Assessment procedures are frequent
in children's school careers; however, measuring potential for learning
has remained a puzzle. Dynamic testing is a method to assess cognitive
potential that includes training in the assessment process. The goal of
this thesis project was to develop a new dynamic test of analogical
reasoning for school children. The main aims were to (1) investigate
factors that influence children’s differences in performance and change
during dynamic testing and (2) examine the predictive value of dynamic
measures on children’s school performance. Children showed great
variation in cognitive potential. Higher ability children generally
required less training and showed greater transfer to other problem
sets. Yet, lower ability children tended to improve more during dynamic
testing. Performance change during testing appears to be a unique
predictor of math and reading achievement, but was unrelated to working
memory or cultural background, providing evidence that this may be a
separate construct important in the assessment of cognitive potential –
especially in culturally diverse schools. This performance change
measure, often criticized within classical test theory, has demonstrated
its worth when estimated using item response theory models and will
hopefully find its place again among the valuable measurement outcomes
of children’s potential for learning.LEI Universiteit LeidenDevelopmental pathways of social-emotional and cognitive functioning - ou