Abstract
M.A.
The educational and psychometric contexts in South Africa are currently
characterised by concerns pertaining to the potentially spurious influence of the
challenges of cultural heterogeneity and of the redress of past and present
disadvantagement. The present investigation forms a research response to these
challenges as they relate to the practical utility of a dynamic assessment measure for
the purpose of selecting students for curricula at a South African university. In
response to a growing dissatisfaction with longstanding selection procedures and
instruments, the utility of a dynamically derived learning potential score is explored
and contrasted with the traditionally employed static intellective measure of the
matriculation score. The present investigation serves to augment a growing body of
research that asserts the capacity of dynamic assessment to surmount many of the
criticisms typically associated with static assessment and to contribute novel and
useful information regarding the intellective faculties of prospective university
students.
Within the context of the investigation 71 first year students enrolled for the BA
Extended Degree at the University of Johannesburg were assessed using the static
intellective measure of a matriculation score and the dynamically informed global
learning potential score of the Ability, Processing of Information and Learning Battery
Short Version (APIL-B SV). The utility of the dynamically derived learning potential
score to predict academic performance during the first year of university study was
examined and contrasted with the predictive efficacy of the static matriculation score.
The empirically examined data served to support conjecture that a dynamic
intellective measure demonstrated significant utility in predicting the future academic
performance of first year university students. In addition, the ability of this measure
to predict academic performance in a manner that had significant benefit over the
traditionally employed static matriculation score was affirmed.