Dynamic Assessment | Definition & Examples
What are the advantages of dynamic assessment?
Dynamic assessment has many advantages, such as testing for potential or possible learning disabilities and observing a student who is not improving after instruction, which allows for intervention. Dynamic assessment also is beneficial in how teachers may be able to predict a student's response to intervention and if that aids the student in their ability to retain and/or learn new information.
Dynamic assessment also allows for teachers to assess students over time, which can help them locate what lessons best meet the needs of students, what lessons are not beneficial to students, and how to test students in a way that is not overly simple or overly challenging.
What is an example of a dynamic assessment?
An example of dynamic assessment is pretesting students in math to see how they do with certain equations. Teachers can locate where students are struggling to customize a lesson that best meets the needs of their students, such as teaching the equation to the whole class and solving it by having students observe. Then, the teacher can utilize teaching time even further by having the students solve similar problems in small groups prior to being retested after instruction.
What is a dynamic assessment in education?
Dynamic assessment in education includes locating a student's zone of proximal development through the pretest-teach-retest model. This allows for teachers to focus on what student's don't know over what they do know to boost their learning potential.
How is a dynamic assessment done?
Dynamic assessment is done through the model of pretest-teach-retest. Teachers will pretest students informally in a specific area of study. Teachers will then locate what students are struggling with and cater to their students through lessons to best meet their needs. Teachers will then test students after instruction to see if they have mastered the information.
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Dynamic assessment refers to an active teaching process that entails a pretest, teach, retest model that locates a student's ability to learn new skills. It is a process that blends teaching and assessing into one activity, as it works to observe a student's cognitive functioning and changes in learning. Through a process of pretest, teach, retest, assessors can discover what a student already knows, teach them what they need to know, and then test them to ensure the student has retained and understood the information being presented to them.
Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist who believed that when a student is in their zone of proximal development, they are more likely to be able to achieve a specific task. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) refers to the difference between information that a student can comprehend without teacher assistance or guidance and what they can achieve with teacher assistance or guidance.
Dynamic assessment was a part of Vygotsky's theory of education and focuses on three components that work to boost a student's learning process. These components are:
- Having the presence of a teacher or guidance from a skilled individual who can aid a student in learning information that is beyond their level of understanding.
- Having a teacher or skilled individual model their skills so the student can observe and practice their own skills through interaction with the teacher and/or skilled individual.
- Having activities in place that can support a student through their ZPD.
Vygotsky believed that social interaction with a skilled individual and/or teacher creates a collaborative atmosphere between the student and someone with more knowledge, which boosts a student's ability to learn new things.
Dynamic assessment aims to locate what a student already knows and aids them in mastering information if they are struggling with learning a new concept or skill. It is a process that repeats through pretest, teach, and test. It begins with pretesting a student in a specific area to see what they already know. If the student does not know the material they are being tested on, the teacher will guide them by teaching them the material. Once the material is taught, a test will be given to the student to see how much the student has learned and if they have mastered the material they are being asked to retain.
A pretest is meant to be an informal assessment of a student's knowledge in a low-stakes manner. When the teacher actually teaches the material that the student does not know, it is similarly a low-stakes and informal way of encouraging a student to learn new information. Through activities and with the guidance of a teacher or knowledgeable individual, the student will be in their ZPD and thus learn the information to the best of their ability.
Through the process of pretest-teach-retest, the process streamlines from what the student already knows to what they need to keep them within their ZPD. Dynamic assessment allows for teachers to create lessons that best fit their students so they can prioritize what they don't know over what they already know. This also allows for teachers to see if students may have learning disabilities through further testing, specifically if they continue to struggle with information after instruction and practice.
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Dynamic assessment can be utilized in any and all classrooms and at any grade level. For example, in a seventh-grade math class, teachers may pretest their students on solving specific equations that they have been introduced to in the year prior. After the teacher looks over the pretests, they may see a trend throughout the class that helps them locate where they are specifically struggling. The teacher will then teach the concept through activities (such as writing an equation on the board, solving it, then writing a similar equation and having students work in pairs to solve it together while the teacher observes). After instruction and practice, the teacher can then test the students more formally to see if they have mastered the information presented to them.
Another example of dynamic assessment can be a spelling pretest to see how students do with spelling unfamiliar words. The teacher then locates where students might be struggling and instructs them, giving definitions behind the words and having spelling practices through small-group interaction. The teacher will then test their spelling again and see if the students have improved in their spelling after instruction.
If a small number of students are struggling with specific concepts or material, teaching time can be tailored to students in a way that is not whole-class instruction. Students can be split up into small groups based on pretest scores or put in pairs to work together while the teacher observes each group or pair. This allows for a more low-stakes environment that can aid students in the learning process by not feeling like they are the only ones who are struggling with the material.
There are various benefits to dynamic assessment, especially in its ability to identify learning disabilities. Observing when a student is not improving after instruction allows for intervention, especially if lessons are rearranged or taught differently to best meet a student's needs. Teachers may also be able to predict a student's response to intervention and if that aids the student in their ability to retain and/or learn new information.
Dynamic assessment also allows for teachers to assess students over time, which can help them locate what lessons best meet the needs of students, what lessons are not beneficial to students, and how to test students in a way that is not overly simple or overly challenging. Despite these benefits, however, there are some disadvantages to dynamic assessment. Dynamic assessment can be difficult in evaluating its reliability, seeing as each student has a way of retaining and/or learning new information.
Pretest-teach-retest may not prove to be a reliable way of evaluating a student's learning potential. For example, if their pretest scores are high but their retest scores are low, there may be a gap between these tests that teachers struggle to find a reason for. Another downside to dynamic assessment is the lack of a sociocultural approach it may have when assessing students. For example, if students are being tested in reading and writing English but speak English as a second language, they may be tested in a way that is not entirely fair, especially if all students are being tested similarly.
Lev Vygotsky was a psychologist who coined the process of dynamic assessment, which refers to an active teaching model of pretest, teach, retest that locates a student's ability to learn new skills. Dynamic assessment blends teaching and assessing into one activity by observing students in their zone of proximal development, which refers to information a student can understand with the assistance or guidance of a teacher or skilled individual. Vygotsky believed that students learned best in their ZPD, which includes activities and the guidance of a teacher or knowledgable individual, that helps students learn information to the best of their ability.
Dynamic assessment is a way to streamline lessons that are customized to best meet the needs of students by focusing on what they don't know over the information they already know. It also is used to test for potential or possible learning disabilities through the pretest-teach-test model. If a student scores the same on their pretest and test after instruction, they may need to be further tested to see if they have a learning disability. Dynamic assessment also allows for students to be pretested and taught in an informal, low-stakes manner, which may aid their learning process even further, especially if their pretest is ungraded.
Video Transcript
Vygotky's Theory of Education
As a student, would you enjoy sitting in a boring class with a teacher droning on about material you already know and understand? Or, perhaps you would enjoy a class on a topic so far above your abilities that you leave feeling frustrated and defeated? Neither of these situations is a pleasant one for any student. Teachers make every effort to avoid both scenarios by continuously using dynamic assessment, the process of assessing students to determine exactly what the learning needs of each student are.
Dynamic assessment is a part of Lev Vygotsky's theory of education. According to Vygotsky, students learn when they are in their zone of proximal development, what we'll also refer to as ZPD. This theory states that there are three zones. One zone contains information the student has already mastered and is capable of doing on his own. A second zone is for information the student can understand with assistance or prompting from the teacher. The third and final zone contains information outside of the student's current level of understanding, even with assistance.
Vygotsky called the second zone, where students can understand information with assistance, the student's ZPD. It is within this zone that learning takes place, and the goal is to push the zone forward, moving information from what the student can understand with assistance into the zone of mastery. Dynamic assessment aids the instructor in understanding where a student's ZPD is.
Although the term dynamic assessment implies a type of evaluation, it isn't really. The purpose of assessment is to discover what a student already knows. Dynamic assessment blends teaching and assessing into a singular activity. It helps the teacher support the learner at the level they most need it, giving them appropriate challenges so that the lesson is not too difficult and frustrating nor too easy and boring.
Process of Dynamic Assessment
Dynamic assessment generally uses a repetitive process of pretest-teach-retest. A pretest is given to discover what information the student already knows. A teaching time on the unknown material follows the pretest, and then another similar test is given. The pretest does not necessarily have to be a formal test, and the teaching time does not have to be a long lesson. Both could be quick and informal, allowing the teacher to assess dynamically several times per lesson.
For example, while a student is reading aloud, he misreads two words with the 'st' sound in them. This serves as a pretest. The teacher then gives a short explanation of the blend by writing down and reading a few words that have the 'st' sound. The student then continues reading the story with the teacher noting if they miss any more of 'st' words, which represents the retest.
Ideally, as in the example, the teaching time would be tailored specifically to the information the student did not fully understand. However, this is often difficult to do in a classroom setting. A general lesson on the information covered in the pretest can also serve as the teaching portion, or students could be divided into groups based on their pretest scores for the teaching time. Another way to use the pretest is to return it to the students without any grade marks on it and tell the students to grade the test themselves during the teaching time. This gives the students the opportunity to recognize their own learning as it occurs.
Examples of How to Use a Dynamic Assessment
Dynamic assessment can be used in two major ways: as a teaching tool to ensure maximum learning for each student, or as a form of testing for disabilities.
Teaching Tool
Dynamic assessment can be used as a means of ensuring that the lesson is within a student's ZPD. It helps the teacher ensure that the test is neither too easy, which is boring for the student, nor too difficult, which is frustrating for the student. If a student's retest score is not higher than the pretest score, the teacher is sure that they need to re-teach the material. This also allows teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching methods. Perhaps the material was not presented in the learning style that best fits the student or maybe more guided practice was needed before the test. Either way, dynamic assessment helps the teacher design lessons that directly meet the learning needs of students.
Testing for Learning Potential
Dynamic assessment can also be used as part of the process in diagnosing learning disabilities. Unlike normal standardized assessments, which only test what the student already knows, dynamic assessment tests for what the student is potentially capable of learning. For example, two students may both have low pretest scores, but one student's score may increase after the teaching time, while the other's stays the same. This demonstrates the students' differences in learning potential. When a student's pretest and retest scores are similar, it could mean that he or she has a disability because little to no learning is occurring.
Lesson Summary
Let's review. Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the area in which students can understand a concept with the teacher's help. Student learning is maximized when teaching is kept within this zone. The zone can be discovered and maximized through the use of dynamic assessment, which uses a continuous pretest-teach-retest cycle. Dynamic assessment can be used to maximize learning to keep information from being too boring or frustrating for the student and could also be used as a step in diagnosing a learning disability.
Lesson at a Glance
Using a continuous pretest-teach-retest cycle--known as dynamic assessment--teachers can gauge a student's zone of proximal development. Geared toward understanding a concept with the teacher's help, the teacher leads the students towards a level of mastery for the concept being taught.
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Learning Outcomes
Upon completing this lesson, you should be able to:
- Define dynamic assessment
- Describe Lev Vygotsky's theory of education regarding the zone of proximal development
- Explain how the dynamic assessment can also test for learning disabilities
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