Chapter 4

NATURE OF PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

Objectives
At the end of this week, students will be able to:
 analyze the nature and the essential characteristics of performance-based assessment.

Introduction
Most of the time, the teacher relied on paper-and-pencil test which measures knowledge
and understanding, not the ability of the learners 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) which requires students to
work and carry on tasks to perform and do something Assessment in which students carry out
activities or produce product in demonstrating their metacognitive knowledge, understanding and
skills is called performance-based assessment.

1. Meaning and Characteristics

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Performance-Based Assessment is one 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 as cited by Cajigal and
Mantuano, 2014). 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 as cited by Cajigal and Mantuano,
2014). 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 Assessment 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 examples. 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 more
knowledge, skills and work habits through the different performance tasks which are meaningful
and engaging to the students.

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 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 No7, 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) as cited by Cajigal and Mantuano (2014) stated that performance
assessment 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 single right or best answer. Rather, there
may be 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 as cited by Cajigal and Mantuano, 2014):

 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. Genuine performance assessments depend on human
judgments to determine how acceptable a student’s performance really is.

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 Some characteristics of performance assessment which can be observed in the
actual classroom setting may include student 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.

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
blog.performancetask.com
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 as cited by Cajigal and Mantuano, 2014).

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.

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.

2.3 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.

2.4 Demonstrating 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.

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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 presentations 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 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.

3. 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 blogs.deusto.es
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.

1.2 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

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 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 criterion 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.

Though performance assessments offer several advantages over traditional objective

assessment procedures, they have some distinct limitations as well.

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.

3. Performance assessment takes a great deal of time to score. The more complex the
process and performance, the more time you can expect to 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, and 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

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 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. Reliability may be difficult to
Learning occurs during assessment. establish.

Provides opportunities for formative assessment. Measurement error due to subjective

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

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