Improving Learning Through Dynamic Assessment

Dynamic assessment is increasingly being used by educational psychologists around the world and is largely seen as a valuable approach to assessing children and providing useful classroom suggestions to help teachers working with children who have learning difficulties. However, a common complaint about the approach is the difficulty in moving from theory to practice, and in particular how to feedback the results of a dynamic assessment to teaching staff, parents, and children in order to provide an effective programme of intervention. This article provides some background to a practical resource created by two practising educational psychologists who have developed a framework on how to put dynamic assessment into practice that has the potential to make meaningful gains in children's learning.