Prompt, Hint, Model, Feedback: How Dynamic Assessment Shapes Procedural Writing Skills and Self-Efficacy in a Vocational ESP Classroom
Abstract
Dynamic Assessment (DA) merges instruction and assessment into a single mediated process. This study tested its effect on procedural writing and writing self-efficacy in a vocational ESP classroom and tracked how students reacted to it, using a pre-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest design. Twenty-two eleventh-grade Software and Game Development students at a vocational high school in Bandung, Indonesia, completed a procedural writing test and two questionnaires before and after a four-stage mediation intervention (prompting, hinting, modeling, feedback); paired-samples t-tests and Cohen's d analyzed the results. Writing scores rose from M = 57.23 to M = 78.50 (t(21) = 26.12, p < .001, d = 2.59), self-efficacy rose from M = 23.32 to M = 36.50 (t(21) = 31.43, p < .001, d = 4.02), and student response shifted from neutral to strongly positive (t(21) = 35.80, p < .001, d = 4.59). These findings extend DA scholarship into procedural, technical-genre writing. The design lacked a control group, and the self-efficacy instrument's reliability was low (α = .454); the numbers here point in a clear direction, but they should not be mistaken for proof.
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