Abstract:
Instrumental Enrichment, an Intervention Program for Cognitive
Modifiability, is a curricular package of methodology and materials
designed to help teachers mediate in the learning experiences of pupils
whose performance at school has been retarded by cultural deprivation.
The originator of Instrumental Enrichment, Reuven Feuerstein, and the
bulk of empirical research into his work, concentrates on the "thinking
skills" aspect of how children process their perceptions of reality and
takes little account of how they feel about those perceptions.
Nonetheless, Feuerstein's theory seems to me to contain a blueprint for
a more balanced approach to the curriculum, and in this thesis I seek
to evaluate its potential for promoting affective and conative aspects
of children's development as well as the cognitive aspect.
My evaluation is limited to a study of the effects of Instrumental
Enrichment on children's adjustment to school; although increased
psychological integration, which I find in many cases where pupils rate
their adjustment as having improved, is hopefully manifest both inside
and outside the classroom. Indeed, I go so far as to say that
implementation of Feuerstein's methodology constitutes a political
force in favour of the sovereignty of the individual learner and
democratic procedures in education.
My first chapter is an attempt to furnish the reader with the
theoretical background and terminology associated with Instrumental
Enrichment. It is followed by a chapter which describes from a
practitioner's perspective how Feuerstein's theory, especially his
concept of the teacher as a mediator between children and their
culture, translates into classroom tasks. The third chapter provides
operational definitions of how the effects of Instrumental Enrichment
were measured in the course of a two-year experiment on primary and
secondary pupils in Buckinghamshire; it defines my use of the Child at
School - a new behaviour schedule, the Repertory Grid Technique, and
ability and attainment tests. In the fourth chapter, I record and
comment on the mean ratings and scores obtained by Buckinghamshire
pupils; results are subjected to analysis of covariance. Finally, I
infer some support for the hypothesis that Instrumental Enrichment can
improve children's adjustment to school, and note the implications of
this finding for policies on curriculum planning and teacher training.
