Originally developed to help students overcome learning obstacles created by emotional trauma or neurobiological learning disabilities, Reuven Feuerstein's work is now used in major cities around the world to support improved thinking and learning by all students. This book is the most up-to-date summary of his thinking and includes accessible descriptions of his tools and methods for cognitive modifiability and mediated learning. With dramatic case studies throughout the text, Feuerstein and his co-authors define intelligence as a dynamic force that drives the human organism to change the structure of thinking in order to answer the needs it encounters. They describe in detail the specific skills of the three stages of thinking: input or observation and data-gathering stage; development or processing stage; and output stage, including analysis, synthesis, and communication. They show how student thinking can stall in multiple ways at any of these stages and how intentional mediation can help students restructure their thinking and improve their ability to learn. Similarly to cognitive mediated learning, the authors address mediation of social and emotional skills that impact learning.

Decades before educators began to draw teaching and learning implications from neuroscientists' groundbreaking findings on brain plasticiy, Reuven Feuerstein had already theorized it and developed practices for teaching and developing higher level cognition and learning for all students, even those with Down syndrome and other learning disabilities. His mediated learning, enrichment instruments, and dynamic assessment are used in urban districts in the United States and around the world to raise student achievement, success levels, and self-regulation. In this final work, Feuerstein provides a first-person reflective narrative of the implementation of mediated learning experience (MLE) past and present, including stories, new insights, observations, and newly formulated concepts on MLE and how it contributes to higher-level thinking and overcoming disability. Featuring both educational and clinical case examples, it offers a more detailed picture of the practical applications than any other publication to date. Those familiar with Feuerstein's methods will find this book an important resource in deepening their knowledge. It is also essential reading for all educators looking for approaches that promote thinking skills that improve educational outcomes for diverse learners.

Presenting the major trends, theories, and practices in assessing culturally diverse clients, Advances in Cross-Cultural Assessment comprises chapters from some of the key leading authors in intelligence and intelligence testing. Author Ronald J. Samuda and associates contend that classic IQ tests and traditional standardized tests of cognitive ability are only appropriate for middle-class mainstream individuals, not for those of different cultural backgrounds. For those who grow up in deficient "environmental backgrounds" (inadequate rearing, serious economic stress), the traditional objective standardized tests are neither valid nor reliable in measuring intelligence. A number of scholars, some of whom are among the bookAEs contributing authors, have introduced alternative approaches to assessing cognitive ability in persons from such backgrounds. A groundbreaking volume that encourages professionals to treat individuals on an individual basis, Advances in Cross-Cultural Assessment will heighten the awareness of professionals and academics in clinical and counseling psychology, educational psychology, social work, psychology, public health, and ethnic studies.