Navigation links
Home | Previous
| Table of Contents | Next
The Instrumental Enrichment Program for the Blind Learners
Roman Gouzman
The International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential
Jerusalem, Israel
The Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a cognitive intervention program developed by Reuven Feuerstein et al (1980) as a tool for the enhancement of learning potential of children, adolescents, and adults. The major goal of IE is to enhance the students' cognitive modifiability and provide them with cognitive tools necessary for them becoming independent learners. Regular IE program includes 14 booklets of paper-and-pencil tasks aimed at such domains as analytic perception, orientation in space and time, comparisons, classification, and so on.
For many years IE program the IE program remained inaccessible to blind learners because of the pictorial nature of IE tasks. The developer of a tactile version of this program was confronted with a major task of transforming the successive tactile perception into the quasi-simultaneous mental image (Gouzman, 1997).
The Problem of Input and Response
The first problem is how to make IE material accessible to the blind learners and how to provide them with relevant response modalities. Blind individuals cannot use the graphic input of the regular IE material, and, as a rule, cannot respond by drawing figures or signs. The problem of input was resolved by using micro-capsule paper sheets. IE pages containing drawings, text in Braille and other graphic elements were printed on this paper and in this way became accessible for tactile examination.
The problem of response has been resolved by placing micro-capsule paper sheets on magnetic boards and providing students with ferromagnetic response tokens. The blind learner explores the task using a tactile modality, selects an appropriate token from the case, and then places it in the correct position on the page. Different combinations of boards and tokens are used depending on the specific needs of a given IE instrument. Tokens are available in different shapes and sizes, some of them bearing symbolic information or a short text in Braille. In addition, the blind learners working with IE pages were taught to respond to the task by making drawings on the braillon sheets. The combination of magnetic boards, response tokens, and braillon drawing allowed us to resolve the following problems:
* To create a common input and response field for the blind learner;
* To achieve considerable flexibility in representation of information (verbal, pictorial, symbolic, etc.);
* To achieve greater simplicity and precision in presenting information to the blind learner.
The IE Page Design
A number of methodological principles have been developed that allowed us to revise the entire graphic material of IE pages thereby making them attuned to special needs of the blind learners.
These principles include:
One) Identifying the most essential pictorial elements of the IE material and retaining only these elements in the Braille version of IE;
Two) Selecting the optimal sizes of graphic representations;
Three) Finding a proper balance between schematic and realistic styles in pictorial representations.
The point (a) was achieved by:
1. Analyzing the depicted object in terms of its essential , constituent characteristics directly related to its conceptual meaning;
2. Selecting the most efficient and expressive means of graphic representation;
3. Reducing the number of pictorial elements on the page to 3 or 4;
4. Replacing the excessively complex means of pictorial representation used in the regular IE instruments by those means accessible in the tactile modality. For example, instead of the 3/4 view of the face, the frontal or a profile view; instead of a picture with linear perspective, a frontal view or a a view from above.
5. Reduction and schematization of separate details and a pictures as a whole;
6. Piloting the newly designed graphic material in different learning contexts.
The optimal size (b) was determent by the following way:
1. Elements of the design should not overlap each other;
2. Elements should be spread in such way that one may discriminate between them by tactical analysis;
3. The blind learner should be able to explore the design as a whole using all fingers of both hands. As a result a quasi-visual simultaneous image of the objects should appear in the learner's mind.
A proper balance between schematic and realistic representation of objects (c) was achieved through the development in the blind learners of the special cognitive functions of symbolic representation. Symbolization is related to the realistic image by retaining some of its concrete features, but it is also related to an abstract schema of the object by focusing on essential, conceptual elements of the object.
For example, in one of the tasks of the IE instrument Comparisons students are supposed to compare two pictures of the child's face. In developing the tactile version of this page (see Fig. 1 A&B) we followed the above rules and retained the following most essential elements of the original picture: Outline of the face; elements responsible for facial expression such as eyes, brows, mouth; major parts that allow one to recognize the image as a human face such as hair, ears, nose, and chin. The shades on boy's head and cheeks were excluded from the tactile version, the 3/4 view was replaced by the frontal view and the symmetry of the face was emphasized. The size of the face was selected as to be equal to a half of the student's palm. This size is sufficient for simultaneous examination of the image by all five fingers, and it is big enough for examination of separate elements of the image by individual fingers. For example, the student should be able to identify the position of pupils in the corner of boy's eyes. Reduction and schematization of the image included the change of the graphic style in the depiction of hair, brows, and mouth into a more plane one. Emphasis is added to those elements such as mouth and brows that convey the expression of a smile.
Sometimes the IE page should be completely redesigned in order to respond to special needs of the blind learners. For example in the Orientation in Space I instrument (Fig. 2 A&B) a "three-dimensional" picture of a square with house, bench, flowers, and a tree shown in perspective had to be replaced by a "flat" semi-schematic view. All depicted objects became represented by the relevant schematic images that express the most basic function meaning of each one of them. The four positions of the boy that in the original version were represented by the four full size images of his body see from the left, right, front and back were reduced in the tactile version to the four positions of the pair of shoes. We literally realized here the saying about "putting on somebody else's shoes" in a sense of assuming the position of another person.
Instructional Methods
The underlying principle of the IE instruction is that of mediated learning experience (see the paper of Feuerstein in this issue). Mediation of IE material to the blind learners should take into account their special needs and first of all the fact that material that is perceived by a sighted learner simultaneously is accessible to the blind learner only successively. In order to turn the product of successive tactile exploration into a quasi-simultaneous mental image the following approaches should be used:
1. Creating a system of reference.
The majority of blind learners do not know how to explore pictorial information appearing on a sheet of micro-capsule paper. Their experience is often limited to examination of Braille texts that have a fixed linear organization from left to right and from top to bottom of the page. Thus one of the first tasks is to teach blind learners how to organize their exploratory activity when confronted with unfamiliar material printed on micro-capsule page. Such an exploration includes the analysis of the page layout, the distinctive parts and segments of the page and their relationships. Our students were taught how to use the frame of the page and horizontal and vertical lines dividing it as a basic system of reference. Additional emphasis waplaced on identification of right angles and intersections of lines. As a result our students formed a basic reference system to which they systematically returned in the process of problem solving.
2. The measurement system.
The analysis and comparison of complex tactile images is greatly facilitated by the presence of measuring devices. Our students learned how to use their hands as such devices and how to measure the length of line segments, angles, areas and so on. They also learned how to check whether the given lines are overlapping, orthogonal, or parallel.
3. Sensory-motor coordination.
To achieve satisfactory exploratory behavior blind learners should be able to coordinate their sensory-motor activity. One of the important achievements of our students was the development of coordinated activity involving all their fingers. The tactile analysis of images combined the periods of narrow-range exploration performed by 2-3 fingers and the periods of wide-range scanning of the page performed by all fingers of both hands.
4. From successive to quasi-simultaneous perception.
All of the above described approaches were integrated into a coherent system of mediated activities that allowed the blind learners to identify the difference between successive and simultaneous perception. The awareness of simultaneous perception was created in the students and the resultant quasi-simultaneous images were transferred from the IE tasks to other learning and everyday life material.
Recipients of the IE Program
The IE program was implemented with different groups of students in different contexts.
* Blind students with multiple problems (ages 10-18) studying in a specialized Jewish Institute for the Blind in Jerusalem;
* Blind students without additional problems integrated into various regular schools (ages 10-18);
* Children attending special summer camp for the blind learners (ages 12-18);
* Students at the special pre-academic program for the blind learners at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (ages 19-30);
* Elderly new immigrants attending Hebrew courses (ages 55-70).
Program Outcomes
The outcome of the implementation of the IE program includes changes in the behavior, cognition, and the self-image of the blind learners. In the field of behavior the students demonstrated greater alertness and involvement during lessons. Some of them for the first time started actively interacting with their sighted peers. The self-image of the blind learners improved significantly. Students started setting for themselves much higher educational and career goals. Cognitively a very significant change has occurred associated with acquisition of "quasi-visual" representations of objects and processes, learning to use schematic representations and models, developing learning strategies and expanding the area of cognitive activity.
References
Feuerstein, R., Rand, Y., Hoffman, M., and Miller, R. (1980). The Instrumental
Enrichment. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Gouzman, R. (1997). Major problems of blind learners using tactile graphic materials
and how to overcome them with the IE Braille program. In A,Kozulin (Ed.),
The Ontogeny of Cognitive Modifiability, pp.261-272. Jerusalem: ICELP.