Public lifeראובן פוירשטיין

Reuven Feuerstein

Reuven Feuerstein was a Romanian-born Israeli psychologist and educator known for his theory that intelligence can be changed through mediated learning.

1921 to 2014Structural cognitive modifiability theoryMediated learning experienceThe Instrumental Enrichment programDynamic assessment of learning potential

Born: 21 August 1921, Botoșani
Died: 29 April 2014, Jerusalem
Occupation: pedagogue, educator, psychologist
Education: Nya, University of Geneva

Reuven Feuerstein was born in 1921 in Botoșani

Feuerstein was born in 1921 in Botoșani, Romania, one of nine children in a Jewish family. In Bucharest he trained as a teacher and studied psychology at a Jewish college, while also co-directing a school for children in distress.

He moved to the Land of Israel and worked with child survivors of the Holocaust until 1948. From 1950 to 1955 he studied clinical psychology at the University of Geneva under Jean Piaget and André Rey. In 1970 he completed a doctorate in developmental psychology at the Sorbonne.

From 1949 to 1955 he directed the psychological services of Youth Aliyah in Europe. His work with immigrant children led him to question the idea that intelligence is fixed, and he developed dynamic assessment and the Instrumental Enrichment program. In 1965 he founded a research institute with WIZO and Hadassah, which later became the International Center for the Enhancement of Learning Potential in Jerusalem.

He was a professor of educational psychology at Bar-Ilan University and Vanderbilt University. In 1992 he received the Israel Prize for social sciences. He died in 2014.