Reuven Feuerstein

Reuven Feuerstein (1921 to 2014) was a Romanian-born Israeli clinical, developmental and cognitive psychologist known for his theory of intelligence. Born in Botoșani, Romania, he settled in Mandate Palestine in 1945 and taught child survivors of the Holocaust, then studied psychology at the University of Geneva under Andre Rey and Jean Piaget. His observation that immigrant children improved with extra psychological and educational attention led him to question the idea that intelligence is fixed, and he developed the theories of structural cognitive modifiability and mediated learning experience, together with dynamic assessment and the Instrumental Enrichment programmes, which have been applied in classrooms and clinics in more than eighty countries. He founded and directed the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem and won the Israel Prize in 1992.