A new method in educational assessment: Dynamic assessment and its applicaion in future

Objective: To analyze a new method in educational assessment that is dynamic assessment,and discuss the prospect of the application of dynamic assessment in general education and special education. Data sources: Chinese and English papers published between January 1993 and December 2004 were searched. English papers titled with dynamic assessment were searched from Eric, PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO through EBSCO HOST research database; Besides, relevant data were also obtained from an English journal named psychological bulletin. Papers in Chinese were scanned in culture,science, education and physical education of Chinese journal net by using the keywords of "dynamic assessment". Study selection: Inclusive criteria:Papers about general education and special education were selected firstly. After the full-texts were scanned,papers with close relation to this paper were chosen. Exclusive criteria: repetitive studies and data had nothing to do with educational assessment. Data extraction: Totally 43 records were retrieved,and only 10 about the dynamic assessment of educational assessment were cited. The excluded 33 papers were repetitive studies and data had nothing to do with educational assessment. Data synthesis: 1 Dynamic assessment was based on the criticism of traditional assessment methods. It was put forward from social culture theory advocated by Vygosky in 1 930 s. In the recent two decades there are extensive researches that were designed to measure learning potential of children. 2 As compared with static assessment, dynamic assessment had some advantages on the relationship between testers and testees, the contents of assessment, the administration of assessment and the method of scoring and interpretation. Dynamic assessment was focused on the plasticity of cognitive ability, which can evaluate the change of students. In the process of assessment, assessors could build up good relationship with assessee and the former could provide feedbacks to the latter. In the end the quantity and quality of feedbacks were considered in the development of the scoring guidelines. 3 In general education, dynamic assessment as a secondary method could be used to evaluate the development of students with special needs. In special education, dynamic assessment could measure the learning potential of special children in more sensitive and effective way. Conclusion: In general education,dynamic assessment can measure learning potential of slow learners, underachievers and special children in inclusive education. In special education,dynamic assessment can sensitively measure academic level of special children. In mainland of China, researches on dynamic assessment are in theory exploration stage, but the method would be further developed in general education and special education.