The Journal of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children

While the ministry of Education is debating ways to improve techniques for identifying
giftedness in this population, Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment (IE) has been implemented and
proven to be very successful in enhancing cognitive skills.
In one study conducted in four primary schools, the subjects (9-10 years old) were either
from Ethiopia or Israeli born children of Ethiopian origin. The program included 15 weekly hours of
intervention divided between IE, language, and math. The work was supervised by a senior IE
consultant and two specialists – one in teaching Hebrew as a second language and the other in
teaching math to new immigrant students.
Most of the participants improved their mathematical skills and reading comprehension and
became fully reintegrated into regular classes (Kozulin, 2006). In another study, in which the
intervention related only to analytic perception, there was a significant improvement in this ability.
The relatively quick acquisition of these skills under conditions of intensive mediated leaning
indicated that the subjects were culturally different rather than culturally deprived (Rosemarin et al.,
1994).
B - Russian Immigration – A different story
In wake of the opening of the gates in Russia in 1989-90, over 500,000 immigrated to Israel.
The integration of the Russian population is completely different from the Ethiopian. Although this
group is quite heterogeneous, the Russian immigrants can be characterized by relatively high
education, low endorsement of religion and modernization (Gittleman, 1997).
They grew up in a society that believed that achievement was environmental rather than
genetically conditioned. Achievement was attributed basically to diligence. In the early 1960’s
several special day schools and four boarding schools attached to leading universities were
established. Three-fourths of Russian mathematicians of age 50 or less are graduates of those
special schools. In the 1970’s the government support for those institutes has declined, which
brought to the decline of their number. But at the end of that decade new special schools were
opened, and many schools in which special programs had been curtailed, were revitalized. The
target of the administrators was to label their schools – special mathematics and physics schools.
More than ten nations, including the United States, operate special schools similar to those
of Russia. These nations share with Russia and the United States the belief that scientific and
technological leadership in this century will depend upon recognition of talented students as an
irreplaceable national resource (Donoghue et al., 2000).
Difficulties in absorption in the Israeli educational system on one hand, and criticism of it and
despair from it on the other hand, have led Russian specialists in math and physics to establish a
separate educational system (called “Mofet”), in which they implement teaching methods they have
brought from Russia. Israeli educators have investigated these methods and have considered
incorporating them into the Israeli system.
The focus is on motivation and hard work and not necessarily on initial giftedness, and thus
the classes are heterogeneous. Yet, excellence and the development of high level thinking skills are
crucial in the program and seem to be in accordance with the declared goals of the Ministry of
Education (http://www.mofet-il.org/8/)
In 1994, 28 out of 182 students in the "Israel Arts and Science Academy” in Jerusalem, were
of Russian origin. This Academy is a three-year residential high school (grades 10-12) for students
gifted in the arts, science and mathematics, or both (Jewish virtual library publications).
A few interesting findings emerged from an in-depth study that focuses on the experience of
Israeli teachers, who worked for a decade and a half with their highly motivated, academically
successful immigrant students from the former Soviet Union.
Several teachers acknowledged preparing for classes more thoroughly owing to the
intelligent questions these students posed, yet there seemed to be a difference between junior and
senior teachers. The senior teachers tended not to recognize the excellence of those students,
because of the perceived threat to their professional status, as it might have underscored their
responsibility for the relatively lower level of the local students. Thus, they declared that the
percentage of outstanding individuals among them was comparable to that among Israeli students.
On the other hand, the junior teachers were willing to acknowledge these students’ imported
skills and distinguished performance and were prepared to invest time and energy in their
advancement (Eisikovits, 2007). All of them realized that those students come in as Russians and
leave as Russians after the school years, because they keep feeling different.
Gifted and Talented International – 26(1), August, 2011; and 26(2), December, 2011. 107