Ilya Mikhelson — Submitted to Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence (2026). 📄 Full text (arXiv)
Synthesis
The Socratic Test is an automated, computer-mediated conversational assessment that replaces static, deficit-based grading with a dynamic, additive model. It integrates Dynamic Assessment principles, multimodal workspaces, Bloom's Taxonomy for real-time proctoring, and the SOLO Taxonomy for structural evaluation.
Graduated scaffolding is formalized to quantify a student's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the assessment actively maps cognitive boundaries by adapting question difficulty and support in real time, so measurement targets what a student can achieve with assistance rather than only unaided performance.
The grading architecture is non-compensatory and additive, prioritizing mastery over penalty: success at harder levels outweighs failures at easier ones, which the author argues reduces the penalty on ambition and restores diagnostic feedback value lost in subtractive scoring.
A stated goal is human-AI alignment for measurement reliability: the conversational format is designed to avoid construct-irrelevant variance from performative anxiety and the power imbalances of face-to-face oral examinations, though the paper is a theoretical foundation with implementation and validation left to future work.
Related Pages
Citation
APA: Mikhelson, I. (2026). The theoretical foundation of Socratic tests: Dynamic, multimodal, conversational examinations. arXiv:2607.29624.