<p>I'm an industry practitioner with a keen interest in education; recently I've been reading more about Vygotsky's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Zone of Proximal Development</a> and the theory of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Instructional Scaffolding</a> whereby a student learns by performing a task while being provided the minimal needed support by an expert instructor. And then in a work context I suddenly had a lightbulb moment by connecting it to what we typically do in technical coding interviews in the industry - trying to figure out what is the minimal level of hints/support a candidate needs to solve a task at the expected level, and thus gain insights as to their capability gaps. And being on the candidate side of interviews in the past, I can report having learned a huge amount by receiving this kind of scaffolding from good interviewers.</p>
<p>So here's my question: have there been any implementations of such interviews as an extensive tool for formal and ongoing formative assessment in either an academic course of studies or an industry setting? And if so, have there been measurements of the effectiveness of such an approach?</p>
<p>In terms of related things I tried searching for so far:</p>
<ul>
<li>I see similarities with the oral examination approach, but I only ever saw it used for summative, rather than formative assessments, and I've also not encountered any use of it in computer science education.</li>
<li>From another angle, it is somewhat similar to what is commonly done in industry apprenticeships and on-the-job-training 'buddy' systems, which involve scaffolding in the context of pair-programming sessions, but I couldn't find any detail on it being done in a formal and consistent approach.</li>
<li>Oh, and of course there are educational providers that actually focus on interview preparation, but from my experience, these generally focus on 'gaming' the interview process, as opposed to using it for the underlying learning objectives, and I couldn't find any literature to the contrary.</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-16T20:46:49.340Z
I guess I don't completely understand the question.  Isn't this what anyone does when they sit with a student who is generally doing okay, but is currently stuck on something?
Ben I.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-16T20:47:35.237Z
Are you asking for formalized scaffolding systems to be used in formative education within industry?
Ben I.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-17T00:37:26.857Z
Hi @BenI., yes I'm asking regarding the existence of any system involving *formalized* interview-like 1:1 scaffolding interactions followed up by a verbal evaluation of the student's identified capability gaps. And preferably longer (e.g. 15mins or more) interactions, involving having the student deal with a complete task.
yoniLavi
<assessment>
The use of technical interviews for formative assessment
# The use of technical interviews for formative assessment

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-11-16)

I'm an industry practitioner with a keen interest in education; recently I've been reading more about Vygotsky's [Zone of Proximal Development](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development) and the theory of [Instructional Scaffolding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding) whereby a student learns by performing a task while being provided the minimal needed support by an expert instructor. And then in a work context I suddenly had a lightbulb moment by connecting it to what we typically do in technical coding interviews in the industry - trying to figure out what is the minimal level of hints/support a candidate needs to solve a task at the expected level, and thus gain insights as to their capability gaps. And being on the candidate side of interviews in the past, I can report having learned a huge amount by receiving this kind of scaffolding from good interviewers.

So here's my question: have there been any implementations of such interviews as an extensive tool for formal and ongoing formative assessment in either an academic course of studies or an industry setting? And if so, have there been measurements of the effectiveness of such an approach?

In terms of related things I tried searching for so far:

* I see similarities with the oral examination approach, but I only ever saw it used for summative, rather than formative assessments, and I've also not encountered any use of it in computer science education.
* From another angle, it is somewhat similar to what is commonly done in industry apprenticeships and on-the-job-training 'buddy' systems, which involve scaffolding in the context of pair-programming sessions, but I couldn't find any detail on it being done in a formal and consistent approach.
* Oh, and of course there are educational providers that actually focus on interview preparation, but from my experience, these generally focus on 'gaming' the interview process, as opposed to using it for the underlying learning objectives, and I couldn't find any literature to the contrary.

**Tags:** assessment

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I guess I don't completely understand the question.  Isn't this what anyone does when they sit with a student who is generally doing okay, but is currently stuck on something?  
> **username_1**: Are you asking for formalized scaffolding systems to be used in formative education within industry?  
> **username_0**: Hi @BenI., yes I'm asking regarding the existence of any system involving *formalized* interview-like 1:1 scaffolding interactions followed up by a verbal evaluation of the student's identified capability gaps. And preferably longer (e.g. 15mins or more) interactions, involving having the student deal with a complete task.  

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## 0 answers

