Charter School Applications of
Instrumental Enrichment

IC&TA has developed model proposals for special school programs such as Magnet Schools, Charter Schools, and Academies for both public and private school environments.

The first of these proposals is for the Thinking Academy – a proposal which demonstrates in some detail how Instrumental Enrichment as a thinking-strategies program can become the focus of the instruction across the curriculum in any school.

The second of these proposals is for the Latino Studies Thinking Academy – a proposal which demonstrates how Instrumental Enrichment can be integrated within a specialized-school proposal which has a particular emphasis, such as a focus on Latino Studies for inner-city learners.

Contained within these proposals are the following components:

Mission and Vision
Learning Objectives
Student Assessment
Applications to Special-Needs Students
Board Structure
The Place of Instrumental Enrichment within the Curriculum
Needed Professional Development for Teaching Staff
The Role for Parents
Leadership
Budget Structure

The Mission statement for one of these model proposals is provided below:

“The infusion of cognitive education across all areas of the curriculum is necessary in order for today’s students to achieve meaningful progress and become autonomous problem-solvers in their future lives. The Thinking Academy provides in-depth training of all professional staff members in the methodology of the Instrumental Enrichment program, which was developed by Professor Reuven Feuerstein for the improvement of cognitive potential and achievement; this program is being used world-wide and has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny by the objective research community through more than 1500 research studies. Based on the conviction that all children can learn and on the accumulated evidence that intelligence is dynamic and not fixed, the Academy focuses on making significant cognitive changes in the quality of students’ learning, through enabling students to acquire the cognitive strategies which underlie all subject matter of the regular curriculum. The improvement in thinking habits will transfer not only into academic learning but also to the workplace and the social environment outside the classroom. Through specialized training, the professional staff will become expert in a different manner of teaching that involves cognitive mediation. Parents of students will also be invited to commit to regular engagement with their children, and special parent training will be provided in the methods of cognitive mediation. Thus, the Academy represents a comprehensive approach to helping students to become effective and high-level thinkers.”

These proposals may apply not only to new schools being proposed but also to existing schools which are planning to re-design their programs, including the organization of a charter school on Thinking Skills which would also have an emphasis on some aspect of ethnic studies.

IC&TA would be pleased to advise schools on the ways to propose the infusion of Instrumental Enrichment within a charter-school environment. Contact IC&TA at Ischein123@cs.com or davidchina_2000@yahoo.com for assistance in this process.