5 - Cognitive Education and Concept Formation

Summary

The concept of learning potential assessment is based on the belief that there is a significant difference between people’s existing ability to solve problems and their ability to learn how to solve problems. To evaluate a person’s learning potential, some form of learning should be included in the assessment procedure. This can be achieved using a test–learn–test format or by including a sequence of helping prompts or cues after each incorrectly solved item. Learning potential assessment procedures can use test materials similar to those of standard cognitive tests, such as sequences of numbers or figures, matrices, and verbal or pictorial analogies. Learning potential assessment can also be carried out with tasks reflecting practically any type of curricular material: language, mathematics, history, science, and so on. Once the idea of learning potential assessment entered the field of the school curriculum, an interesting dialogue started between it and the following, somewhat related assessment approaches in contemporary education: formative assessment, adaptive assessment, and response to intervention.