I am writing this column from San Francisco, where autonomous vehicles, still with drivers inside, fill the streets.
There is no better example to explain the flourishing of the Feuerstein Method in the fields of education and therapy. What is happening to cars and robots is happening to humans. The danger is not that they will replace us; the danger is that we will replace them and become what I call “intuitive-automatic intelligence.”
This marks the fiftieth year that the Feuerstein Institute has held its international workshop, this time in Chicago at the University of Illinois, where approximately 100 experts from 15 countries will gather for a week of learning and certification in the Feuerstein Method.
One week later, a similar conference for Jewish education will also take place in Chicago under the auspices of the Walder Foundation. These events and many others occurring constantly in some 50 countries reflect a kind of belated awakening.
Educational systems and therapists are beginning to understand what we refused to recognize for decades: The emphasis is shifting from knowledge-oriented education to process-oriented education.
Professor Reuven Feuerstein, founder of the theory of mediated learning and the Instrumental Enrichment program, already predicted the end of the knowledge era more than 60 years ago, and he prepared his educational programs for this moment.
The AI revolution, which already exists in every student’s smartphone, whether they are in middle school or university, has created a generation that can write papers on any topic in seconds, reflecting the educational system’s loss of direction. I read articles by education experts who herald that the professional future lies in occupations requiring a personal touch, like drivers, chefs, and similar roles.
This is a mistake. We must not leave the human race only outside the realms of intellect. On the contrary, AI should be a tool in the hands of every thinking person and every developer.
I sat with a group of intelligent children in front of an open ChatGPT screen and suggested they ask it questions about anything. They couldn’t manage for more than a few minutes. In a world with the illusion that everything is understood and everything is at our fingertips – where the most sophisticated technologies are in the hands of every infant – the danger of intellectual slumber and the disappearance of curiosity is very great and threatening.
The new pedagogy
The new pedagogy we champion speaks of the need for learners to learn how to ask questions, identify knowledge gaps, formulate hypotheses, develop theories – both small and large – and know how to plan their implementation. Yes, learning to engineer intelligence – to introduce methods and processes into our thinking world.
In such a world, AI will be a tool in the hands of creative individuals who know how to harness it for their needs. But this is conditional on their knowing how to define what they’re looking for and knowing how to plan to reach it. In a world where all possibilities are available with total accessibility, we become dull-sensed and lacking intellectual activity.
We define the current state of intelligence as intuitive intelligence: We operate from the force of our previous experience, which leads us to quick but superficial responses. We find ourselves mistaken when we face new problems that differ more or less from our existing knowledge. Then, one of two things happens: either we are paralyzed and at a loss, or we simply make mistakes.
The Feuerstein Method
The Feuerstein Method, studied and implemented in dozens of countries, teaches meta-cognition: We train people to control their thinking processes. They are taught to exit autopilot and control their thinking processes, to identify and analyze the problem facing them, and to generate a new, surprising, unexpected solution.
We are facing a wave of demand from countries, governments, and organizations seeking methods to escape the mental stagnation that the available and cheap technological world imposes on us. The Feuerstein Method offers a path forward, not by rejecting technology, but by teaching us to be its masters rather than its slaves.
The choice is ours: We can become increasingly passive consumers of AI-generated content, or we can develop the cognitive tools to harness artificial intelligence as a powerful instrument in service of human creativity and problem-solving. The future belongs not to those who can compete with machines, but to those who can think beyond them.
The writer is president & CEO of the Feuerstein Institute.