Using dynamic assessment to help students learn to assemble and use knowledge

Abstract

Advances in learning and brain research today have shifted the perception of knowledge from something that is transmitted to something that is constructed in the mind. Constructivism suggests that students achieve superior outcomes when they actively participate and generate their own information through a search for meaning and conceptual understanding. This workshop focuses on how dynamic assessment and mediated constructivism can help students to develop their cognitive and knowledge structures. Dynamic assessment involves deliberate attempts by a trained educator to develop the processes that are involved in knowledge construction. It stresses the need for the teacher to mediate the development of these knowledge construction functions in conjunction with the learner’s acquisition of content knowledge and behaviorial skill- all within an active, coherent and meaningful learning environment. Two specific research settings will be explored, the hearing impaired student and the primary school learner in math problem solving. The challenges and issues in applying dynamic assessment in these areas will be discussed.