Slide Background
Dynamic Testing & Learning potential
Focus on cognitive potential

Prof.dr.Wilma C.M. Resing
Unit Developmental and Educational Psychology
Institute of Psychology. Leiden University

What does Dynamic Testing entail?

In the current educational system a child will usually, having been taught in a certain domain, be tested once. This is a method used to gain insight into the learning gains of education a child has received during the preceding time period. A child’s performance is also compared with the performance of all children of the same age. This is also the standard procedure for individual diagnostics. An intelligence test or a school test measures the skills and knowledge a child has mastered or acquired at the time of testing.

A different perspective is taken when measuring the “learning potential” by means of a dynamic test. As opposed to merely focusing on what a child can achieve without any help (static),this method focuses on a child’s need for instruction during a short intervention between two test sessions and on what a child can achieve independently after a training intervention. Measures for the learning potential (dynamic, hence the term dynamic testing) are an accurate predictor of performances a child can achieve under ideal circumstances. When measuring the learning potential, a child is not only compared with other children, but, above all, with him or herself. This method also provides insight into the specific help from which a child does or does not benefit. 

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