Online Course Design webinar 2017 Dynamic assessment applications

Online Course Design webinar: 2017 Dynamic assessment: applications and challenges

Introductory ideas Located from the work of Vygotsky Grew as a response to constructivist theories of learning and knowledge (and assessment) Constructivism essentially about trying to understand how learners make sense/meaning in their learning Vygotsky introduced socio-cultural dimensions to these

Introduction (continued) Interesting that Dynamic Assessment developed in a context of work with retarded/intellectually disabled learners The key affordance: Can we establish what learners know and can do from a process (of assessment) that is different from conventional processes (of assessment)?

Introduction (continued) Socio-cultural dimensions: educational background; class; home background; societal structures; history Key concept: The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) - the gap between what people know and can do on their own and what they might be able to know and do in the presence of knowledgeable/skilled other(s)

Dynamic assessment: processes and mechanisms Socially-situated: people learn in and from a context – which includes the teacher Learning is co-constructed Mediation is a key process and mechanism Three key components of mediation (Feuerstein): (1) intentionality; (2) transcendence and (3) mediation of meaning

Dynamic assessment: processes and mechanisms Learning is a dialectic The sandwich and cake methods of mediation Sandwich: mediation is ‘sandwiched’ between two moments of assessment Cake: mediation is layered onto learning in a developmental, carefully-sequenced, incremental process

Dynamic assessment: processes and mechanisms Interventionist and interactionist DA Interventionist: a carefully constructed, standardised set of interventions designed to enable development/learning Interactionist: a set of interventions that changes in accordance with the responses from the learners (being assessed)

Dynamic assessment: processes and mechanisms Assessment as a form of activism: constructing assessment to allow the possible rather than confirming the actual Fairness is seen as providing everyone with equal opportunity to access mediation Feedback is critical

Dynamic assessment in practice Taking the principles to scale Is this possible? What would it take to employ DA principles in assessment practices? Knowing the ZPD of individuals/sub-groups Interventionist DA may be more possible in large groups than interactionist DA

Validity issues How do you know what you are testing in DA? Perhaps separate the dynamic process of assessment from the ‘snap-shot’ view of achievement Formative vs summative purposes Intervention in the assessment compromises validity: does it? Soundness of argument validity