Steps in the Evaluation Process | Child Evaluations | Adult Evaluations

Diagnostic Teaching

What is Diagnostic Teaching?

After a comprehensive evaluation has been completed, Dr. Van Santen can provide Diagnostic Teaching (DT), which involves sessions of informal assessment before, during, and after instruction in a specific area. The DT process provides information about what the student is learning, how the student is learning, and which instructional methods are/are not working. Strengths are encouraged while areas of weakness (identified during the diagnostic evaluation) may need to be bolstered during subsequent instruction. The effects of instruction are analyzed to quickly determine if the type of instruction is beneficial or if it needs to be revisited.

For instance, different methods for learning how to multiply multi-digit numbers might be taught to help a student who has difficulty managing visual-spatial information. The student might be taught using a lattice method (see (a), below) and also be taught a more traditional method of multiplication ((b), below). Analysis of the student’s performance and input from the student help the instructor determine whether either method is helpful or if another method (c) needs to be attempted. 

Thus, the main purpose of diagnostic teaching is to determine how one learns best, and different teaching methods are used to make that determination.