Dynamic Assessment (Learning Potential Testing, Testing the Limits)

Introduction

This entry discusses the characteristics and procedures of dynamic assessment and learning potential testing, differentiating these approaches from testing-the-limits. The entry will briefly discuss examples of dynamic assessment procedures that have been developed by researchers in a number of countries, as well as developing applications and evidence for validity of these approaches.

Dynamic assessment is a generic term for approaches to assessment that are characterized by inclusion of interactions between the assessor and learner during the course of the assessment. These are sometimes referred to as learning potential or interactive assessment procedures because the information derived from the interaction relates to what the learner is able to accomplish with the help of a more experienced collaborator, going beyond independent functioning. This extension beyond the current level of functioning operationalizes the concept of potential. The focus of the assessment is on the learner's responsiveness to the interaction-as-intervention, and the level of [Page 338]functioning of the learner following, rather than preceding, this interaction. Dynamic assessment assesses the learner in the process of learning, as well as the learning processes per se.

Dynamic assessment goes far beyond testing-the-limits. In testing-the-limits, assessors typically make minor changes in the administration of tests that typically have standardized scripted instructions. The intent is to explore what the learner can do if, for example, given more time, or if the vocabulary were more accessible. Testing-the-limits does not look at the process of learning or explore how problems were solved or errors made and then overcome, or redefine level of performance in terms of abilities demonstrated following the provision of scaffolded interventions. An exception to this is the work by Carlson (1995), who refer to their dynamic assessment approach as testing-the-limits. The work of these researchers documented the impact of assessor's elaborated feedback and learner's verbalization during the course of problem solving as potent factors in facilitating problem solution. Their approach to dynamic assessment emphasizes these types of interactions during the course of assessment interactions.

The theoretical bases for dynamic assessment derive primarily from the works of Vygotsky (1978) in Russia, and Feuerstein and his colleagues (Feuerstein, Rand & Hoffman, 1979) in Israel. Vygotsky's description of the ‘zone of proximal development’ and his advocacy for determining both the zones of actual and proximal development have served to describe the nature of dynamic assessment as providing information not only about what the learner can accomplish independently, but, also, what the learner can demonstrate with the help of a more experienced collaborator. Feuerstein et al.'s work has provided both detailed elaboration of the nature of the interactions that need to take place in order to facilitate learning, as well as the design of a specific dynamic assessment procedure to operationalize these ideas.

Measurement Devices

Since Feuerstein's work, along with significant parallel developments in Germany (Guthke, 1992), there has been considerable research and development of dynamic assessment procedures. Five approaches to dynamic assessment have served as models for most of the work that has developed during the late twentieth century. These include the work of Feuerstein et al. (1979), Budoff (1987), Campione and Brown (1987), Carlson (1995), and Lidz (1991).

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