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Programme for primary and secondary schools

Strengthening Thinking

A 3–4 month programme developed with school leaders and teachers to strengthen critical, adaptive and inventive thinking—and help students apply it across their learning. Guided by FIE-certified trainers.

See the school project

For: Primary and secondary schools
Length: 3–4 months
Where: At your school
Trainers: FIE-certified
Method: Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment, Mediated Learning Experience
Pricing: Shared on the call

Our approach

The programme follows the Mediated Learning Experience developed by Professor Reuven Feuerstein. Instead of giving students answers, the trainer guides how they gather information, plan, and check their own work.

Students work with tasks from Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE), a set of pencil-and-paper instruments, each aimed at a different thinking skill. Read about the instruments at the Feuerstein Institute.

Researchers have studied Instrumental Enrichment since the 1970s. A 2002 review of 36 studies found gains on several measures, with mixed results across settings (Shiell, University of British Columbia). That is why we measure every school's programme with OpenMind.

How it runs

Three phases, three pathways

Every student moves through the same three phases over 3–4 months. Their pathway decides where they spend most of their time.

Pathway

Phase 1Assess the gaps

Phase 2Strengthen cognitive foundationsand develop a thinking frame

Phase 3Apply the thinking in the subjectbuilt with your teachers

Learning supportFoundations

All studentsA pre-test in session 1 shows how each student thinks now. OpenMind maps their cognitive gaps and suggests a pathway.

Most time hereRepeated, guided practice with Feuerstein instruments on easier tasks, until new concepts hold and a thinking frame begins to form.

The frame used on simpler questions from the school's own subjects.

Most studentsStructured

Core Feuerstein instruments, practised until the habits stick, with a thinking frame developed alongside.

Most time hereThe thinking frame applied to the school's own questions, getting harder each week.

High potentialIndependent

A brief, faster pass through the foundations and the frame.

Most time hereStudents build their own frame and apply it well beyond the content being taught.

Built with your teachers

In phase 3 we work with your teachers on the questions your school already uses. We match the subject content, and focus on the thinking that prepares students to understand it better.

Why 3–4 months

Thinking habits form through practice and repetition. In every session a trainer mediates a task, students reflect on how they approached it, and then they use the same thinking on a new problem. Students can move between pathways as they progress. At the end, OpenMind re-assesses and shows what changed.

Three pathways

Matched to your students

Choose one pathway or combine them. Students can move between pathways during the programme.

For learning support

Foundations

Students who find new concepts hard to hold on to build a steady, structured way of learning.

What we see: Better capture of new concepts, and structure emerging on simpler questions.

For most students

Structured

Students learn to approach harder problems systematically and to build structured thinking habits.

What we see: A systematic approach on harder questions, better concept recall and less panic.

For high-potential learners

Independent

Students build their own frames for thinking and take them well beyond the content being taught.

What we see: Personal thinking frames applied to complex questions and other subjects.

What your school receives

Included, and optional

Included

A pre-test in session 1 to guide teaching, and a broad summary of findings.

Optional, costed separately

Deeper analysis, individual profiles and detailed cohort reports in OpenMind. Consultation, sharing of cognitive insights, and learning-gap discussions with your teachers.

Track record

Where it runs, and what is next

MOE primary schoolWhole-level programme, Primary 5Run

Social service agenciesStrengthening Thinking for the children and young people they supportPilot starting