The Development of MLE-Based Intervention Programmes in the Context of Education in South Africa

Abstract

Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) is proposed here as an effective basis for bridging educational gaps and for promoting crosscultural co-existence and integration. A series of controlled studies in South Africa with pre-service teachers from a disadvantaged community, and with students of different cultural groups, developed and tested programmes based on MLE and on its vehicles, the Instrumental Enrichment (IE) thinking skills programme and the Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD). The unique nature of South Africa's sociopolitical situation, and the needs of particular population groups within this country, have served as the impetus for studying the effects of MLE, IE and the LPAD in conjunction with other constructs, approaches or programmes. These studies suggest the potential value of MLE-based intervention programmes in contributing to the transformation of the South African education system from its previous apartheid-based methods and goals of compliance, conformity and passive absorption of information, to an integrated and cognitively based system.