

A study that established the foundation of Instrumental Enrichment (IE) research was conducted by Feuerstein and his colleagues with a population of five hundred socially and culturally disadvantaged Israeli adolescents (Feuerstein et al, 1980; Rand, Tannenbaum, & Feuerstein, 1979) The main research hypothesis was that cognitive performance and school achievement of students who receive two years of the IE program will be higher than those of the matching groups of students who receive th e same amount of general enrichment lessons. The pre- and post-test measures included Thurstoneís Primary Mental Abilities Test and a specially designed curriculum-based Achievement Battery. The results confirmed the main hypothesis: IE group students showed significantly better results on the post-tests. In the cognitive area better results were achieved in spatial relations, figure grouping, numbers, and addition sub-tests. In the curriculum based tasks IE group students performed signi ficantly better in Geometry and Bible studies. A follow-up study (Rand et al, 1981) conducted two years after the end of IE intervention demonstrated that IE group students continued to perform better that control group students in both verbal and non-verbal cognitive tests.

A large scale external validation of the IE program

While the foundational study described above was conducted by the authors of the IE program, the first large scale external validation study of the effects of IE was conducted in Venezuela (Ruiz, 1985; see also Savell, Twohig, & Rachford, 1986). In this study adolescent students from higher and lower socio-economic status (SES) groups participated for two years in the IE program. The effectiveness of the IE program was assessed with the help of pre-and post tests of general intellectual a bilities (Cattell-2), academic performance in mathematics and language, and in self-concept. The experimental IE group (318 students) was compared to the control group of equal size. Statistically significant gains for the IE group were observed in all three spheres: general intellectual abilities, academic performance and the self-concept. Before intervention higher-SES group showed higher results in all three spheres. Some difference remained after intervention, but both groups improved their performance. As to intellectual abilities, both groups benefited equally, while in academic performance the high-SES group benefited more. It is interesting that pre-test differences in self-concept disappeared after intervention. A follow-up study was undertaken by Ruiz two years later using a non-verbal intelligence test of Lorge-Thorndike. Both low and high-SES students from the IE groups continued to outperform students from the control group.

Download the entire report

Back to Top

Bridging -- An Essential Element of Mediated Learning Experience
Myron Tribus
Western Center for Cognitive Learning and Development
An Authorized Training Center
Transcendence -- a Unique Human Ability
Humans are unique in their ability to have an experience in one domain of life, to extract lessons from the experience and then to apply those lessons to an entirely different domain of their existence. Many animals can be trained to respond to a given situation. But humans are alone in their ability to draw a lesson from an experience in one time and place, transmit to their progeny the lessons learned and see their progeny apply these lessons in a new time and place. We call this transc endence, the ability to transcend time and place. Meir Ben-Hur has developed a diagram to illustrate this process, from which the following figure has been adapted.

Abstracting rules and principles from experience.

Human brains are equipped to examine an experience and then branch laterally to a different application and apply similar tools and concepts. Once a child has learned to hammer a nail, the child can figure out how to use the hammer to pound on other objects. These lateral transfers are relatively easy to learn. They will occur faster if an adult shows the child how to do it or to recognize slightly different applications of the tool or concept.

Good parents teach their children to develop rules of behavior from experience. They teach about fair play, about sharing of possessions, about respect for others. Parents, in general, are less able to show their children how to extract principles from experience. The reason that mathematics and science are accorded such a fundamental place in education is that mathematics and science are devoted to the discovery of broad generalizations and principles. Think of the principle of conservation of energy or of matter as examples. Think of the Theorem of Pythagoras as another example.

The principle tool for the interpretation of experience is language. One generation passes its knowledge to the next through language. This is why, in all considerations of the curriculum, language, science and mathematics occur at the head of the list of topics to be taught. In his monumental study of the role of language in human cognition, Korzybski repeatedly makes the point that the structure of language shapes the structures of our thoughts. In the application of Feuerstein's SCM precis ion of language plays a central role.

The conventional approach to the teaching of science and mathematics concentrates on the mastery of the known principles. Conventional teaching does not concentrate on the mental processes that lead to the discovery of new principles. Conventional teaching in science and mathematics concentrates on lateral branching, that is, on how to apply these principles to various problems. They show students how to apply their scientific and mathematical hammers to different problems.

The theory of SCM, on the other hand, properly applied may be used to equip learners with a deeper understanding of the process of extracting rules and principles from experience and thereby equips the learner to develop new tools, new hammers, if you will. SCM is the basis for providing a different form of education.

The lessons learned from experience appear in our brains in the form of neural structures, that is, as relatively persistent connections among neurons. If these structures have been properly formed, we may use them over and over again in new contexts. The key phrase here is "properly formed". A child, left alone to discover the rules and principles of nature, will not benefit from the accumulated wisdom of his or her culture. A human must intervene.

The process whereby one human helps another to draw the deeper lessons from experience is called Mediated Learning Experience (MLE). MLE describes how one person (usually, but not exclusively, an adult) helps another person (usually a younger person, but not exclusively) to interpret their life experiences and to draw from them rules and principles useful in another time and place. MLE also includes helping the learner "bridge" to other applications and to recognize the meaning o f the rules and principles. The advantage of formalizing this process, MLE, is that now MLE can itself be analyzed, improved and most importantly, taught to others. Because MLE has been discussed in so many other publications from the International Center for The Enhancement of Learning Potential in Israel, I shall not dwell longer on it here.

The Trap

It has been my experience, and I know it is the experience of many others, that when teachers first begin to practice MLE, it feels awkward to them. There is a difference between teaching and mediating:

• Teaching is concerned with having students master a subject.
• The students demonstrate their mastery by what they say about the subject, how they solve problems posed in the subject and by showing skill in using the tools and methods associated with the subject. Teaching presumes the intelligence is already developed and that mastery of the subject is the main goal.
• Mediation is concerned with having students master their own thinking processes.
• The students demonstrate this mastery by showing an awareness of how they organize their thought processes, how they use their intellectual resources to acquire, organize and analyze information, how they develop strategies for controlling themselves as they encounter challenges. Mediation looks upon the development of intelligence as the main goal and as intelligence is developed, teaching goals will be met.

I find three definitions useful here:

Teaching is concerned with product;
Mediation is concerned with process.
Intelligence is what you use when you do not know what to do.

The teacher using FIE needs to keep Meir Ben-Hur's diagram ( above figure) in mind at all times. The objective is NOT to gain skill in "doing the dots" (though that will come) but to gain awareness and mastery of what the learner is doing with his or her brain. The objective is help the learner to develop rules and principles based on the experiences of the learner. The objective more than just developing rules and principles; the objective is to make the learner (and mediator) a ware of the processes whereby they develop rules and procedures.

Download the entire report

Back to Top

DIDACTICS OF TEACHING INSTRUMENTAL ENRICHMENT TO CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Lea Lurie & Alex Kozulin

Introduction

One of the major advantages of the Instrumental Enrichment (IE) (Feuerstein et al, 1980) when compared to other cognitive education programs lies in its flexibility and the wide range of its application (see Kozulin 2000). One and the same set of IE booklets can be used for the cognitive enrichment of regular students and for the remedial teaching of severely learning-disabled children. Such a wide range of application becomes possible only because the IE material is flexible enough to acc ommodate different didactic approaches aimed at different target groups of students.

The issue of instructional approach becomes particularly important when the aim of IE intervention is to normalize the deficient cognitive functions in children with serious learning problems. In the present paper we focus on instructional methods aimed at the two major groups of children with special needs:

1. Children with impairment or underdevelopment of basic intellectual functions, and
2. Children with learning disabilities and educational deprivation.

The first group includes children whose manifest level of functioning reveals an underdevelopment of the most basic cognitive functions, thinking skills, and learning strategies. These children often receive an inadequate type or/and amount of mediated learning against the background of such etiological factors as genetic impairment (e.g. Down Syndrome) or neurological conditions (e.g. epilepsy). Often these children are labeled as mildly mentally retarded and are placed in a special educatio n classroom. What is characteristic of these children is the weakness of their knowledge base and the underdevelopment of their conceptual apparatus. Compared to the learning disabled, the learning potential of these children is usually not high. This is the reason why the IE intervention for this group is aimed first of all at the development of the basic cognitive functions, strengthening of the knowledge base and the formation of elementary conceptual structures.
The group of "learning disabled" has much higher manifest level of functioning. These children often have a good intellectual level, but suffer from poor organization of learning activity, deficiency of certain cognitive functions and lack of operations essential for successful classroom work. The insufficient amount of mediated learning experience in these children is often associated with educational deprivation and/or an inappropriate type of instruction against the background of hyperactivity. Usually these children are labeled as "learning disabled" and receive a certain amount of special treatment in the context of regular schools. For this group the most characteristic deficiency is the lack of school-based skills, including planning and control of their own learning activity. For this reason, the focus of IE intervention for this group is on the development of planning, control and other metacognitive functions.

Instructional approaches described below were developed and tested in the framework of the afternoon IE intervention program offered at the ICELP. The pilot study group included twenty children with basic intellectual problems or learning disabilities who attended the program for two years. IE lessons were given either individually or in small groups.

1. Teaching IE to children with deficiencies of basic cognitive functions
   1. Intermediate Supports

One of the serious problems experienced by these children is the difficulty solving problems that require a number of steps. If the problem requires a relatively large "quantum" of thinking energy the children lose track in the middle of the task and become confused. Although the difficulty of IE tasks increases gradually, sometimes this increment is still too large for the child. One possibility in making the IE material accessible to these children is to create intermediate sup ports and to break the task down into several sub-tasks. The same page of IE can be used several times, each time with a diminishing number of intermediate supports.

Figure 1

To illustrate the method of intermediate supports let us consider "Organization of Dots", page 2 tasks (Fig.1). First the children are offered a model page on which all figures are already drawn in different colors: the square in red, one triangle in blue, the other in black. The children's task is to copy the model page onto their own IE pages. This activity teaches them orientation within the space of the page, helps them to learn the sequence of operations and supports the acq uisition of visual and motor images of the model forms. After the successful performance of this first task, the children receive the second model page with only squares drawn on it. The children can thus copy squares onto their pages, but must find and draw triangles independently. The third model page has only one side of the square pre-drawn. After finishing this third task, the child should be ready to work on the IE page without the model.

Copies of the book may be purchased by ordering from ICELP

Download the entire report

Back to Top

Enhancing Cognitive Skills in Blind Learners

Roman Gouzman & Alex Kozulin

The International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential
Jerusalem, Israel

Introduction

By its very nature blindness modifies the ways in which blind learners receive, evaluate and respond to information. The major channel of information for a blind learner is auditory, followed by tactile and kinesthetic. In this paper we will examine the cognitive aspects of the blind learners' experience with two-dimensional materials accessible for tactile examination.

The prevailing educational approach places major emphasis on the integration of the blind learners into the regular classroom on the basis of the auditory channel of learning supported by learning materials in Braille. As a rule students do not have much experience with tactile materials beyond the Braille pages. Until recently the quality of these materials embossed on plastic sheets was not high. The current technology of tactile imaging on micro-capsule paper allows the blind learner to gain access to highly accurate graphic images including pictures, diagrams, plans, maps, etc. The mastery of these images is associated with several cognitive problems faced by the blind learner.

The first of them is related to the difference between the simultaneous character of visual perception and the successive character of tactile perception. The second problem stems from the fact that the process of concept formation in blind learners is dominated by two extremes: extremely abstract verbal notions that have little support in the learners' experience, and extremely concrete tactile images of every-day life objects that possess little potential for generalization. As a result, the middle ground, i.e. everyday concepts that possess a certain degree of generality are under-represented in the blind learners' cognitive repertoire. The third cognitive problem is directly related to the predominant methods of education for the blind that almost completely exclude two-dimensional schematic representations of objects and processes such as diagrams, charts, plans and maps. As a result many of the cognitive tools used by regular students remain underdeveloped in the blind learners.

Cognitive Functions

The cognitive problems facing the blind learners can be described more specifically by using the nomenclature of deficient cognitive functions suggested by Feuerstein et al (1979). Following the information processing model the deficient cognitive functions are considered at the Input, Elaboration, and Output phases of the mental act.

Input

At the Input phase one of the most prominent functions observed in the blind learners is the narrowness of their perceptual field. The linear successive method of tactile exploration is confined to one specific line or element at a time. The whole tactile picture thus remains beyond the spontaneous grasp of the learner. As a result, while exploring and reproducing complex graphic material, like the Rey Osterreith Figure (Fig 1), blind learners tend to repeat the same line twice because it "reappears" in two separate exploratory movements.

Another of the Input phase functions is the blurred and sweeping perception especially concerning size, directionality, and proportions of the two-dimensional tactile images. For example, our students could briefly explore two circles of a very different size and declare that "they are identical". Similarly, some of them would pronounce identical two L-shaped figures one of which is a mirror image of the other. The issue of proportion between different parts of the whole, e.g. human body, also poses serious problem for the blind learners. They often have a very imprecise impression of the proportion between the parts in the objects beyond their daily experience. In this respect it seems significant that many of our students did not know their own height and the relationship between their height and that of surrounding objects.

Yet another cognitive function at the Input phase is that of spontaneous exploratory behavior. The major difficulty in carrying out a spontaneous exploration of tactile material stems from the lack of proper methods of exploration. Often the only experience that students have with two-dimensional tactile materials is that of reading Braille pages, as a result their spontaneous exploration of a page with tactile images repeats the technique of scanning the horizontal Braille lines using one finger. Such a method is absolutely inadequate for the exploration of tactile images, producing poor results and impairing spontaneous exploration as a whole. Sometimes this reductive method of exploration is applied to the three-dimensional objects as well. One of our students who was asked to explore a sculpture approached this task by moving one finger along the sculpture's surface.

Elaboration

Apparently the lack of appropriate experience and technique leads to the underdevelopment of functions such as a spontaneous comparative behavior directed at tactile images. We observed spontaneous comparison only with such well-trained objects as pages of the Braille text. However, when confronted with new tactile images our students initially failed to produce comparative activity necessary for appropriate exploration of these images.

Another problematic function is that of integration of several sources of information. It should be mentioned here that such integration poses problem for all students not only those with special needs. However, the severity of the problem is, of course, greater in blind learners who initially lack integration techniques. For example, when asked to find a tactile image by form, size and location parameters, our students easily identified the form, with a certain amount of difficulty they added the size parameter, but the parameter of location was often neglected.

In general, cognitive functioning at the Elaboration phase suffered from the episodic grasp of reality. Separate experiences, tactile images, and verbal concepts often remained disconnected in our students' minds.

Output

In the absence of the well-integrated mental picture our students' responses were often characterized by a certain egocentrism. For example, when working with the issue of direction our students could not resist seeing their own position as a privileged one. For example, when, upon completing a task on the sheet of micro-capsule paper, the students were asked to exchange sheets with their peers, they rarely took into account the peers' position. As a result the sheets were incorrectly oriented when exchanged and the students were unable to understand the tactile images that suddenly appeared as completely different.

Without special training our students also demonstrated considerable difficulty in performing the perceptual transport necessary to solve certain tactile tasks. For example, the two-dimensional orientation in space tasks that include position, context, and varying instructions require (see Fig 2a&b in Gouzman's chapter) transporting the image representing position into the center of the field, then consulting the table with instructions and then tracing the direction from the central point to one of the objects. All these perceptual transport activities had to be established in our students because they failed to emerge spontaneously.

Instrumental Enrichment for Blind Learners

Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a cognitive education program developed by Feuerstein et al (1980) (See also Feuerstein's chapter in this issue). IE materials are organized into instruments aimed at such specific cognitive domains as analytic perception, orientation in space and time, comparative behavior, classification and more. The program has been successfully used as a tool for the enhancement of learning potential in learning disabled, educationally deprived and underachieving students. For many years the IE program remained inaccessible to blind learners because of the pictorial nature of IE tasks. Recently created tactile version of IE materials printed on micro-capsule paper helped to overcome this limitation. (See Gouzman's chapter inthis issue).

The use of the IE program with blind learners allowed us to develop in them the following cognitive abilities:

1. Symbolic and schematic representations of objects and processes that previously existed only as abstract verbal labels;
2. Strategies of tactile exploratory activity that lead to the formation of a mental image of a structured and differentiated space;
3. Integration of verbal labels and schematic images leading to the ability to use mental models in problem solving;
4. Development of quasi-simultaneous images of situations that were previously only represented successively.

The blind learners' new abilities can be described using the above mentioned nomenclature of cognitive functions at Input, Elaboration, and Output phases of the mental act.

Development of Input functions

IE program, particularly the Organization of Dots instrument allowed us to develop in blind learners special methods of accurate perception and sustained attention using the tactile modality. Our students learned, for example, how to use fingers of both hands for scanning, parallel exploration of two figures, measurement of segments and angles, fixation of positions, and other tactile operations. As a result, if previously the task of distinguishing between a two-dimensional image of a square and a rectangle was very difficult for them, at the post-IE stage this perceptual operation became almost routine.

The Orientation in Space instrument helped to develop non-egocentric special representations. If previously the factor of orientation or directionality of two-dimensional images was mostly ignored by our students, at the post-IE stage they confidently included this parameter in their descriptions of the tactile images. Through group activities (e.g. a game - "in which hand is there a coin") it became possible to ascertain that the principles of spatial perception became transferred from the domain of tactile perception to that of the auditory one.

Spontaneous exploratory behavior improved significantly with the help of the IE instrument of Comparisons. Using two hands in a parallel examination of two different tactile images students learned strategies of exploration. It is significant that these strategies were spontaneously applied by our students to new unfamiliar objects such as a Braille page that contained some schematic images.

Development of Elaboration functions

One of the major gains at the Elaboration phase was the enhancement of spontaneous comparative behavior. Using some preparatory tasks, as well as Organization of Dots and Comparisons we were able to develop in our students the ability to properly compare two sets of tactile data. An important step in this direction was made when students learned to distinguish between the lines constituting a frame of the micro-capsule page and the content images. Then students learned to explore, compare and name the totality of images on the page.

The naming progressed from the inarticulate stage of "there is a line here" to "there is a straight line that starts in the lower left corner of the page and goes diagonally to the upper left corner".

The technique of the parallel exploration of two images or two pages allowed our students to progress from the stage when they expected to receive instructions or a question, to the stage when they were able to formulate the possible task or a question themselves.

Orientation in Space proved to be effective in helping our students develop the function of integration of several sources of information. This was achieved by introducing both a general cognitive strategy and specific tactile techniques, such as fixing and preserving the position at the center of the page.

Once the students became familiar with the general principles of work with two-dimensional tactile images, it became possible to develop in them the function of planning. Through the work with the Comparisons instrument our students learned how to plan copying a given geometric figure. For example, in order to copy an isosceles triangle the student should first determine the number of angles and sides, the orientation of a base relative to a page frame, the position of the top relative to a base, etc. Only after these planning steps are taken and a mental image of a copy is constructed may the student start actual copying on braillon paper (Fig 2).

An episodic grasp of reality that was so characteristic of the students' pre-IE performance was remediated on the basis of the above mentioned representational, integrative, and planning techniques. If, for example, at the pre-IE stage our students reproduced the Rey-Osterreith figure in a fragmentary and episodic way, after IE training the reproduction acquired a quality of well organized, planned and integrated whole (Fig 3).

Special techniques for integration of separate tactile experiences were developed with the help of Analytic Perception. The Analytic Perception tasks enhanced our students' ability to work with circumscribed surfaces rather than individual lines. With this new technique lines appeared as borders of certain figures and not as isolated elements

Development of Output functions

One of the major advances in the functions related to the Output phase was the reduction of egocentric responses. This was achieved both through teaching the general strategies of taking the addressee into account, e.g. while handing a sheet of micro-capsule paper or a magnetic board to a partner, and through special IE instruments such as Instructions. The tasks of Instructions taught students how to convey to a partner all the necessary information. Thus students who started with highly egocentric descriptions like "there is a line here" mastered the skills of evaluating all the information that has to be conveyed to a partner so that he or she can identify the target image.

The quality of perceptual transfer was improved primarily with the help of Analytic Perception. The students became capable of abstracting the design that should be transferred from its initial context and finding its proper place in a new context.

Conclusion

On the basis of the above experiences some conclusions can be drawn regarding the cognitive advancement of blind learners:

1. Introduction of schematic images of objects and processes helped to link in the students' mind verbal concepts with schematic perceptual images.
2. On the basis of this integrative schema the teacher became capable of conducting a functional analysis of different objects.
3. Schematic images open a way to using modeling in all content subjects from math and science to English.
4. Modeling promoted the development of system of concepts that can then be applied "back" to perceptual images of objects and their representations (e.g. city maps).
5. Students' learning motivation improved because they obtained a sharper image of things that was a step toward such perception of objects that can be shared with sighted peers.

Acknowledgments

The Braille version of IE tools has been developed with the help of generous support provided by the EMOUNA Foundation and Arison Foundation.

a.k./educator-GouzKoz1.doc/26.09.99

Enhancing Cognitive Skills in Blind Learners

by

Roman Gouzman & Alex Kozulin

ICELP, Jerusalem

Paper presented at the Annual Conference

of the British Psychological Association

Educational Section

Exeter, UK - September, 1998

The Instrumental Enrichment Program for the Blind Learners

Roman Gouzman

The International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential
Jerusalem, Israel

The Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a cognitive intervention program developed by Reuven Feuerstein et al (1980) as a tool for the enhancement of learning potential of children, adolescents, and adults. The major goal of IE is to enhance the students' cognitive modifiability and provide them with cognitive tools necessary for them becoming independent learners. Regular IE program includes 14 booklets of paper-and-pencil tasks aimed at such domains as analytic perception, orientation in space and time, comparisons, classification, and so on.

For many years IE program the IE program remained inaccessible to blind learners because of the pictorial nature of IE tasks. The developer of a tactile version of this program was confronted with a major task of transforming the successive tactile perception into the quasi-simultaneous mental image (Gouzman, 1997).

The Problem of Input and Response

The first problem is how to make IE material accessible to the blind learners and how to provide them with relevant response modalities. Blind individuals cannot use the graphic input of the regular IE material, and, as a rule, cannot respond by drawing figures or signs. The problem of input was resolved by using micro-capsule paper sheets. IE pages containing drawings, text in Braille and other graphic elements were printed on this paper and in this way became accessible for tactile examination.

The problem of response has been resolved by placing micro-capsule paper sheets on magnetic boards and providing students with ferromagnetic response tokens. The blind learner explores the task using a tactile modality, selects an appropriate token from the case, and then places it in the correct position on the page. Different combinations of boards and tokens are used depending on the specific needs of a given IE instrument. Tokens are available in different shapes and sizes, some of them bearing symbolic information or a short text in Braille. In addition, the blind learners working with IE pages were taught to respond to the task by making drawings on the braillon sheets. The combination of magnetic boards, response tokens, and braillon drawing allowed us to resolve the following problems:

• To create a common input and response field for the blind learner;
• To achieve considerable flexibility in representation of information (verbal, pictorial, symbolic, etc.);
• To achieve greater simplicity and precision in presenting information to the blind learner.

The IE Page Design

A number of methodological principles have been developed that allowed us to revise the entire graphic material of IE pages thereby making them attuned to special needs of the blind learners.

These principles include:

One) Identifying the most essential pictorial elements of the IE material and retaining only these elements in the Braille version of IE;

Two) Selecting the optimal sizes of graphic representations;

Three) Finding a proper balance between schematic and realistic styles in pictorial representations.

The point (a) was achieved by:

1. Analyzing the depicted object in terms of its essential , constituent characteristics directly related to its conceptual meaning;
2. Selecting the most efficient and expressive means of graphic representation;
3. Reducing the number of pictorial elements on the page to 3 or 4;
4. Replacing the excessively complex means of pictorial representation used in the regular IE instruments by those means accessible in the tactile modality. For example, instead of the 3/4 view of the face, the frontal or a profile view; instead of a picture with linear perspective, a frontal view or a a view from above.
5. Reduction and schematization of separate details and a pictures as a whole;
6. Piloting the newly designed graphic material in different learning contexts.

The optimal size (b) was determent by the following way:

1. Elements of the design should not overlap each other;
2. Elements should be spread in such way that one may discriminate between them by tactical analysis;
3. The blind learner should be able to explore the design as a whole using all fingers of both hands. As a result a quasi-visual simultaneous image of the objects should appear in the learner's mind.

A proper balance between schematic and realistic representation of objects (c) was achieved through the development in the blind learners of the special cognitive functions of symbolic representation. Symbolization is related to the realistic image by retaining some of its concrete features, but it is also related to an abstract schema of the object by focusing on essential, conceptual elements of the object.

For example, in one of the tasks of the IE instrument Comparisons students are supposed to compare two pictures of the child's face. In developing the tactile version of this page (see Fig. 1 A&B) we followed the above rules and retained the following most essential elements of the original picture: Outline of the face; elements responsible for facial expression such as eyes, brows, mouth; major parts that allow one to recognize the image as a human face such as hair, ears, nose, and chin. The shades on boy's head and cheeks were excluded from the tactile version, the 3/4 view was replaced by the frontal view and the symmetry of the face was emphasized. The size of the face was selected as to be equal to a half of the student's palm. This size is sufficient for simultaneous examination of the image by all five fingers, and it is big enough for examination of separate elements of the image by individual fingers. For example, the student should be able to identify the position of pupils in the corner of boy's eyes. Reduction and schematization of the image included the change of the graphic style in the depiction of hair, brows, and mouth into a more plane one. Emphasis is added to those elements such as mouth and brows that convey the expression of a smile.

Sometimes the IE page should be completely redesigned in order to respond to special needs of the blind learners. For example in the Orientation in Space I instrument (Fig. 2 A&B) a "three-dimensional" picture of a square with house, bench, flowers, and a tree shown in perspective had to be replaced by a "flat" semi-schematic view. All depicted objects became represented by the relevant schematic images that express the most basic function meaning of each one of them. The four positions of the boy that in the original version were represented by the four full size images of his body see from the left, right, front and back were reduced in the tactile version to the four positions of the pair of shoes. We literally realized here the saying about "putting on somebody else's shoes" in a sense of assuming the position of another person.

Instructional Methods

The underlying principle of the IE instruction is that of mediated learning experience (see the paper of Feuerstein in this issue). Mediation of IE material to the blind learners should take into account their special needs and first of all the fact that material that is perceived by a sighted learner simultaneously is accessible to the blind learner only successively. In order to turn the product of successive tactile exploration into a quasi-simultaneous mental image the following approaches should be used:

1. Creating a system of reference.

The majority of blind learners do not know how to explore pictorial information appearing on a sheet of micro-capsule paper. Their experience is often limited to examination of Braille texts that have a fixed linear organization from left to right and from top to bottom of the page. Thus one of the first tasks is to teach blind learners how to organize their exploratory activity when confronted with unfamiliar material printed on micro-capsule page. Such an exploration includes the analysis of the page layout, the distinctive parts and segments of the page and their relationships. Our students were taught how to use the frame of the page and horizontal and vertical lines dividing it as a basic system of reference. Additional emphasis waplaced on identification of right angles and intersections of lines. As a result our students formed a basic reference system to which they systematically returned in the process of problem solving.

2. The measurement system.

The analysis and comparison of complex tactile images is greatly facilitated by the presence of measuring devices. Our students learned how to use their hands as such devices and how to measure the length of line segments, angles, areas and so on. They also learned how to check whether the given lines are overlapping, orthogonal, or parallel.

3. Sensory-motor coordination.

To achieve satisfactory exploratory behavior blind learners should be able to coordinate their sensory-motor activity. One of the important achievements of our students was the development of coordinated activity involving all their fingers. The tactile analysis of images combined the periods of narrow-range exploration performed by 2-3 fingers and the periods of wide-range scanning of the page performed by all fingers of both hands.

4. From successive to quasi-simultaneous perception.

All of the above described approaches were integrated into a coherent system of mediated activities that allowed the blind learners to identify the difference between successive and simultaneous perception. The awareness of simultaneous perception was created in the students and the resultant quasi-simultaneous images were transferred from the IE tasks to other learning and everyday life material.

Recipients of the IE Program

The IE program was implemented with different groups of students in different contexts.

* Blind students with multiple problems (ages 10-18) studying in a specialized Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem;

* Blind students without additional problems integrated into various regular schools (ages 10-18);

* Children attending special summer camp for the blind learners (ages 12-18);

* Students at the special pre-academic program for the blind learners at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (ages 19-30);

* Elderly new immigrants attending Hebrew courses (ages 55-70).

Program Outcomes

The outcome of the implementation of the IE program includes changes in the behavior, cognition, and the self-image of the blind learners. In the field of behavior the students demonstrated greater alertness and involvement during lessons. Some of them for the first time started actively interacting with their sighted peers. The self-image of the blind learners improved significantly. Students started setting for themselves much higher educational and career goals. Cognitively a very significant change has occurred associated with acquisition of "quasi-visual" representations of objects and processes, learning to use schematic representations and models, developing learning strategies and expanding the area of cognitive activity.

References

Feuerstein, R., Rand, Y., Hoffman, M., and Miller, R. (1980). The Instrumental

Enrichment. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.

Gouzman, R. (1997). Major problems of blind learners using tactile graphic materials

and how to overcome them with the IE Braille program. In A,Kozulin (Ed.),

The Ontogeny of Cognitive Modifiability, pp.261-272. Jerusalem: ICELP.