Abstract:
The present study aimed at investigating the possible impact of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) on the learners’ performance. Forty-six Iranian university students participated in this study by taking two types of reading comprehension tests (i.e., the main idea and Wh-question type). The researchers used the Winstep program to analyze the data and estimate the learners’ Rasch measure in pre, post, and mediation tests. The study indicated that the ZPD was the main reason for the observed difference between the learners’ performance on pretest (Actual Level of Development or ALD) and posttest (Future Level of Development or FLD). The study also revealed that the learners with lower Rasch measure showed more sensitivity to mediation.
Machine summary:
"The study indicated that the ZPD was the main reason for the observed difference between the learners’ performance on pretest (Actual Level of Development or ALD) and posttest (Future Level of Development or FLD).
Research on Dynamic Assessment: Mixed Claims Comparing the learners’ performance on pretest (ALD) and posttest (FLD) is an important procedure in DA studies.
The Pretest and posttest were the same and measured the subjects’ performance on two different skill-based tests (main idea and referential questions).
The second instrument was DA tests consisting of different texts that were used to measure the learners’ ZPD on two distinct reading skills (main idea and referential questions) in four consecutive weeks.
8 Analysis Two As discussed above, Rasch measure for each person was obtained through Differential Person Functioning analysis (DPF) to reveal whether DA based on skill-based test mediation differentiated between subjects with similar actual level of development (Pretest) on two distinct reading skills.
These ZPDs were estimated through the differences between subjects’ performance on pretest (ALD) and mediated tests in DA phase of the study (note that the subjects took two types of pretest: one that is represented as non-mediated posttest (FLD) and one that is mediated through the DA phase).
Table 4 also reports the subjects’ Rasch measures on the main idea tasks (pretest, posttest, and mediated tests).
As is shown in Table 4, subjects with similar abilities in the pretest, showed different ZPDs and unpredictable future levels of development (posttest)."