The Difference Between Psycho-Educational (Static) Assessment and the Learning Propensity Assessment Device (Dynamic Assessment)
John Hoekstra
There are four main differences that we will examine and contrast between a standard Psych-Ed evaluation and the Dynamic Assessment (DA) that we provide. These are:
- Assessment Tools
- Assessment Situation
- Product verses Process Orientation
- Interpretation of the Outcomes
- Assessment Tools
Static Assessment
The tools of the static assessment are built with the aim of examining a child’s present levels of knowledge, expertise, and skill. It is expected that the child will respond spontaneously according to the criteria of age and developmental norms that have been established. The tools are not intended, and are not capable of, showing the cause or the lack of capability detected in the test. Static tests are constructed in such a way that no learning will take place. The examiner in no way will intervene to assist the child with answers; doing so will invalidate the results.
Dynamic Assessment
Dynamic Assessment tools are constructed in a way to include situations that are openly intended for learning. A DA is based on the existence of a learning process, because this is the process we wish to evaluate. In other words: we evaluate the child’s learning processes while they are in a learning situation. The varied DA tools enable the examiner to analyze the propensity of the child to learn and to think, and then analyzes the changes that have taken place in their thinking ability following the examiners intervention. The DA is not concerned with informational questions that the child may know; it is concerned with examining their thinking processes.
- Assessment Situation
Static Assessment
In a static assessment the role of the examiner is to look for what is "fixed, permanent, and unchanging" in the child. The need is to create a standardization of the test conditions in order to establish its validity and reliability beyond time and the variations in the examinee. In static assessment, no action must be performed that might cause change in a child; the examiner is required to be passive and remote. The examiner must avoid giving any kind of hint to the child, even steering clear of giving feedback about functioning. The format is: test, record.
Dynamic Assessment
In DA there is no requirement for standardization. There are consistent rules and uniform, planned strategies for performing the diagnosis, but because we are comparing the child to themselves alone we do not need (or desire) to make the instructions of the assessment and the interaction between the child and the examiner sterile and standard. The format is: pretest, mediation/teach, retest. In DA the examiner will do everything in their power to create in the child the experience of modifiability. The examiner is in fact an active and involved mediator/teacher. The examiner is interested in the child’s success no less than the child is. Therefore, DA is most always a positive experience for the child.
- Product verses Process Orientation
Static Assessment
Focus is on the outcomes of the tests (product). The examiner wants to know what the child knows and what they do not know, what the child achieved within an allocated time and what the child didn’t succeed in achieving in the allocated time. Even if the child knows the answer but didn’t arrive at it in the time allocated, this information is not significant from the standpoint of the examiner. The child is there in order to answer questions, not in order to ask questions.
Dynamic Assessment
DA does not produce or emphasize numerical scores. Focus is on the process that the child undergoes in the course of the assessment. We ask the questions: What is the process that made the child succeed or fail? What is the process through which the child can be modified? How can we bring about change in him/her? We are looking for signs of change, representing differences between pre-testing and post-testing. We teach a principle and want to know how the child will use it (apply it in their thinking) in a new situation that demands the ability to adapt and change (be modified/demonstrate modifiability). Questions are allowed, and in fact encouraged, as these can be indicators of change in the child’s thinking.
- Interpretation of the Outcomes
Static Assessment
In static assessment the outcomes of the tests are summed up in quantitative terms; the number of correct answers as against the number of incorrect answers. The results are then analyzed statistically, with the examinee then given a placement or number relative to (the norms of) the results of examinees considered to be of a comparable nature (e.g. age of examinee). The norms are statistically derived indices such as averages, percentiles, standard scores, etc. from previous test results of other examinees of comparable nature (age).
Dynamic Assessment
The process that the child undergoes during a DA enables the examiner to gain an understanding of what had previously been poorly utilized or inaccessible to the child, and the extent that it has become incorporated within the repertoire of thinking skills. We examine not only the answers chosen by the child but also the reasons for the answers that were chosen. We examine the thinking process behind the choice of one answer or another. As a result, not only are we able to locate the high points of functioning but also the weaker points of functioning. According to these points we conclude what lies beneath the surface – the thinking abilities that we must strengthen or develop. These are the buds of change, so to speak, and in them we see a confirmation of the child’s ability to continue to be changed (modified). With the buds of change identified, mediation of them can continue, as does the process of modifying the child’s thinking and propensity to learn.
Based on a summary of Beyond Smarter: Mediated Learning and the Brain's Capacity for Change by Louis H. Falik and Reuven Feuerstein
For more information or to arrange an assessment appointment, contact Lora at lora@wisdomhomeschooling.com, or call the WISDOM office.