The Big Ideas - A Newcomers Glossary
Cognitive Enrichment - Cognitive
skills are thinking skills, and cognitive enrichment results in the
improvement of thinking skills.
Cognitive Functions
are specific thinking abilities or skills. They can be taught and
learned and strengthened at any age. There are three phases of
cognitive functioning: Input—Elaboration—Output. (These phases are
similar to the three phases of information processing.) At the input
phase, information is taken in; at the elaboration phase information is
processed through association with previous knowledge; and at the output
phase the results of the processing are conveyed.
Structural Cognitive
Modifiability is characterized by the belief that the structure of
the brain can be changed by systematic and meaningful intervention.
This position is supported by current brain research in the field of
brain plasticity. If you accept this position, it follows then that
intelligence is not fixed or immutable.
Mediation is the
interactional process between a learner and an intentional adult (the
mediator) who by interposing him/herself between the learner and the
external source of stimulation guides (mediates) the learning experience
by selection, focusing, and feedback. Such a learning experience is
referred to as a
Mediated Learning Experience (MLE).
Bridging refers to
the process through which cognitive skills are transferred (bridged) to
learning content.
Professor Reuven Feuerstein, the founder and director of the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning, has through clinical research identified a set of cognitive functions that can be considered prerequisites for learning. That is, learners who do not have access to these prerequisite skills will be handicapped in learning new skills and or new material regardless of the quality of instruction or the effort put forth by the learner.
Cognitive Enrichment