CPE106.

ASSESSMENT in LEARNING 2
MODULE 2. Performance-Based Assessment

LESSON 1: Nature of Performance-Based Assessment

Overview. Traditional testing can not measure a number of 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 lesson gives an introduction to
performance assessment. It discusses the nature, principles, types, advantages and limitations of
performance-based assessment.

Module Intended Learning Outcome. At the end of the module, you are able to apply the
principles in constructing and interpreting performance-based assessment.

Lesson Intended Learning Outcome. At the end of the lesson, you are able to analyse the
nature and the essential characteristics of performance-based assessment.
Engage.
In CPE105 and in the first Module, we examined the principles of high quality assessment by
integrating basic concepts of assessment and discussing the different types of assessment utilized in the
teaching and learning process. These forms of assessment have been very effective in determining student
learning outcomes.
Most of the time, the teacher relied on paper-pencil test which measures knowledge and
understanding, not the ability to actually carry out the performance. With the implementation of the
outcome-based education (OBE) across the country, greater emphasis shall be given in assessing student
outcomes through real life (authentic) situations which require students to work and carry on tasks to
perform and do something. Assessment, in which students carry out activities or produce product to
demonstrate their metacognitive knowledge, understanding and skills is called performance-based
assessment.

1. Meaning and Characteristics

Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) 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.
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 oral, written, individual,
or group performance. The students are engaged in creating a final project that exhibits understanding
of concepts they have learned.
PBAs 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.
Types of activities that best exemplified PBAs 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

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“How do we want them to provide evidence that they can transfer their learning to real life
situations?”
Linn (1995) stated that PBAs provide a basis for 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.
Product-oriented performances 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
classroom, like doing field work, demonstrating rules and guidelines and engaging into extension
services. Process-oriented performance assessment provide insights on the students’ critical thinking,
logic and reasoning skills. These will lead them to independent learning and set goals for future use.

Genuine performance assessments must possess at least 3 features (Popham, 2011):

 Multiple evaluation criteria. The student’s performance must be judged using more than one
evaluation criteria
 Pre-specified quality standards. Each of the evaluative criteria is clearly explicated in
advance of judging the quality 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.

2. 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 the form of problem-solving, demonstration, tasks and other authentic experiences that
would influence the thinking processes, skills and products required from performance tasks.

The following are some performance-based assessment tasks. (Musial, 2009):

2.1 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 21 st
century.
2.2 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.
2.3 Determining a position. The task requires students to make a decision or clarify a
position. Case analysis and issue related activities or debate are some examples of this task.
2.4 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 a
microscope for viewing slides. The focus of demonstration task is accuracy in clarifying the steps
of process as well as careful reasoning concerning the rationale for each step of the process.

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 2.5 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.
2.6 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 presentation tasks.
2.7 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 paper, 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 towards which students should work, tells the students they are being assessed, and gives
students opportunities to prepare themselves for the assessment.

3. Strengths and Limitations

Advantages of performance assessments over other assessments:
3.1 Performance assessment clearly identifies and clarifies learning targets.
Authentic performance tasks such as real world challenges and situations can closely match with
the various complex learning targets. This offers a direct way to assess what the students know and
can do within the variety of realistic contexts.
3.2 Performance assessment allows students to exhibit their own skills, talents,
and expertise. Tasks show integration of the student’s skills, knowledge and abilities, provide
challenge and opportunities to exhibit their best creation. This also assesses the ability “to do” of
the students.
3.3 Performance assessment advocates constructivist principle of learning.
Students are more engaged in active learning and give more opportunities to demonstrate their
learning in different ways in complex tasks. Students use their previous knowledge to build a new
knowledge structures and be actively involved in exploration and inquiry through different tasks.
3.4 Performance assessment uses a variety of approaches to student evaluation.
This offers students a variety of way of expressing their learning and increases the validity of
student’s evaluation. Teachers may share criteria of assessment before the actual evaluation so that
students can use this criteria as well.
3.5 Performance assessment allows the teachers to explore the main goal and
processes of teaching and learning process. Teachers may reflect and revisit learning targets,
curriculum and instructional practices, and standards as they utilize performance-based assessment.
They may use a variety of teaching strategies and techniques, and explore how students will use the
instructional material and resources given to them.

Some distinct limitations of performance assessments;

1. Development of high quality performance assessment is a tedious process. Performance
assessment needs careful planning and implementation. It is very time consuming to construct
good tasks. Teachers have to make sure that the performance tasks expected from the students
are authentic and match the outcome to be assessed and not with other qualities that are not
part of the outcomes to be assessed. Quality scoring rubrics are difficult to create as well.
2. Performance assessment requires a considerable amount of time to administer. Paper-and-
pencil takes 15 to 20 minutes per tasks to complete depending on the number of items. Most
authentic tasks take a number of days to complete. Most of the time,
performance assessment is administered to small groups of students unlike traditional testing
which is simultaneously administered to an entire class.

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3. Performance assessment takes a great deal of time to score. The more complex the process
and performance, the more time you can expect spend on scoring. To reduce the scoring time,
crafting a high quality rubrics is recommended.
4. Performance task score may have lower reliability. This resulted to inconsistency of scoring
by teachers who interpret observation quite differently. With complex tasks, multiple correct
answers, fast-paced performances, scoring depends on teachers’ own scoring competence.
5. Performance task completion may be discouraging to less able students. Some tasks that
require students to sustain their interest for a longer time may discourage disadvantaged
students. They may have partial knowledge of the learning target but may fail to complete the
task because it does not allow them to utilize this partial knowledge effectively and efficiently.

A summary of strengths and weaknesses of performance assessment is presented

below:
Strengths Weaknesses

 Integrates assessment with instruction.  Limited ability to generalize to a

 Learning occurs during assessment. larger domain of knowledge.
 Provides opportunities for formative  Reliability may be difficult to
assessment. establish.
 Tends to be more authentic than other  Measurement error due to subjective
types of nature of the scoring may be
assessments. significant.
 More engaging, active involvement of  Inconsistent student performance
students. across time may result in inaccurate
 Provides additional way for students conclusions.
to show what they know and can do.  Few samples of student achievement.
 Emphasis on reasoning skills.  Requires considerable teacher time to
 Forces teachers to establish specific prepare and student time to complete.
criteria to identify successful  Difficult to plan for amount of time
performance. needed.
 Encourages student self-assessment.  Limited ability to generalize to a
 Emphasis on application of larger domain of knowledge
knowledge.
 Encourages re-examination of
instructional goals and the purpose of
schooling.