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Educ 7/Assessment in Learning 2/Lecture Notes

Overview

Traditional testing cannot measure a number or skills directly. Skills requiring the
demonstration of students’ understanding by creating an answer, carrying out performance, or
producing a product which involves independent judgment, critical thinking and decision-making
are best assessed with performance test. This type of authentic assessment provides evidence of
what the students know and can do in the context of real life. This chapter gives an introduction to
performance assessment It discusses the nature, principles, types, advantages and limitations of
performance-based assessment.

Intended Learning Outcome

At the end of the chapter, you should be able to analyze the nature and the essential
characteristics of performance-based assessment.

Meaning and Characteristics

Performance-Based Assessment is one in which the teacher observes and makes a judgment
about the student's demonstration of a skill or competency in creating a product, constructing a
response, or making a presentation (McMillan, 2007). In this assessment, the emphasis is on the
students' ability to perform tasks by producing their own authentic work with their knowledge and
skills.

Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) is an alternative form of assessment that moves away from
traditional paper-and-pencil tests (Ferman, 2005). It involves students producing a project, whether
it is an oral, written, individual or group performance. The students are engaged in creating a final
project that exhibits understanding of concepts they have learned.

Performance-based assessments process the creative aspect of the students in bringing out what
they know and what they can do through different performance tasks such as exhibits, projects and
work samples. Hands-on experiences allow them to be more critical, motivated and involved when
they are allowed to perform on their own. Students can acquire and apply knowledge, skills and
work habits through the different performance tasks which are meaningful and engaging to the
students.

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Educ 7/Assessment in Learning 2/Lecture Notes

Types of activities that best exemplified performance-based assessments include writing a research
report, solving and conducting experiments and investigations, return demonstration, speech, skit,
role playing, constructing and implementing seminar plan or creating video presentation.

It is stipulated in the DepEd Order No. 7, s. 2012 that the highest level of assessment focuses on
the performances (product) which the students are expected to produce through authentic
performance tasks. The assessment at this level should answer the question, “What product(s) or
performance(s) do we want students to produce as evidence of their learning or understanding?”
or “How do we want them to provide evidence that they can transfer their learning to real life
situations?”

Moreover, Linn (1995) stated that performance assessments provide a basis of teachers to evaluate
both the effectiveness of the process or procedure used (e.g., approach to data collection,
manipulation of instruments) and the product resulting from performance of a task (e.g., completed
report of results, completed art work). Unlike simple tests of factual knowledge, there is unlikely
to be a single right or best answer. Rather, there may be multiple performances and problem
solutions that may be judged to be excellent. Problem formulation, the organization of ideas, the
integration of multiple types of evidence, and originality are all important aspects of performance
that may not be adequately assessed by paper-and-pencil tests.

Performance products are outputs produced by the students that provide concrete examples of their
knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. These performances allow them to
demonstrate the application of what they have learned with their schemata as well. Students may
also engage in some tasks which are useful not only within the four walls of the school such as
doing field work, demonstrating rules and guidelines, and engaging into extension services.
Process-oriented assessments provide insights on the students' critical thinking, logic and
reasoning skills. These will lead them to independent learning and set goals for future use.

Some performance assessment proponents contend that genuine performance assessments

must possess at least three features (Popham, 2011):

Multiple evaluation criteria. The student’s performance must be judged using more than one
evaluation criterion.

Pre-specified quality standards. Each of the evaluative criteria on which a student's performance
is to be judged is clearly explicated in advance of judging the quality of the student’s performance.

Judgmental appraisal. Unlike the scoring of selected-response tests in which electronic computers
and scanning machines can, once programmed, carry on without the need of humankind, genuine
performance assessments depend on human judgments to determine how acceptable a student's
performance really is.

All educational institution expects students to demonstrate different skills in various learning areas
and most often subjected to classroom performance assessment. Some characteristics of this
assessment which can be observed in the actual classroom setting may include student

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Educ 7/Assessment in Learning 2/Lecture Notes

performance, creation, construction and production of product which can assess deep
understanding and reasoning skills. The performance involves engaging ideas of importance and
substance which students can explain, justify, and defend. Lastly, the performance should be
grounded in real-word contexts which calls for authenticity of the performance.

Types of Performance Tasks

The main objective of the performance task is to capture all the learning targets which shall be
aligned to the teaching and learning objectives, activities and assessment. Thus, the focus of
performance-based assessment is the final output that must be developed or completed. These
could be in form of problem-solving, demonstration, tasks and other authentic experiences that
would influence the thinking processes, skills and products required from performance tasks.
Below are some performance-based assessment tasks (Musial, 2009):

Solving a problem. Critical thinking and problem solving are important skills that need to be
sharpened and developed by the learners. Teachers may include activities and make sense of
complex authentic problems or issues to be solved by the students. This helps the students become
independent thinkers and learners for life, and help them meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Completing an inquiry. An inquiry tasks is one in which the students are asked to collect data in
order to develop their understanding about a topic or issue. Examples of inquiries include science
investigation, research-based activities, survey and interviews or independent studies. Students
determine what data are needed and under what conditions that data should be collected, present
data and develop conclusions.

Determining a position. This task requires students to make decision or clarify a position. Case
analysis and issue related activities or debate are some examples of this task.

Demonstration Task. This task shows how the students use knowledge and skills to complete
well-defined complex tasks. Students explain or describe how something works or how to do
something when they perform these tasks. Examples are: demonstrating steps or procedures of
cooking, explaining the earthquake safety procedures and demonstrating how to set up microscope
for viewing slides. The focus of demonstration tasks is accuracy in clarifying the steps of process
as well as careful reasoning concerning the rationale for each step of the process.

Developing Exhibits. Exhibits are visual presentations or displays that need little or no
explanation from the creators. An exhibit is offered to explain, demonstrate or show something.
Classroom applications include exhibit of best works, pictures or paintings, projects or even
portfolios.

Presentation Task. This is a work or task performed in front of an audience. Storytelling, singing
and dancing, musical play or theatrical acting are some presentations which demonstrate
presentations tasks.

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Capstone Performances. These are tasks that occur at the end of a program of study and enable
students to show knowledge and skills in the context that matches the world of practicing
professionals. These tasks include research papery practice teaching, internship or on-the-job
training.

With the different types of performance tasks, the teacher may decide what and when materials
should be used, specifies the instructions for performance, describes the kinds of outcomes toward
which students should work, tells the students they are being assessed, and gives students
opportunities to prepare themselves for the assessment. Performance tasks on the other hand can
be performed also in a typical and natural setting, which give students opportunity to perform
particular activity which the teacher would like to assess.

Strengths and Limitations

As we explored the nature of performance assessment and examined the different types of
assessment tasks, several authorities discussed the advantages of performance assessments over
other assessments.

• Performance assessment clearly identifies and clarifies learning targets.

• Performance assessment allows students to exhibit their own skills, talents, and expertise.
• Performance assessment advocates constructivist principle of learning.
• Performance assessment uses a variety of approaches to student evaluation.
• Performance assessment allows the teachers to explore the main goal and processes of
teaching and learning process.

Though performance assessments offer several advantages over traditional objective assessment
procedures, they have some distinct LIMITATIONS as well:
• Development of high-quality performance assessment is a tedious process.
• Performance assessment requires a considerable amount of time to administer.
• Performance assessment takes a great deal of time to score.
• Performance task score may have lower reliability.
• Performance task completion may be discouraging to less able students.

Chapter 3: Nature of Performance-Based Assessment