In this research project, we investigate the discourse and interactions of a teacher and his elementary‐aged students in a cognitive education programme, based upon the work of Reuven Feuerstein. Feuerstein has developed a learning theory that links cognitive skill development to culturally grounded mediated learning. He argues that the development of foundational thinking skills – organisation and management of information, effective orientation to problem sets and metacognitive skills – underlie all complex learning and is a direct outgrowth of mediating interactions between a learner and a more competent guide. Feuerstein theorises specific qualities to learning interactions for all mediated learning experiences (MLE). In order to investigate the discursive realisation of MLEs in a Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme, data were gathered on a series of lessons with an FIE‐trained teacher and three fourth and fifth grade academically underachieving students of Central American heritage in an elementary classroom in the United States.