Changing Minds and Brains—The Legacy of Reuven Feuerstein

Decades before educators began to draw teaching and learning implications from neuroscientists’ groundbreaking findings on brain plasticity, Reuven Feuerstein had already theorized it and developed practices for teaching and developing higher-level cognition and learning for all students, including those with Down syndrome and other learning disabilities. His mediated learning, enrichment instruments, and dynamic assessment are used in urban districts in the United States and around the world to raise student achievement, success levels, and self-regulation.

In this final work, Feuerstein provides a first-person reflective narrative of the implementation of mediated learning experience (MLE) past and present, including stories, new insights, observations, and newly formulated concepts on MLE and how it contributes to higher-level thinking and to overcoming disability. Featuring both educational and clinical case examples, it offers a more detailed picture of its practical applications than any other publication to date. Those familiar with Feuerstein’s methods will find this book an important resource for deepening their knowledge. It is also essential reading for all educators looking for approaches that promote thinking skills that improve educational outcomes for diverse learners.

Book Features:

• Provides stories of Feuerstein’s inspirational journey as a teacher and learner, often working with special needs children and youth.
• Relates mediated learning to contemporary learning environments
• Explores theory and research on whether spiritual and behavioral practices change the brain.
• Includes chapters devoted to questioning techniques and the effects of modern media access to the development of thinking skills.

Reuven Feuerstein was the founder and director of the Feuerstein Institute (formerly ICELP) and professor of psychology in Bar-Ilan University’s School of Education (Ramat-Gan, Israel), and a Nobel Prize nominee. Louis H. Falik is emeritus professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and a senior scholar at the Feuerstein Institute. Refael Feuerstein is chairman of the Feuerstein Institute. Their books include Beyond Smarter: Mediated Learning and the Brain's Capacity for Change and A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language: Overcoming Disability, Delay, and Deficiency.

Praise for Reuven Feuerstein:
“Reuven Feuerstein was one of a handful of thinkers and practitioners in the 20th century who made a significant, lasting contribution to our understanding of human learning and human potential. Educators, parents, and others involved with human development will continue to draw on his path-breaking body of work.”
—Howard Gardner, Harvard University

“Reuven Feuerstein’s concepts will continue to enrich cognitive developmental thinking and research and to bring a richer, fuller cognitive development to children, youth, and adults around the world.”
—From the Foreword by H. Carl Haywood, Vanderbilt University

“Educators who are devoted to enhancing the intellectual functioning of learners need this book. The principles, skills, and strategies of Mediated Learning should become a prerequisite for all teachers. Reuven Feuerstein has made the world a more thoughtful place.”
—Arthur L. Costa, professor emeritus, California State University and co-founder, Institute for Habits of Mind International