OVERVIEW
Mediated Learning Experience: International Practices and Advances
Preface
The theory of mediated learning experience (MLE), as Reuven Feuerstein formulated it in the 1960s, had a profound impact on the world of education and therapy. Feuerstein’s detailed formulations and his ability to create a precise and coherent language for the learning process enabled many applications, including, of course, the learning potential diagnosis (LPAD) and the ‘Instrumental Enrichment’ method (FIE). One of Feueurstein’s essential lectures in the 1980s focused on emphasizing the ‘E’ in the title (MLE) of the theory. That is the mediation experience. Mediation is seen as a metacognitive process, and rightly so. But, according to Feuerstein, this process also has ‘hands and legs’. The mental structures are developed not only by metacognitive insights but by practical experience, or as he called it ‘practical intelligence’. Our journal conforms to this view. The journal’s direction is from practice to theory, or more precisely: ‘theory – practice – theory’. The movement from practice to approach, therefore, is not just an expression of the ‘application’ of abstract ideas. Instead, it is a source of learning and productivity. The role of the experiment is not only to express and attack the theory but to ‘teach’ the theory. The new journal of the international movement of Feuerstein developers and users is dedicated to this move. And I am confident that he will play a fundamental role in fertilizing the thoughts and actions of all of us. – Rabbi Dr. Rafi Feuerstein