Module in[Educ223]AssessmentofStudentLearning

ALTERNATIVE WAYS IN ASSESSING LEARNING

Performance Assessment

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the unit, the students should be able to:
1. Identify the appropriate performance assessment tool for a specific performance or product
2. Create a performance assessment tool that is aligned with the desired learning outcomes and teaching
and learning activities

Time Allotted: 6 hrs

Significant Culminating Performance Task and Success Indicators

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to demonstrate your knowledge and skills in developing
performance assessment tool that are most applicable to a particular students outcome. You are considered
successful in this culminating performance task if you have satisfied the following in this culminating
performance task if you have satisfied the following indicators of success:

Tasks
Success Indicators
Knowing the various types of performance assessment tools.
Identify the appropriate performance assessment tools for a specific performance or product.
Designing performance assessment tools.
Create a performance assessment tools that is aligned with the desired learning outcomes (DLO) and the
teaching and learning activities (TLAs).

Prerequisite of this Lesson

To be able to perform successfully the above culminating performance tasks, you should have
distinguished between traditional and performance assessments, understood and processes in setting
learning objectives and students outcomes and in preparing the table of specifications, identified the
different types of performances assessment task, and learned the guidelines in designing performance
assessment tools.

PREPARE
To be able to learn or enhance your skills on how to develop good and effective performances
between traditional and alternative assessment and how and when to choose a particular assessment method
most appropriate to the identified learning objectives and desired learning outcomes of your course.

Module Content
What is Performance Assessment?
Performance assessment is an assessment activity or set of activities that require students to
generate products or performances that provide direct or indirect evidence of their knowledge, skills and
abilities in an academic content domain. It provides teachers with information about how well the students
understand and apply knowledge and go beyond the ability to recall information. It is used for assessing
learning outcomes that involves designing or creating projects or products such as research papers, art
exhibits, reflective essays and portfolios. On the other hand, performance-based tasks include actual
performances of making those products, such as carrying out laboratory experiments, exhibiting creative

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and artistic talents such as dancing, painting and playing musical instrument and demonstrating writing
skills through extemporaneous essay writing, article review and reflective papers. Both product- based and
performance-based assessment 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
assessment.

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, position papers, poems, story, movie scripts, portfolio,
essay, article report, research paper, thesis
Verbal Products
Audiotapes, debates, lectures, voice recording, scripts

B. Performance-Based
Assessment
Oral presentations/Demonstration
Paper presentation, poster presentation, individual or group report on assigned topic, skills demonstration
such as baking, teaching, cooking, problem solving
Dramatic/Creative Performances
Dance, recital, dramatic enactment, prose or poetry interpretation, role playing, playing musical instrument
Public Speaking
Debates, mock trial, simulations, interviews, panel discussions, storytelling, poem reading
Athletic Skills Demonstration/Competition
Playing basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports

Similar to performance assessment is the concept of authentic assessment. Authentic assessment

requires students to actually demonstrates their skills in applying skills and knowledge they have learned
from class. It involves tasks that resemble what people do in the real setting or context such as doing an
actual research, making a case study, giving a speech or performing on a stage.

What are the Characteristics of a Good Performance 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,ℎ𝑎𝑡 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

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and the outside world as a whole. For example in an Entrepreneur class wherein one of the learning
outcomes is the ability to do 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 putting up a new investment. This performance tasks entails students
to identify the market needs and gaps, plan out the marketing mix (7Ps) and 4Ms of operations and forecast
the cost 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 too
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 tasks will not only inform the teacher
whether the students learned the different parts of the research paper but also whether the students can
conceptualize a good
research paper, conduct a 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 task that can measure both competencies of “knowing” and “applying” 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.

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 marketing class, the teacher may require the students to conduct
marketing and market research, come up with marketing strategy and/or conduct an actual marketing for a
product of their choice. These performance tasks not only assess 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 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 of

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performance or output, the criteria to be included for assessment and the rubrics to be used. Ideally, the
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 and allowing them assessment options, getting them involved in the 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.

What are the General Guidelines in Designing Performance Assessment?

The learning outcomes at the end of the course serve as bases in designing the performance
assessment tasks. With learning outcomes identified, the evidence of student learning that are most relevant
for each learning outcome and the standard or criteria that will be used to evaluate those evidence are then
identified.
To guide you in designing performance assessment, the following questions may be addressed?
1. What are the outcomes to be assessed?
2. What are the capabilities/skills implicit or explicit in the expected outcomes (e.g. problem solving,
decision making, critical thinking, communication skills)?
3. What are the appropriate performance assessment tasks or tools to measure the outcomes and skills?
4. Are the specific performance tasks aligned with the outcomes and skills interesting, engaging,
challenging and measurable?
5. Are the performance tasks authentic and representative of real-world scenarios?
6. What criteria should be included to rate students’ performance level?
7. What are the specific performance indicators for each criterion?
Furthermore, the choice of teaching and learning activities is also of utmost importance in choosing the
performance assessment to use. There should also be an alignment among the learning outcomes, the
teaching learning activities and assessment tasks. For example in a Physical Education – Dance class, the
following three course components should be explicitly clear and link as shown below:

Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching-Learning Activities Performance Assessment

Tasks

At the end of the course, the

students should be able to:

 Perform dance routines Lecture class discussion Culminating dance class recitals,
and creatively combine Movement exercises, practical for each type of dance,
variations with rhythm, Dance Demonstration, reflection papers, peer evaluation
coordination, correct Actual Dancing with teacher and rating
footwork technique, partners
frame, facial and body Collaborative learning
expression.

 Participate in dance Required attendance Actual dance performance in

socials and other and school or community programs,
community fitness participation in school and reaction/reflection papers
advocacy projects community dance performance

How Do You Conduct Performance Assessment?

Unlike in most traditional tests wherein student responses can be scored using an answer key,

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performance assessments require teacher’s and peers’ judgment when evaluating the resulting products and
performances. This necessitates using a set of predetermined criteria that are aligned with desired targeted
standards or desired learning outcomes.

The following are basic steps in planning and implementing performance-based or product-based
assessments:
1. Define the purpose of performance or product based-assessment.
The teacher may ask the following questions:
- What concept, skill or knowledge of the students should be assessed?
- At what level should the students be performing?
- What type of knowledge is being assessed (e.g. remembering, understanding…creating)?

2. Choose the activity/output that you will assess.

The required performance or output should be feasible given the time constraints, availability of
resources, and amount of data/materials needed to make an informed decision about the quality of a
student’s performance or product. The performance tasks should be interesting, challenging and achievable
and with sufficient depth and breadth so that valid evaluation about students’ learning can be made.

3. Define the criteria. Criteria are guidelines or rules for judging student responses or products, or
performances. Before conducting the assessment, the performance criteria should be predetermined. The
set of criteria should be discussed and agreed upon by teacher and the students. Performance criteria are
important since they define for the students the type of behavior or attributes of a product that are expected
as well as allow the teacher and the students to evaluate a performance or product as objective and as
consistent as possible.

There are four types of criteria that can be used for evaluating student performance:
A. Content criteria – to evaluate the degree of a student’s knowledge and understanding of facts, concepts
and principles related to the topic/subject
B. Process criteria – to evaluate the proficiency level of performance of a skill or process
C. Quality criteria – to evaluate the quality of a product or performance and
D. Impact criteria – to evaluate the overall results or effects of a product or performance
4. Create the performance rubric. A rubric is an assessment tool that indicates the performance
expectations for any kind of student work. It generally contains three essential features: 1) criteria or aspects
of performance that will be assessed, 2) performance descriptors or the characteristics associated with each
dimension or criteria and 3) performance levels that identifies students’ level of mastery within each
criterion.

There are different types of rubrics:

A. Holistic rubric – In holistic rubric, student performance or output is evaluated by applying all criteria
simultaneously, thus providing a single score based on the overall judgment about the quality of student’s
work.
B. Analytic rubric – In analytic rubric, student’s work is evaluated by using each criterion separately, thus
providing a specific feedback about the student’s performance or product along several dimensions.
C. General rubric – contains criteria that are general and can be applied across tasks (e.g. the same rubric
can be used to evaluate oral presentation and research output).
D. Task-specific rubric – contains criteria that are unique to a specific task (i.e., a rubric that can only be
used in oral presentation and another rubric applicable only for research output.
5. Assess student’s performance or product. In assessing a student’s work, it is important to adhere to
the criteria set and use the rubric developed. This is to ensure objective, consistent, and accurate evaluation
of student’s performance. It is also important to provide specific and meaningful feedback and explanation

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to students on how they have performed the tasks, clarifying to them what they understand, what they don’t
understand and where they can improve.

Learning Content in[Educ223]AssessmentofStudentLearning