The development of structural cognitive modifiability through focused mediated learning experiences : the initial implementation of the COGNET MLE instructional approach with whole group reading instruction

This research investigates Reuven Feuerstein's Theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability (SCM) as achieved during the Initial Implementation of the COGNET MLE Instructional Approach, developed for use with Whole Group Instruction by Katherine H. Greenberg (1988). During its Initial Implementation, the COGNET MLE Instructional Approach was utilized as a teaching methodology during Whole Group Reading Instruction, with grades one through three, at an elementary school located in rural eastern Tennessee. According to Feuerstein, et al. (1974) Learning occurs either by direct exposure from the individual's encounters with random stimuli or by a Mediated Learning Experience in which the child is exposed to information presented by an adult who interposes him or herself between the child and the world and intentionally mediates the information to the child. Mediated Learning Experience involves modification of the information in such a way that the learning individual can register it meaningfully. The Initial Implementation of the COGNET MLE Instructional Approach was studied using field observations, interviews, and questionnaires. The qualitative observations, interviews, and questionnaires were triangulated and analyzed thematically. Descriptive statistics were used to explain the findings of the DeFord Theoretical Orientation of the Reading Process (TORP) Profile and the Heathington Primary Reading Attitude Scale. Following involvement in the Initial Implementation of the COGNET MLE Instructional Approach during Whole Group Reading Instruction, the teachers participating in this study demonstrated a theoretical understanding of the theory of MLE upon which this teaching methodology is based and showed a change in their attitudes toward teaching and their expectation levels of students’ abilities to learn. In addition, these teachers have changed in their theoretical orientation to the teaching of reading as measured by the DeFord Theoretical Orientation of the Reading Process (TORP) Profile (1985). The group of teachers, when treated as a whole, have moved away from a Skills Approach and in the direction of a combined Phonics and Whole Language Approach for the teaching of reading. The results of the Heathington Primary Reading Attitude Scale showed interesting differences in the students attitudes. These differences were demonstrated primarily in the area of the students' attitudes toward their own abilities to learn to read during Organized Reading instruction.