This book examines issues of access and fairness in education and looks at efforts to understand processes of development and to meet the needs of all learners. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice

Matthew E. Poehner is Assistant Professor of World Languages Education and Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research examines the use of Vygotskian theory as both a lens for understanding second language development and a basis for educational activities that promote it. He is also the co-author (with James P. Lantolf) of the forthcoming Routledge title, Sociocultural Theory and the pedagogical imperative in L2 classrooms.

Pauline Rea-Dickins is Professor of Applied Linguistics in Education, now working in East Africa where she is Director, Institute for Educational Development and Principal, Tanzania Institute of Higher Education, Aga Khan University. Her research focuses on the assessment of children who are being taught and formally examined through the medium of English as a second or third language. She is co-author (with Richard Kiely) of the forthcoming Second Edition of Program Evaluation in Language Education.

Introduction: Addressing issues of access and fairness in education through Dynamic Assessment 1. Dynamic Assessment: fairness through the prism of mediation 2. Revealing the effects of cognitive education programmes through Dynamic Assessment 3. Mediated dialogue and the microgenesis of second language listening comprehension 4. Upingakuneng (when they are ready): Dynamic Assessment in a third semester Yugtun class 5. Learning potential and cognitive modifiability 6. Frames of interaction in Dynamic Assessment: developmental diagnoses of second language learning Profiles of education assessment systems worldwide: 7. Assessment trends in Hong Kong: seeking to establish formative assessment in an examination culture