Dynamic Assessment and School Psychology Dr Jeanette Berman

1
Dynamic Assessment and School Psychology Dr
Jeanette Berman

• 10th December 2007
• Guidance Officers
• South Australian Department of Education and
  Childrens Services

2
(No Transcript)
3
Why is a conceptual framework or a theoretical
position important?

• A framework helps to organise and give meaning to
  facts, to guide decisions, and to give direction
  for further action
• We all operate according to our own theories or
  beliefs evolved from training and experience
• Losardo Notari-Syverson, 2001

4
How you answer these questions reflects your
conceptual framework

• What do children need in order to develop and
  learn?
• What are the most important things children need
  to learn?
• What is the role of adults, of caregivers, of
  teachers?
• What are the goals of education?
• Losardo Notari-Syverson, 2001

5
Conceptual framework for assessment. What are
you assessing?
Child development Learning Conceptual
understandings Skills Intelligence and cognitive
abilities Cognitive processing abilities Adaptive
behaviour Social skills
Your conceptual or theoretical framework about
the nature of learning and development, and about
the nature of schools, will affect how you do
assessment.
What?
6
We do assessment to support educational decision
making

• Determining achievement levels
• Screening and selection
• Evaluation of systems and programs
• Informing instruction

Why?
7
Conceptual framework for school psychology
assessment
What is the content of the assessment?
What is the purpose of the assessment?
What?
Why?
How?
How can I assess this content and provide
information to respond to the purpose of the
assessment?
8
The key theoretical frameworks around the nature
of learning and assessment

• Behaviourist theories
• Cognitive theories Constructivist Information
  processing

9
Observable behaviours are the only aspects of the
child that can be reliably studied. Thoughts
cannot be measured with any degree if confidence.

• Behaviourist theories
• Cognitive constructivist theories
• Cognitive information processing theories

10

• Behaviourist learning theory hangs on the
  process of transmission of knowledge. A common
  metaphor for this type of learning is filling the
  empty vessel.
• the less a pupil has to think, the more likely
  is it that mistakes will be avoided
• From a 1936 arithmetic text.

11
Learners construct their own understandings.
Constructivist theories have varying emphases on
cognitive, social, cultural aspects of learning.
Piaget, Vygotsky

• Behaviourist theories
• Cognitive constructivist theories
• Cognitive information processing theories

Vygotskys sociocultural theory is crucial as he
provides the theoretical basis for dynamic
assessment.
12
Computing is the metaphor here.

• Behaviourist theories
• Cognitive constructivist theories
• Cognitive information processing theories

Recent intelligence tests are including this
perspective.
Dynamic assessment relies on it since abilities
are seen as processes that can be developed or
modified.
13
So

• Learning involves cognitive processing and is
  carried out by affective or emotional beings
  within the sociocultural context of their
  classroom, school, family and community.
• School curriculum is activity involving
  knowledge, skills, strategies, concepts,
  processes, within cultural and social contexts.
• Assessment must reflect this.

What about the WHY of assessment?
14
Dimensions of Assessment
15
Models of Assessment
16
STATIC TESTS

• Conventional assessment

such well-standardised and psychometrically
sound tests are considered indispensable for
clinical and psychoeducational assessment
Sattler, 1992

• Behaviourist and Psychometric bases
• Standardised procedures
• Pencil and paper tests
• Individual standardised tests
• Standardised checklists

17
Alternative Assessment
18
Alternative Assessment Models
19
Dynamic Assessment

• How did I get to dynamic assessment?
• Static assessment does not give a whole picture,
  only past learning
• Analogy with orchard
• Looking for a contextual picture of learning
  general cognitive, social, and emotional factors
• Cultural bias, inherent in all assessment, can be
  taken into account in dynamic assessment. All
  learning is mediated within a cultural context.

20
Vygotskys sociocultural context of cognitive
development
21
Vygotskys mediation and internalisation
22
Vygotskys zone of proximal development

23

• Having found that the mental age of two
  children was, let us say, eight, we gave each of
  them harder problems than he could manage on his
  own and provided some slight assistance the
  first step in a solution, a leading question, or
  some other form of help. We discovered that one
  child could, in co-operation, solve problems
  designed for twelve-year-olds, while the other
  could not go beyond problems intended for
  nine-year-olds. The discrepancy between a
  childs actual mental age and the level he
  reaches in solving problems with assistance
  indicates the zone of his proximal development
  in our example, this zone is four for the first
  child and one for the second.
• (Vygotsky, 1962, p.103)

24
What does dynamic assessment look like?
Post-test (static test)
Mediation
Pre-test (static test)
25
Post-test (static test)
Administered in a conventional manner, this
provides a measure of actual achievement level
(abilities that can be demonstrated without
assistance).
Mediation
Pre-test (static test)
26
The assessor provides teaching or mediation that
supports the learner in the process of learning.
The mediation has cognitive, emotional and social
(including language use) aspects to it. The
mediator responds to perceived learning needs of
the learner.
Post-test (static test)
Mediation
Pre-test (static test)
27
A measure of potential developmental level
(maturing abilities that are demonstrated with
assistance).
Post-test (static test)
Mediation
Pre-test (static test)
28
What information do we gain through dynamic
assessment?

• Actual achievement
• Potential achievement
• What factors support learning
• What factors hinder learning
• Intensity of effort required to facilitate change
  in the learner
• Nature of the interventions and interactions

29

• Static assessment looks at past learning
• Dynamic assessment investigates previous learning
  along with potential for learning and the context
  for that potential learning.

Dynamic assessment looks at the process of
learning not just the products!
30
Overview of models being used around the world

• Psychopathology
• Developmental disabilities and giftedness
  (cognition and adaptive behaviour)
• Neuropsychology
• Reading
• Mathematics
• Speech and language

31
Morning tea

• Please be back at 1115 to look at models of
  dynamic assessment that are being used in
  Australia and around the world.