Learning Objectives
In this chapter you will learn to:
• generate, analyse and link a Guttman Analysis to the zone of proximal development (ZPD)
• use both objective and judgement-based assessment data to identify ZPDs
• explore for anomalies in the data
• use Guttman table data to target teaching
• examine the implications of assessment data analysis for classroom organisation to enhance targeted teaching.
This chapter introduces the Guttman Analysis, an effective tool for grouping students based on demonstrated skills. The chapter provides a step-by-step process through which teachers can organise data from either objective or judgement based assessment tasks into a readily interpretable and visual form. The chapter shows teachers how to interpret data to evaluate the reliability of an assessment task, both at a general and item level. The implications for this sort of analysis are considered, including the scenario where an assessment task does not capture skills within a student's ZPD. Finally, teachers are introduced to the process of using data to target teaching through the formation of instructional groups based on students’ ZPDs.
Introduction
The developmental model of learning was introduced in Chapter 3. A core feature of this model is the process of interpreting students’ zones of proximal development (ZPDs) in relation to a progression of increasing complexity. Teachers can locate students’ ZPDs using externally generated data, such as standardised test assessments, or they can use their own classroom data to generate a Guttman Analysis. Either way, teachers are equipped with information that can be used to target teaching and maximise student learning.
Analysing externally generated student data
In Chapter 3 we illustrated an externally generated student report based on the ARCOTS test data. The learning readiness report is generated by the ARCOTS system in real time and locates a student at a level on a developmental progression represented by the black bar that it links to a very brief (nutshell) description of the skills a student is ‘ready to learn’ (see Figure 9.1). It is not an achievement level but rather an estimation of the ZPD. The student's achievement level is below this point – it represents what they have already learned. As explained in Chapter 3, the ZPD is where teaching needs to be targeted to maximise student progress.