Feuerstein, Reuven
FEUERSTEIN, REUVEN
FEUERSTEIN, REUVEN (1921–2005), Israeli psychologist. Born in Botosani, Romania, Feuerstein studied at the University of Geneva under such mentors as Jean Piaget and received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology at the Sorbonne. After qualifying as a teacher, he helped set up a special school for the children of Jews taken to Nazi labor camps. After settling in Israel in 1944, he taught child survivors of the Holocaust and directed Youth Aliyah's psychological service. After directing the psychological services of Youth Aliyah in Europe (1951–55), he was appointed director of the Youth Aliyah child guidance clinic and the Canadian Hadassah-wizo Research Institute in Jerusalem. His work is set forth in his book (with M. Richelle and the collaboration of Z. Rey) Children of the Mellah (Yaldei ha-Melaḥ; Jerusalem, 1963).
Feuerstein believes that every human being can be modified to reach a higher level of functioning irrespective of age and regardless of the cause of a problem or the severity of a condition. In 1965 he established his Jerusalem research institute, which has become a mecca for families with problem children. Two of the items he developed are particularly well known: the Learning Potential Assessment Devices, for evaluating learning potential; and the Instrumental Enrichment Program, for improving an individual's way of thinking and functioning. Worldwide, there are more than 1,000 research projects that implement his work, involving all age groups from infants to the elderly, and every ability level from the severely retarded to the highly gifted.
From 1970 Feuerstein served as professor in the School of Education at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He was director of the Hadassah-wizo-Canada Research Institute in Jerusalem as well as the Center for Development of Human Potential in Jerusalem. In 1990, France's president François Mitterand honored Feuerstein for his work in training French workers, managers, and executives in the skills of intelligence. In 1992 he was awarded the Israel Prize in social sciences.
Books by Feuerstein include The Dynamic Assessment of Retarded Performers: The Learning Potential Assessment Device, Theory, Instruments, and Techniques (with Y. Rand and M. Hoffman, 1979), Instrumental Enrichment: An Intervention Program for Cognitive Modifiability (1980), and Don't Accept Me As I Am: Helping "Retarded" People to Excel (with Y. Rand and J. Rynders, 1988).
bibliography:
S. Howard, Changing Children's Minds: Feuerstein's Revolution in the Teaching of Intelligence (1993); N. Blagg, Can We Teach Intelligence? A Comprehensive Evaluation of Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment Programme (1990); A. Kozulin and Y. Rand (eds.), Experience of Mediated Learning: An Impact of Feuerstein's Theory in Education and Psychology (2000).
[Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]