Representational Stencil Design

Description of the instrument
Representational Stencil Design consists of tasks in which the student must mentally construct a design. The completion of the tasks requires a complex series of steps. The identification of the whole through its super imposed parts requires an active, mental construction with the help of inferences, and an anticipation and representation of the outcome. Answers are sought by affirmation, negation, and elimination of what is logi cally impossible. Learners must extrapolate from the known to the unknown and rely on logic to identify the constructions.

Cognitive functions developed

• Comparison.Summative behavior.
• Categorization.
• Establishment of temporal and spatial relationships.

Mediation of sample task
Challenge, competence, and optimism are mediated as students realize their ability and teachers expect them to perform this very difficult task. Regulation of impulsive behavior and representational goal-oriented cognitive behavior are key to the mediation offered by the teacher in the context of this instrument.

Sample task

List the stencil numbers that make up the completed design in the right order.

©1996 R. Feuerstein, HWCRI.