Mediated learning and cognitive modifiability: dynamic assessment of young Ethiopian immigrant children to Israel

This study examines the relation between mediated learning experience (MLE) and cognitive modifiability among children who underwent cultural change. The case of Ethiopian immigrant children who had to adapt to Israeli society, tested by a dynamic assessment (DA) approach, was used. Our main hypothesis, based on L. S. Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proximal development concept and R. Feuerstein's (1991) MLE theory, was that these immigrants would reveal cultural difference but not cultural deprivation. A group of first-grade Ethiopian immigrants was compared with a group of Israeli-born children on the Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM), the Children's Analogical Cognitive Modifiability test, and the Children's Inferential Thinking Modifiability test. There were significant group differences on the CPM and on the Preteaching scores of both DA measures, indicating superiority of the Israeli-born comparison group. However, after a short but intensive teaching process, the Ethiopian group narrowed the gaps and performed at about the same level on Postteaching and Transfer tasks.