Dynamic Assessment: A Call for Change in Assessment
Title
Dynamic Assessment: A Call for Change in Assessment
Dynamic Assessment: A Call for Change in Assessment
Keywords: Static assessment, Dynamic Assessment, IAU lecturers
Authors
Andisheh Saniei
English Language Department Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University Tehran, Iran
Andisheh Saniei
English Language Department Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University Tehran, Iran
Bio Data
Andisheh Saniei is a PhD student of TEFL at faculty of literature and foreign languages (English Department) of Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran. She is currently an academic member of IAU, Roudehen Branch and has 10 years experience teaching English as a foreign language. Her research interests are ELT, testing, and material development.
Abstract
While the results of static testing -assessing current performance levels- indicate the already existent abilities of the students, dynamic assessment is believed to evaluate the ability of the students to learn from the interaction with a teacher. This learning ability, as Poehner and Lantolf (2003) suggest, may serve as a better predictor of the students’ educational needs than the static scores if it can be evaluated properly. This paper aims at conducting a survey on the Iranian lecturers’ attitudes towards the concept of dynamic assessment. Forty subjects, all of whom IAU lecturers, participated in this study. They were selected, using convenient random sampling. Next, a researcher-made questionnaire validated on the basis of the ideas underlying dynamic assessment was administered to them. Its reliability had also been computed through KR-21 formula. The responses to the questionnaire underwent data analysis, and the results revealed that the majority of Iranian lecturers appreciated the underlying ideas of dynamic assessment and found DA appealing. However, they mostly believed that its application to the existing educational system seemed so demanding that might turn this mode of assessment into less feasible one, compared with static assessment.
While the results of static testing -assessing current performance levels- indicate the already existent abilities of the students, dynamic assessment is believed to evaluate the ability of the students to learn from the interaction with a teacher. This learning ability, as Poehner and Lantolf (2003) suggest, may serve as a better predictor of the students’ educational needs than the static scores if it can be evaluated properly. This paper aims at conducting a survey on the Iranian lecturers’ attitudes towards the concept of dynamic assessment. Forty subjects, all of whom IAU lecturers, participated in this study. They were selected, using convenient random sampling. Next, a researcher-made questionnaire validated on the basis of the ideas underlying dynamic assessment was administered to them. Its reliability had also been computed through KR-21 formula. The responses to the questionnaire underwent data analysis, and the results revealed that the majority of Iranian lecturers appreciated the underlying ideas of dynamic assessment and found DA appealing. However, they mostly believed that its application to the existing educational system seemed so demanding that might turn this mode of assessment into less feasible one, compared with static assessment.
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Category: Monthly Editions, Volume 59
