The goal of this article is to explore the feasibility of the development and implementation of the dynamic assessment procedure in such curriculum-based areas as English as a foreign language (EFL). Vygotsky's notion of the Zone of Proximal Development and Feuerstein's concept of Mediated Learning Experience served as a theoretical base for the construction of the assessment procedure. The procedure included a pre-test, mediated learning phase and a post-test. It was applied with a group of 23 academically at-risk students who failed to pass the high school English exam. The results of the study indicate that dynamic procedure indeed provides information on students' learning potential over and beyond that which is available from the static test. This information can be used for the development of individual learning plans attuned to the students' special learning needs.

The aim of this paper is to valuate the applicability of Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and the concept of dynamic assessment to the problem of assessing reading comprehension in English as a third language (L3). The study was conducted with immigrant students from Ethiopia studying at pre-academic centers in Israel. The assessment procedure included a pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The pre-test was based on a standard reading comprehension placement exam. Based upon the pre-test material, a very detailed analysis of the required pre-existing knowledge and necessary strategies was then mediated to the students. The post-test was identical to the pre-test regarding structure, requirements in terms of pre-existing knowledge and strategies, length, etc., but with different content. The results demonstrated: (1) A dynamic assessment procedure significantly improved the text comprehension performance of L3 students; (2) The dynamic assessment procedure added information regarding students' learning potential over and beyond their initial performance level; (3) The learning potential profile of immigrants from Ethiopia is somewhat different from that of non-immigrant students.

An intervention project at the Hebrew University Learning Center for the Blind introduced metacognitive techniques to compensate for educational deficiencies in visually impaired young adults with a history of academic failure. The project, based on the Instrumental Enrichment cognitive training program, led to improvement in students’ motivation, awareness of their own learning strategies, more rapid and sustained academic progress, and increased autonomy in learning.