Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment: Day 1

Paterson Falls (2011)

Today I completed the first day of a five-day seminar based on Reuven Feuerstein's work presented by Dr. Joyce Swofford and Jan Burnett from Southeastern Center for the Enhancement of Learning (SCEL). I am keeping track of my learning as I work through the assessment tasks.  Today we worked through several pages of Organization of Dots.  It was surprising how much my thinking and learning dispositions were revealed as I worked.

From here.

Like Rain Falling

1. Seeing one shape helps me to see the other.
2. Isolating a shape (the square) allows me to see the possibility of other shapes.
3. Clean surfaces allow me to see better. Too many lines clutter.
4. A light touch with the pencil works better than a heavy hand (erasing).
5. I wonder which pattern isn’t easily noticeable to me and how I might begin to be aware of the holes in how I see.
6. Two close dots allow me to know that they cannot be part of the figure.
7. Color and emphasis (bolded) helps me to see patterns.
8. I recall images I have made as I study the dots. For example, when finding parallel lines I thought about the image to the right.
9. I tend to resituate what I see in a given environment geometrically, without a lot of conscious thought (if any). For example, in the room we are in the auditorium curtains resemble a series of parallel lines.
10. Checking with others matter. This leads to discussion in which clarification occurs.
11. Attention to detail and precision matters. It seems helpful to practice this from the start so that when complexity increases, drawing careful lines is more habit than thought.
12. Do you need to check the model?
13. Errors lead to revision and to new learning.
14. In a field of the same shapes, actually drawing lines become important. Is this connected to elimination?
15. I am not afraid of making errors.
16. I complete all aspects of the task even when I don't actually need to do so as I have already figured out the answer. Thinking about why I do this has me recalling much of the homework I did in elementary school and how simply knowing a term never satisfied the assignment.  Rather I filled notebooks with terms, underlined (using a ruler) and defined in complete sentences.
17. Checking responses with peers is helpful, especially as the tasks increase in difficulty.
18. Color dots no longer signal anything related to the task and I quickly stop attending to color. Flexible strategies are important.
19. Strategies emerge alongside context. (Finding parallel lines simplify the task when figures are overlayed.)
20. If…then hypothetical structure underlies the find the error task. Reminds me of algebraic thinking (Solving for x).
21. As complexity increases, checking the pattern happens more often.
22. I find myself relying on inner speech (sub-vocalizing) as I work through worksheet E.
23. As complexity increases and fatigue sets in, I can hear myself begin to doubt whether I will be able to finish the task. As I complete more tasks, my confidence is restored. I recall Karen saying something similar earlier on.
24. Fatigue matters in ways I had not known: capacity to help others, attention to detail and precision.
25. I can see how so much of what we are doing would be beneficial to learners insomuch as it would help them to name and strengthen cognitive strategies/dispositions. 
26. I have long believed that intelligence is learnable.  Interesting to see, feel, and experience it in action.