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    Re-thinking assessment : a dynamic approach to assessment for practitioners working in education : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education, Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Terry, Ann
    Understanding learners, determining how they learn, what hinders their learning, and how to bring about change are critical aspects of practitioners’ assessments when supporting young people who access learning support. Practitioners working for the Ministry of Education continually evaluate current and new assessment approaches to improve their ability to understand and effect change for learners. This research introduced a group of practitioners to a structured dynamic approach to assessment, using the REThink framework through a professional learning and development workshop. Such an approach to assessment is principled, ethically responsible and culturally responsive, and one that enables practitioners to investigate change in a young person’s learning in context. The methodology of this research takes a socio-constructivist approach, grounded in qualitative inquiry. The theoretical and analytical framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) was used for its responsiveness to the multi-dimensional and situatedness of the research activity, for exploring individual practices of assessment and investigating the challenge of changing or adapting assessment practice. The results foreground the essence of change within and across practitioners’ assessment practices and the systems within which they work. It highlights how a dynamic approach to assessment has the potential to build educator capability, manipulate the activity through analysis, develop a young person’s cognitive and metacognitive skills using games, and increase practitioner knowledge of the cognitive and metacognitive skills embedded within the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum. This research points to the importance of developing practitioners’ assessment literacy to enable them to make informed decisions about their assessment practice, to move beyond given and ‘typical’ assessment tools, and afford them the opportunity to grow their competence and confidence to advocate for alternative options. This study concludes that a dynamic approach to assessment is an alternative or complementary approach, and has the potential to be transformative for practitioners, educators, and young people in Aotearoa New Zealand.
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    Dynamic assessment as an early screening tool for identifying New Zealand children at risk of reading difficulty upon school entry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Bisschoff, Susan
    The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a dynamic assessment as a screening tool for identifying children at risk of reading difficulty. Unlike traditional static assessment, dynamic assessment includes a teaching stage within the assessment and aims to determine what the child can do independently as well as what they have the potential to do when given quality input. At the start of their formal schooling, 165 New Zealand children were administered a dynamic assessment of phonological decoding, along with several static measures of emergent literacy skills. At the end of their first year at school, these same children’s reading abilities were assessed using multiple early reading measures. The results were analysed to determine whether measures administered at the beginning of formal schooling significantly predict future reading ability, and whether there is a significant difference in the ability of the static and dynamic measures to predict future reading difficulty and in their respective predictive classification accuracy. Results indicated that the dynamic assessment of decoding was able to predict future reading difficulty with a high level of accuracy and that it provided superior predictive ability and classification accuracy to that of the static measures of emergent literacy. Furthermore, combining the dynamic and static measures did not improve the overall ability of the dynamic measure alone to predict future reading difficulty. The ease and efficiency of administration of the dynamic assessment, as well as its ability to provide information pertinent to supporting remedial intervention, provided evidence of this measure’s acceptability as an effective universal screening tool. Taken together, the findings indicate that a dynamic assessment of decoding can accurately predict future reading difficulty and that it has the potential to meet the other important characteristics of an effective universal screening tool. This provides support for the use of a dynamic assessment of phonological coding as a universal screening tool for the prediction of reading difficulty at the start of children’s formal schooling.
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    Dynamic assessment in New Zealand : knowledge, application and utility amongst resource teachers of learning and behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Hodges, Helen L.
    Many types of educational assessment have relied upon summative assessment that focus on the products of learning. In contrast, Dynamic assessment (DA) is a type of assessment that links assessment and intervention. The key features of DA are interaction and embedded intervention. The outcome of DA is information pertaining to the processes of learning and the generation of information for intervention. There exist a wide variety of uses for DA, however, DA is not applied with as much frequency as other types of assessment. Among the suggested reasons for the lack of application of DA is a low level of knowledge of DA. A survey was developed to gather information on the level of knowledge, application and utility of DA amongst Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour in New Zealand. The results indicated that most participants were not at all (43.5%) or barely (33.9%) familiar with DA. Articulated understanding of DA was found to be lower than the reported level of familiarity. Application was also limited with 15.1% of all participants and 32.9% of participants familiar with DA indicating that they apply DA. It was also found that actual rates of application of DA are likely to be lower than reported rates of application of DA. Most RTLB (92.5%), indicated that DA was, or would be useful to their practice suggesting that DA is seen to have utility amongst this group. These results, combined with levels of contentment with current knowledge and application of DA suggest that there is a need for training on DA in New Zealand. The results of the current research were congruent with prior research finding limited levels of knowledge and application of DA. Further, the suggestion of limited DA application being partially due to limited knowledge on DA was supported. It is hoped that training in DA would see the application of DA become more frequent in New Zealand in the future.