Use of Dynamic Assessment in Evaluation of Cognitive Education Programs

Abstract

An efficient way to evaluate the effects of cognitive education programs aimed at development of learning and thinking skills is by DA. The argument is that if the declared objective of the intervention is teaching children “how” to learn and how to benefit from mediation, then the criterion outcome measures should be assessed in a dynamic way. This means that there must be some opportunity for new learning to take place as part of the assessment. The focus of evaluation should be on change criteria and cognitive modifiability indicators rather than on static measures. It is surprising that many intervention programs aimed at modifying learning skills do not use DA as a primary outcome measure (Tzuriel, 1989a). In the following I describe three cognitive intervention programs: the Bright Start Program, Structured Program for Visual-Motor Integration (SP-VMI), and Peer-Mediation for Young Children (PMYC). All programs were designed for young children. In each program one of the goals was to develop children’s learning potential and therefore a DA approach was applied in evaluating its effectiveness.