Unit 11: Dynamic Assessment (Diag)
Raven Progressive Matrices 1. Standard Version
1) Practice item. 2) instructions for taking the test. 3) no feedback.
Essential components of MLE
1. Mediation of intentionality & reciprocity 2. Mediation of meaning 3. Mediation of competence 4. Mediation of transcendence & transfer.
Graduated Prompting
1. Tell me what the word secretive means. 2. How did you know that? 3. Does the word secretive have any smaller parts? (If yes) What are the parts? 4. The smaller parts in this word are ___ & ___. Now can you tell me what the word means? 5. Listen to this sentence and then tell me what secretive means. 6. Which of these sentences gives the meaning of the word?
Cognitive modifiability
A child who can explain what he has learned will have a better understanding of it and will be more apt to transfer it to other situations. Verbal explanations improve metacognition. Language is the key, the DNA of fluid intelligence. Labels, definitions, explanations
Cognitive Modifiability
A major component of DA and MLE. The focus is on how the learner solves the task, the strategies that are used, and the metacognitive awareness evidenced in solving the task. Focus is not on the product. Modifiability involves both the amount of change (learning potential) and the learner's increased use of "relevant metacognitive processes in problem solution." (Lidz, p. 5). Some learners are more easily modifiable while others are more resistant to change.
Single-Word Labeling Study
A study of modifiability in children from CLD backgrounds (Pena, 2000). The MLE was a modifiability task to teach the use of single-word labels to differentiate between typically developing (TD) children and those with low language ability (LLA).
Single-Word Labeling
A total of 105 CLD (Spanish-English) Head Start children participated in the study, 18 of which were judged to be LLA. This article focused on the modifiability task and the assessment tools used in the above studies. Assessment tools included a Modifiability Scale (MS) and a Learning Strategies Scale (LSS). The MLE sessions were conducted twice for 20 to 30 minutes in groups of two students in the child's preferred language. The focus was on the use and importance of "special names."
Raven Progressive Matrices 5. Elaborated feedback:
After solution, examiner points out why the choice did or did not fit the pattern. Correct answer is not given to child.
Far transfer
Child applies knowledge to other similar tasks, such as adding "er" to nouns.
Raven Progressive Matrices 2. Verbalizations during and after solution:
Child describes the pattern & asked why they chose the particular distractor.
Mediation of transcendence & transfer
Child generalizes to other situations. Examples: "Do you remember when changed the part of speech of words? Those parts of words are derivations. You had to start with a verb and make it a noun. You repeat what you did without my help this time." Near transfer Far transfer
Raven Progressive Matrices 4. Simple feedback:
Child is asked to choose a distractor and is informed as to its correctness. Examiner says: "That's correct." or "That's incorrect."
Raven Progressive Matrices 3. Verbalization after solution:
Child is asked to choose the correct distractor and explain why they chose it.
Near transfer
Child learns steps in the task and can repeat the task with little to no assistance
Raven Progressive Matrices 6. Elaborated feedback plus verbalization during and after problem solution:
Conditions 2 & 5 are combined
Graduated Prompting Method
Consists of a hierarchy of prompts that proceed from general (least informative) to specific (most informative) to determine the child's level of modifiability. The number of prompts in terms of their degree of informativeness needed to elicit the desired response indicates how changeable/modifiable the child is....the child's ability to learn new material.
Testing-the-Limits method
Designed to find "the highest level at which a child could respond, given probing" (Carlson & Wiedl, 1978). The probes consist of the types of feedback (simple or elaborated) given by the examiner and the types of verbalizations required from the child. The goal is to determine which type of feedback/probe will lead to higher scores on posttest measures.
History of DA
Dynamic assessment is based on Vygotsky's notions of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), which is the distance between an individual's independent level of performance and the level of performance when assisted by a more knowledgeable partner.
Test Bias-ELL children
ELL children may be unfamiliar with the procedures of the test
Raven's Matrices
Elaborated feedback given by examiner (#5) coupled with children's verbal description of the task prior to solution & explanation after solution (#6) develop analytic strategies for abstract reasoning, regardless of IQ or LD. Reasoning tasks require higher order thought processes and deduction of the solution. May help in predicting school achievement
Pretest-Mediate-Posttest Model (Feuerstein, Rand, & Hoffman, 1979)
Feuerstein introduced DA with his Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD). Pretest: A problem-solving activity, a standardized test, grammar, narrative, etc. Mediated Learning Experience (MLE): A problem-solving activity to teach the difficulty found in the pretest. Modifiability. Posttest with similar activity.
Results of Pena's study
Indicated that components of modifiability significantly differentiated between children with low language ability and children with typically developing language. Results indicated that modifiability could be "applied to differentiate language difference from language disorder and is useful in limiting bias in assessment."
MLE Definition
MLE involves a learner, a facilitator, and a task to be solved. A child may be able to perform at a higher level, when an adult provides support or scaffolding in the form of questions and other cues. Results indicate the potential for growth in an aspect of development or of the curriculum.
Mediation of meaning
Mediator explains to the student "why" the task is important. "We need to know how words change from one part of speech to another so we can understand what we read when we come across a new word."
Mediation of competence
Mediator offers praise and encouragement so that the child learns what he has done well. Mediator explains why the child is right or wrong.
The Learning Strategies Scale
Quantitative scale with scores ranging from 0 to 2 that focuses on the following components: attention, comparative behavior, planning, self regulation, transfer, and motivation. Scores of 0, 1, & 2 are described as None, Some, and Most, respectively.
Testing-the-Limits Procedure
Raven Progressive Matrices: A nonverbal task. Subject is asked to find the missing element (distractor) that completes a pattern. 1. Standard version: 1) Practice item. 2) instructions for taking the test. 3) no feedback. 2. Verbalizations during and after solution: Child describes the pattern & asked why they chose the particular distractor. 3. Verbalization after solution: Child is asked to choose the correct distractor and explain why they chose it. 4. Simple feedback: Child is asked to choose a distractor and is informed as to its correctness. Examiner says: "That's correct." or "That's incorrect." 5. Elaborated feedback: After solution, examiner points out why the choice did or did not fit the pattern. Correct answer is not given to child. 6. Elaborated feedback plus verbalization during and after problem solution. Conditions 2 & 5 are combined
Normative-Standardized Assessment Issues
Tests are decontextualized, non-interactive, static assessments. Test scores fail to explain underlying learning strategies and how they translate into abilities or disabilities and allow cookbook approaches to be applied to all students with the same score, potentially benefiting no one (Muma, 1978).
Normative-Standardized Test Bias
The great majority of the norming group speak only one language, English. AI/AN children may not be included in the norming sample. The administrator's grammar may be different from the AI/AN child. Tests are not designed to distinguish language differences from disorders
Language
The key, the DNA of fluid intelligence.
Mediation of intentionality & reciprocity
The mediator (examiner or facilitator) informs the child of the goal and purpose of the interaction. Goal is to change verbs to nouns with derivational suffix of "ment", i.e. attach to attachment. "We're going to change the part of speech of words by adding to the ends of them. Then we're going to use those words in a sentence."
What is an indication of how changeable a child is
The number of prompts or cues a child requires to accomplish a mediated task
Purpose of MLE
The purpose is to create an independent learner not a passive participant. The amount of information required to modify the child's thinking (change their way of learning new material) should decrease as the MLE interaction is taking place. You want to find out how modifiable the child is. Does he learn easily? Is he changeable?
What improves metacognition?
Verbal explanations
Modifiability Scale
a Likert scale that summarizes examiner judgment of examiner effort, the child's responsiveness and generalization from low to high. Qualitative scale.
Dynamic Assessment (DA) consists of:
a pretest-mediate-posttest format whose major emphasis is to determine children's learning potential by examining their level of modifiability through a method called, "mediated learning experiences (MLE)" (Lidz, 1991).
Dynamic Assessment (DA)
an unbiased assessment method that emerged for use with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children (Grigorenko, 2009) and students who are low-achieving (Feuerstein, 1979).
A child who requires fewer prompts is a _________ learner, while a child who requires more prompts is a ______________ learner.
faster; slower or incompetent
Pena & Gillam (2000) recommend that we...
focus on the modifiability of a child by examining changes between baseline testing and re-testing and by carefully observing learning behaviors exhibited during mediation sessions
Vygotsky's 1934 text (translated by Hanfmann and Vakar in 1962)
presented a concept formation assessment task (later described by Hanfmann and Kasanin in 1937) to investigate thinking in adolescents and adults by examining classification problem solving with nonsense words used as cues given by the examiner to solve the task (Long, 1980).
To examine his theory, Vygotsky and Sakharov developed what?
the concept formation test, commonly referred to as the Vygotsky Block Test, that combined assessment and intervention to investigate thinking in older children and adults. It examined an individuals approach to solving classification problems with symbols.
