Dynamic assessment: the Spanish version of the Application of Cognitive Functions Scale

For the last 30 years, the sphere of educational assessment has been giving consideration to methodology that would focus on the processes more than on the final results obtained. Dynamic Assessment has appeared within this context, making it possible to assess a child's ability to improve on a certain task after receiving mediated training. One of the techniques developed to assess the learning potential of preschoolers is the Application of Cognitive Functions Scale (ACFS: Lidz & Jepsen, 2003). The objective of this study was to verify the criterion validity of the Spanish version of the ACFS which was applied to 87 children in the second year of preschool, at which time a learning potential index was obtained for each child. Two years later, the children were reassessed with respect to intelligence, metacognition and scholastic aptitudes. Results showed that learning potential presented evidences of predictive validity regarding to the progression showed on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test's (K-BIT: Kaufman & Kauffman, 1994) matrices subtest (p = .04, η2 = .04) and on the evaluation subtest of the metacognition questionnaire (p = .02, η2 = .05). Results also showed significant differences between groups on the visual-perceptive aptitude subtest (p = .01) in favor of the children classified as learners.