Dynamic assessment in educational settings: realising potential

This paper outlines current developments in dynamic assessment, an approach that has great intuitive appeal for many professional psychologists and teachers, yet which has, to date, failed to take root in mainstream practice. In highlighting the nature and potential of dynamic approaches, the paper will take issue with those who conceive of these as little more than superior versions of traditional IQ tests. In this respect, it is argued that rather than endeavouring to develop improved tools to undertake the educational psychologist's traditional functions (classification, prediction, selection), we should seek a paradigm shift in which dynamic approaches are utilised to assist psychologists and teachers to collaborate in devising classroom-based educational interventions. The paper concludes by calling for controlled studies that examine the utility of prescriptions based upon dynamic approaches.