TOPIC 2 PERFORMANCED- BASED ASSESSMENT

LESSON 1 Meaning and Characteristics

Introduction
Assessment is an integral part of the learning process, providing valuable
insights into student progress and informing instructional decisions. It's not just about
assigning grades, but rather a dynamic tool for understanding how students are
learning, identifying areas of strength and weakness, and guiding them toward greater
mastery. Assessment takes many forms, ranging from traditional tests and quizzes to
more engaging and authentic performance-based tasks. The goal, however, remains
the same: to create a clear picture of student learning and guide them towards success.
And one of these is the Performance-Based Assessment. This method evaluates
what students can do with their knowledge and skills, emphasizing critical thinking,
problem-solving, and application in real-world contexts. Performance-based
assessments move beyond multiple-choice questions and written exams, instead
requiring students to demonstrate their understanding through projects, presentations,
performances, or simulations. For you to understand it more, let's explore further into its
meaning and characteristics. Let's dive in to an assessment where you can showcase
your skills, creativity, and understanding in a way that traditional tests simply can't
capture.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to;
a. define Performance-Based Assessment,
b.distinguish the difference between Product- based Assessment and
Performance- based Assessment,
c. identify and list key characteristics of performance-based assessments, and
d. create a simple performance-based assessment task.
Learning Content
How do you assess students' learning outcomes using various types of
performance assessment tools?
To be able to perform successfully the culminating performance tasks, you
should have distinguished between traditional and performance assessments,
understood the processes in setting learning objectives and student outcomes and in
preparing the table of specifications, identified the different types of performance
assessment tasks, and learned the guidelines in designing performance assessment
tools. Performance-based assessment is a powerful educational tool that goes beyond
traditional testing methods to evaluate a student's ability to apply knowledge and skills
in real-world situations. Unlike multiple-choice exams that primarily assess recall,
performance-based assessments focus on what students can do with their learning.
Performance-based assessment is an assessment activity or set of activities or
strategies for the acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and work habits
through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to the students. It
requires students to generate products or performances that provide direct or indirect
evidence of their knowledge, skills, and abilities in an academic content domain. This
type of assessment provides the teacher with information about how students
understand and applies knowledge. It is used for assessing learning outcomes that
involve designing or creating projects or products such as research papers, art exhibits,
reflective essays, and portfolios.
Wiggins (1998) uses physical activity when providing examples to illustrate
complex assessment concepts, as they are easier to visualize that would be the case
with a cognitive example.
Similar to performance assessment is authentic assessment which requires
students to actually demonstrate their skills in applying skills and knowledge they have
learned from class. This has been used extensively in classrooms for as long as there
have been classrooms.

Reasons for Using Performance-Based Assessment

1. Dissatisfaction of the limited information obtained from selected-response test.
2. Influence of cognitive psychology, which demands not only for the learning of
declarative but also for procedural knowledge.
3. Negative Impact of conventional tests e.g., high-stake assessment or teaching for the
test
4. It is appropriate in experiential, discovery-based, integrated, and problem-based
learning approaches.

Factors account for the growing popularity of Performance assessment

1. Performance assessment is being proposed and mandated as part of formal
statewide assessment programs.
2. Increased classroom emphasis on problem-solving higher- level thinking and real-
world reasoning skills has created reliance on performance and product assessment to
demonstrate pupil learning.
3. Performance assessments can provide some pupils who do poorly on selection- type
tests an opportunity to show their achievements in alternative ways.

FIVE DOMAINS OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

1.Communication Skills
Examples: Writing essays, giving a speech, pronouncing a foreign language, and
following spoken directions.
2. Psychomotor Skills
Examples: Holding a pencil, setting up equipment, using scissors, dissecting a frog.
3. Athletic Activities
Examples: Shooting free throws, catching a ball, hopping, swimming the crawl.
4. Concept Acquisition
Examples: Constructing open and closed circuits, selecting proper tools for shop tasks,
identifying unknown chemical substances, and generalizing from experimental data.
5. Affective Skills
Examples: Sharing toys, working in cooperative groups, obeying school rule,
maintaining self- control.

The Cone of Learning

During the 1990s, Edgar Dale theorized that learners retain more information by
what they “do” as opposed to what is heard, read, and observed. His research led to the
development of Cone of Experience. As Edgar Dale introduced the concept of the Cone
of Learning (also known as the Cone of Experience), he explains that learners retain
more information when they are actively engaged in learning tasks, rather than just
passively receiving information. Dale's theory emphasizes that learning by doing is the
most effective way for students to remember and apply knowledge. This means that
actively participating in learning tasks, such as performing tasks, creating projects, or
solving real-world problems, leads to better retention and understanding of information.

Retention Levels in Learning by Edgar Dale

TYPES OF PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

1. Product-based assessment is used for assessing learning outcomes that
involve designing or creating projects or products such as research papers, art exhibits,
reflective essays, and portfolios.
 2. Performance-based assessments include actual performances of making
those products, such as carrying out laboratory experiments, exhibiting creative and
artistic talents, such as dancing, painting, and playing a musical instrument, and
demonstrating writing skills through extemporaneous essay writing, article review, and
reflective papers.
Both product-based and performance-based assessments provide information
about how a student understands and applies knowledge and involve hands-on tasks or
activities that students must complete individually or in small groups. Below are
examples of product-based and performance-based assessments.

Types Examples
A. PRODUCT- BASED ASSESSMENT
Visual Products charts, illustrations, graphs, collages,
murals, maps, timeline flows, diagrams,
posters, advertisements, video
presentations, art exhibits.
Kinesthetic Products diorama, puzzles, games, sculpture,
exhibits, dance recital.
Written Products journals, diaries, logs, reports, abstracts,
letters, thought or position papers, poems,
story, movie/TV scripts, portfolio, essay,
article report, research paper, thesis.
Verbal Products audiotapes, debates, lectures, voice
recording, scripts.
B. PERFORMANCE- BASED ASSESSMENT
Oral Presentations/ Demonstrations paper presentation, poster presentation,
individual or group report on assigned
topic, skills demonstration such as baking,
teaching, problem solving
Dramatic/Creative performances dance, recital, dramatic enactment, prose
or poetry interpretation, role playing,
playing musical instruments
Public Speaking debates, mock trial, simulations,
interviews, panel discussion, story-telling,
poem reading
Athletic Skills Demonstration/ Competition playing basketball, baseball, soccer,
volleyball, and other sports
Characteristics of Performance- Based Assessment

With so many different types of performance assessment tasks or tools that can
be used to measure students' learning outcomes, deciding which one to use can be
confusing and challenging. In choosing and designing the best performance
assessment, it is good to evaluate its suitability against the following criteria:

1. It is authentic, that is, it includes performance tasks that are meaningful and
realistic.

Performance assessment should present or require tasks that are realistic and
related to everyday life. As it involves an authentic task, it should convey its purpose
and reflect its relevance to the students, their discipline, and the outside world as a
whole.
For example, in an entrepreneur class wherein one of the learning outcomes is
the ability to develop a business plan, instead of giving final exams to test students'
knowledge of concepts, principles, and processes of developing a business plan, the
students will be required to submit a proposed business plan for a putting up a new
investment. This performance task entails students to identify the market needs and
gaps, plan out the marketing mix (7Ps) and the 4Ms of operations, and forecast the
costs and revenues of the business. This task allows students to have hands-on
experience in performing a task that is done in the actual world.

2. It provides opportunities for students to show both what they know and how
well they can do what they know.

Performance assessment should achieve a balanced approach wherein it gives

students opportunities to show their knowledge-and-skill competencies. Since the main
goal of teaching and learning is for students' acquisition and application of knowledge
and skills, course assessments should therefore help answer the questions "Do the
students know it?" and "How well can they use what they know?" to determine whether
the students have actually achieved this goal.
 For example, in a Practical Research 2 class, the teacher may require research
output at the end of the course, since this performance task will not only inform the
teacher whether the students learned the different parts of a research paper but also
whether the students can conceptualize a good research paper, conduct review of
related literature, apply appropriate data gathering procedure and analysis, and make
valid interpretations and implications of the results. The main challenge is for the
teachers to choose performance tasks that can measure both the competencies of
"knowing" and "applying" and at most "creating".

3. It allows students to be involved in the process of evaluating their own and

their peers' performance and output.

Performance assessment should allow students to be involved in the process of

evaluating themselves and their peers. It should give students the opportunity for self-
reflection or self-assessment, as well as to be involved in evaluating their classmates'
performance. Self-assessment allows students to make judgment about their learning
process and products of learning, track their progress, and identify the areas where to
focus or improve on. Peer assessment, on the other hand, allows students to give
constructive feedback about the performance of their classmates or groupmates, which
the latter can use to revise or improve their work. Both assessments require that scoring
or grading is based on the criteria agreed upon by the teacher and the students. The
use of a rubric can facilitate self-assessment and peer assessment.
For instance, instead of solely relying on the teacher’s evaluation, students in a
group project are required to assess their own performance and that of their peers using
a rubric. For instance, in an English class skit presentation, students will complete self-
assessment forms and provide peer feedback on criteria such as creativity, delivery, and
teamwork. This process encourages self-reflection and constructive criticism, helping
students become more engaged in their own learning and improvement. (Self and Peer
Assessment – Collaborative Learning).

4. It assesses more complex skills.

Unlike traditional tests that usually assess a single skill and require simple tasks
such as remembering or recalling of concepts, performance assessment usually taps
higher-order cognitive skills to apply knowledge to solve realistic and meaningful
problems. As such, performance assessment allows students to engage in more
challenging activities that require various skills, such as planning and decision-making,
problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and creative skills, among others.
For example, instead of giving final exams to assess students' learning in a
marketing class, the teacher may require the students to conduct a marketing and
market research, come up with a marketing strategy, and/or conduct an actual
marketing for a product students' knowledge of principles and processes in marketing
but also tap their creativity, planning skills, collaborative skills, communication skills, and
research skills.

5. It explains the task, required elements, and scoring criteria to the students
before the start of the activity and the assessment.

At the start of the class, it is important that the requirements of the subject are
presented and explained to the students. These include the required tasks, activities or
projects, the expected quality and level performance or output, the criteria to be
included for assessment, and the rubric to be used. Ideally, students should be involved
in the whole assessment process from the very onset, by providing them assessment
options, getting them involved in discussions and decision-making on performance
standards and criteria, allowing them opportunity to give feedback on teacher-made
rubrics and to revise them, and training them on how to apply rubric for self- and peer-
assessment.
For instance, at the beginning of a multimedia project in a computer class, the
teacher provides students with a detailed project brief outlining the task of creating an
educational video. The teacher explains the required elements, such as content
accuracy, creativity, and technical quality. A rubric is given, specifying the scoring criteria
for aspects like video editing, narration, and overall presentation. This ensures that
students understand the expectations and can work towards achieving the desired
quality in their output.