The education world is abuzz about the 21st Century thinking skills that our students need to succeed in their lives and careers. Voyager School was founded on perhaps the oldest and most widely proven model of developing students' cognitive proficiency: Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment, or F.I.E. In partnership with the International Renewal Institute, Voyager School plans to deploy this proven model of enrichment schoolwide, document its effects, and offer it to schools across the state.

Please describe your innovation?

In the aftermath of World War II, psychologist Reuven Feuerstein worked with young survivors of the holocaust, and developed the theory of structural cognitive modifiability. This theory holds that through continual training and re-training in effective thinking processes under the guidance of a well-trained teacher, learners actually reconfigure the physical structures of the brain, leading to improved cognition. This finding suggested that intelligence was not fixed, as previously thought, but rather could be improved through a method of teaching he called a "mediated learning environment". His theory has found broad support among contemporary educators and psychologists in light of recent findings about learning and the brain. Voyager School has partnered with the International Renewal Institute in Illinois to provide training, ongoing implementation support, and research to measure the effects of the program on teacher practice, student learning, and school culture.

What is the problem or situation that your innovation seeks to address?

Hawai'i's public schools face a crisis in preparing our students in mathematics. Though great opportunities exist in for our graduates in science, technology, and engineering, very few of Hawai'i's public school students leave school prepared to thrive in a mathematically demanding postsecondary program, or the careers that follow. At the same time, schools across the nation are faced with "re-tooling" their classrooms to meet the needs of the 21st century. If the "4 C's" of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking are the essential skills for our keiki to master, we need research-proven methods of teaching that hold promise in attaining these outcomes. Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment offers a time-tested, research-supported method of teaching not only the "four C's", but a complete set of cognitive functions that will serve our students for years to come.

What effort have you made to test out your new idea?

For the past 10 years, Voyager School has been rolling out its schoolwide model of F.I.E. to the benefit of over one thousand students in Hawai'i. Our preliminary qualitative and anecdotal evidence suggests that a more extensive implementation of the program will benefit the quality of our classroom teaching, the learning of our students in both mathematics and higher-order thinking skills, and contribute to our schoolwide and statewide need for improvement in mathematical understanding.

What is particularly noteworthy or novel about your innovation?

While many schools, including our own, have sought to solve the low math achievement problem by seeking out new curriculum resources or professional development seminars, the problem of low math achievement runs deeper than what and how we are teaching in the area of math. Our struggles in math are more likely caused by a broad set of underdeveloped cognitive functions, which students are not about to access and apply when they are called upon in the context of math. The solution to our statewide math deficit may not lie with a math program at all, but a more comprehensive retraining in thinking skills that are essential to success in the 21st century. We are going to teach the students of Hawai'i to think better, not just do math better.

What impact do you expect your innovation will have on the problem or situation described in the previous question?

Based on the International Renewal Institute's research on implementing the Feuerstein program, we can expect to see the greatest impact in teacher attitudes and practice. Furthermore, we hope to contribute to the Institute's ongoing research by demonstrating the program's effect on student learning, especially in the area of math.

What other community partners will you need if your innovation is to scale beyond your organization?

As an incubator of educational innovation in Hawaii, Voyager School will roll-out the Feuerstein method schoolwide, becoming the first such model in the far Western region of the United States. Dr. Mier Ben-Hur, a close associate of Dr. Feuerstein, will oversee the evaluation component of the program, publishing the findings for an international audience. We invite other elementary and middle schools, public and private, to participate in training and coaching sessions. Eventually, we intend to host trainings at our school, led by certified F.I.E. trainers on the Voyager staff.

Why are your organization, partners, and key personnel suited to take on this project?

Voyager school is committed to serving the Hawai'i school community as a testing ground for innovative practice. Our key partner, IRI, Inc., Has the most experience of all training organizations in coordinating schoolwide trainings in F.I.E., and has initiated the greatest number of research studies in the effectiveness of F.I.E. Our training and methodology coordinator has the confidence of Dr. Ben-Hur, and will collect the essential assessment data in order to conduct the program evaluation and publish results in educational journals.