Last Saturday night I attended a lecture at the University of Auckland
introducing Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment to the New Zealand market.
Andrew Sutton has encouraged me to share my thoughts about this here. Considering
it was ridiculously cold outside and that the presentation was held from 7 to 10 p.m. on a Saturday night (after shabbos of course),
they did a very good job, completely packing the university Auditorium – I'd
estimate 600 were there. They
had enough demand to schedule a second meeting for Monday night. Saturday
night's presentation was free, Monday night was at the museum and was being
charged at $15 a ticket.
Local speakers
The Feuerstein Institute positioned themselves really well – they opened
with a TED talk about stem cells and neuroplasticity in adults by Dr Richard
Faull from the Auckland University Centre for Brain research. Dr. Faull was also in the audience
and gave the closing remark.
The second speaker was Professor Ian Kirk, the co-director of the Research Centre for Cognitive
Neuroscience within the Centre for Brain Research, and leader of the Human
Neuroscience team in the School of Psychology. He spoke about being able to
prove that learning actually changes the brain.
The third to speak was Anne Gaze. She talked about the volume of children
with learning difficulties in New Zealand and the cost (emotional and
psychosocial as well as monetary) of their carrying their disabilities and
labels forward into adult life.
The visitors
Next up was Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein (Reuben's son and by chance the parent
of a child with Down's syndrome – which is how he got pulled into his father's
work). He was interesting and dynamic – not quite his Dad's presence but
powerful and believable – nothing new to those of us already familiar with
Feuerstein.. He introduced Instrumental Enrichment, dynamic assessment,
cognitive modifiability, discussed some of their work (e.g. the project with
Ethiopian immigrants to Israel), and showed a case study.
Rabbi Feuerstein took us through one of the assessments (dots and lines
out of context, needing to be joined to make specific pictures), then worked
through the types of likely mistakes to show how they used these tests to find
out specifically how someone thought and learned – and what they needed to
teach too. There were lots of shameful giggling as individual thinking
styles were elaborated. I was one of the ones who tried turning the paper
upside down and sideways - showing a lack of understanding of general rules.
There was a question period – the usual stuff – who do they
help, how long is the intervention, what does it cost, can people be trained in
New Zealand?. Rabbi Feuerstein answered and was supported by Chaim
Guggenheim, the Feuerstein Institute's Vice-President in charge of
international and business development. A woman in the audience
provided anecdotal reflection, saying that her school had Feuerstein
instructors on the team and spoke about the difference that it made with the
students, some of whom had 'overcome learning disabilities' to go on to
university education as a result.
'Feuerstein' in New Zealand
The Feuerstein Institute will be running a course in New Zealand.
Their model is to teach Instrumental Enrichment to teachers and
therapists – they do not plan to run a Feuerstein satellite or actually work
with children here. There are a few teachers here already qualified and
the plan is for Israel to support them and the newly trained in July through
professional development. Instrumental Enrichment trainers from Israel will
coming back and forth as well for yearly research updates and, it seems, recertification to
ensure quality of program delivery. The of course played their non-profit
card very well.
As impressive as the
presentation was, I couldn't help but feel saddened sitting in the audience.
Not saddened because of what the Feuerstein Institute has achieved, but
because of what we in Conductive Education have not. The support from the
Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland, a platform of over one
hundred thousand research papers, and a sturdy foundation of academic work
underpinning what they are doing. I include myself here, and am guilty as
charged, but we certainly need to lift our game if we are going to see
Conductive Education move forward.
My personal contact
I approached Rabbi Feuerstein at the end of the presentation, offered my
condolences about his father's recent passing, and told him that I had the
opportunity to meet his father in Tel Aviv at the Tsad Kadima conference (he
knew Tsad Kadima and asked about the work with cerebral palsy). I told him that
I was a conductor (and he knew what that was) and he had heard of Andrew
Sutton. It was a really pleasant exhcange.
He asked why I haven't yet qualified in Instrumental Enrichment. I told
him that I'm interested and will keep my eyes posted for the New Zealand. I
have also emailed Chaim Guggenheim to
express interest in upcoming courses in NZ, who has since responded and
promised to keep me in the loop. I will look forward to see what come of
Feuerstein's forray into New Zealand