Dynamic assessment of young children: Educational and intervention perspectives.

Dynamic/interactive assessment (DA) has been motivated by the inadequacy
of conventional static tests to provide accurate information about the individual's
learning ability, specific deficient functions, change processes, and mediational
strategies that are responsible for cognitive modifiability. A growing
need for DA with young children has emerged recently because decisions
about treatment should be made as early as possible. The objectives of this
paper are to review the major criticism of the standardized static testing
approach, present the theoretical basis of the DA approach, describe current
research on DA of young children within educational and intervention perspectives,
and suggest some directions for future research. The theoretical
foundations of the presented research derive from Vygotsky's sociocultural
theory, specifically the zone of proximal development concept, and
Feuerstein's mediated learning experience theory. DA has been applied with
different clinical and educational groups and was found to be more accurate
in reflecting children's learning potential than static tests, especially with
minority and learning disabled children. The mediational strategy is also
reported as more effective than other intervention approaches (e.g., graduated
prompt). The DA approach was found useful in assessing outcome effects
of cognitive education programs aimed at enhancing ‘‘learning how to learn''
skills. Crucial issues of cost-effectiveness, training, reliability and validity,
and generalization are discussed.