STATIC AND DYNAMIC MEASURES OF ABILITY - AN EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON

Third graders were trained to mastery on a balance-scale strategy by either a scaffolded method (the amount of help decreased as children's proficiency increased) or a nonscaffolded method (help did not vary with children's proficiency). A multivariate analysis of covariance, with intelligence, cognitive tempo, independence, and pretraining balance-scale skill as covariates, revealed that students in the scaffolded group performed consistently across maintenance and transfer posttests whereas the performance of students in the nonscaffolded condition declined on transfer posttests. A dynamic measure (number of examples required to reach mastery) predicted transfer but not maintenance in both groups, but in the nonscaffolded condition, intelligence and pretraining skill also predicted transfer performance. Thus, scaffolded instruction may be a superior instructional and diagnostic method.