The Seria-Think Instrument - Development of a dynamic test for young children

The Seria-Think Instrument is a novel dynamic assessment measure developed for assessment and intervention with young children showing a variety of ar ithmetic difficulties. The Seria-Think Instrument is based on Vygotsky's zo ne of proximal development (ZPD) concept and Feuerstein's mediated learning experience (MLE) theory. The Seria-Think Instrument tasks require the oper ation of seriation, in combination with mastery of maths skills of addition and subtraction. The task is to insert a set of cylinders into a set of ho les varying in depth (in a wooden block) so as to get rows with equal heigh t, increasing height, and decreasing height. The task must be performed wit h as few insertions as possible; the holes can be measured by a measuring r od. Solving problems on the Seria-Think Instrument requires planning, syste matic exploratory behaviour, simultaneous consideration of few sources of i nformation and control of impulsivity. The dependant measures are number of insertions, number of measurements and performance. A sample of grade 2 ch ildren randomly assigned to experimental (n = 24) and control (n = 24) grou ps. Both groups were administered a pre- and post-teaching phases on the Se ria-Think Instrument before and after an intervention. The experimental gro up received mediation of planning, regulation of impulsivity, comparison an d computation whereas the control group received free-play manipulative exp erience with no teaching. Both groups received a content related maths test after the post-teaching phase. A repeated measures MANOVA of treatment by time (2 x 2) was carried out with number of insertions, number of measureme nts and performance scores as dependent variables. The findings showed sign ificant treatment by time interaction (F(3, 44) = 8.41, p < .0001) indicati ng that, the experimental children significantly increased their number of measurements and decreased their number of insertions from pre- to post-tea ching phase. The control children showed about the same pattern of response before and after the treatment. Stepwise regression analyses showed that m aths score were predicted in the experimental group by post-teaching number of insertions (R-2 = .19)-the less insertion the child used in the post-te aching phase, the higher the maths score. In the control group maths scores were predicted by post-teaching number of measurements and post-teaching p erformance (R-2 = 54)-the higher the score on both variables the higher the maths score. In both groups the post-teaching scores were more accurate in predicting the maths scores than the pre-teaching scores. The findings are discussed in view of previous dynamic assessment findings, Vygotsky's ZPD concept, and MLE theory.