Performance Assessment

Lesson 05
Learning Objectives
• Understand the definitions and use of performance
assessment
• Review suggestions for constructing performance
tasks
• Overview common rating tools and principles of
effective rating
What is performance assessment?
• An assessment in which students demonstrate
knowledge and skills by producing a formal product
or performance
• An assessment that permits students to show what
they can do in real situations (“authentic”
assessment)
Performance assessment

Advantages Limitations
• Can measure complex learning • Unreliability of ratings of
outcomes performance across assessors, or
• Can gather formal information across time for the same assessor
about students’ ability to apply (i.e., fairness issues)
knowledge and demonstrate • Extended performance tasks
specific skills and behaviors require a substantial amount of
• Can assess process or procedure time
as well as the product that results • Solid generalization requires the
from performing a task use of multiple tasks
When to use performance assessment?

Look for objectives that:

• are skill based,
• focus on actual performance of tasks in realistic
settings,
• would likely result in a product to be evaluated
• focus on students’ affective characteristics (i.e.,
feelings, values, attitudes, beliefs)
Constructing Performance Tasks
1. Focus on learning outcomes that require complex
cognitive skills and student performances.
2. Select or develop tasks that represent both the
content and the skills that are central to
important learning outcomes.
3. Minimize the dependence of task performance on
skills that are irrelevant to the intended purpose
of the assessment task.
Constructing Performance Tasks
4. Provide the necessary scaffolding for students to be able to
understand the task and what is expected of them
– What prerequisite knowledge and skills do students need
to carry out the task?
– How can you use scaffolding to build acquisition of those
into the task?
5. Construct detailed, explicit task directions so that the
student’s task is clearly indicated.
6. Clearly communicate performance expectations in terms of
the scoring tool(s) by which the performances will be
judged.
Four essential features
1. Clear purposes
– Linkage to learning objectives
2. Observable aspects
– Performance criteria
3. Appropriate settings
– Natural vs specific situation, decision to be made
4. Judgement and Scores
– Assessors, tools, etc.
How many performance criteria?
• Assessment specialists differ in their views:
– Russell and Airasian: 6 to 12
– Jim Popham: 4 to 5
• The key: Don’t make the assessment task too
burdensome for assessors by specifying too many
criteria
• If you are judging a “live” performance that is not
videotaped, make certain that you have a manageable
set of criteria that you can accurately judge in that
limited time frame
Tools: checklists
• For two-category decisions
• list of specific behaviours, product characteristics,
or steps in a procedure
• Decisions:
– Yes/No
– Complete/Incomplete
– Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Example of a checklist
Example of a Checklist

Checklist for Pricing Analysis and Recommendations

Regarding a Proposed Guest Fee

(Hotel and Lodging Performance Event (Role Play))

(adapted from a sample event described at

http://www.collegiatedeca.org/competitions/college/)

Directions: Determine whether the student met each of these performance

indicators. If the student met a performance indicator, circle 1. If the student did
not meet the performance indicator, circle 0.

Did the participant: Yes No

1. Identify types of charges that can be posted to accounts? 1 0

2. Explain customer/client /business buying behavior? 1 0

3. Explain factors affecting pricing decisions? 1 0

4. Describe the role of business ethics in pricing? 1 0

5. Explain the nature and scope of pricing? 1 0

Tools: rating scales or rubrics
• For criteria requiring more than two categories for
decision making
• degree to which the characteristic or quality is
present
• Numerical versus graphic rating scales
• useful for low-stakes, formative assessment
purposes, but not for high-stakes, summative
purposes
 Example of a numerical rating scale
Example of Numerical Rating Scales

(Items adapted from tasks listed in the National Certificate (Vocational) NQF Level 2 Integrated Summative
Assessment Task, Hospitality, 2009)

Directions: Please rate the student’s performance of each task. Circle the number that indicates your judgment.

Very
How frequently does the student: Never Infrequently Occasionally Frequently Frequently

1. Follow the recipe accurately and use the 0 1 2 3 4

correct techniques for preparation and cooking

2. Use time efficiently 0 1 2 3 4

3. Follow all hygiene and safety procedures, 0 1 2 3 4

keeping working areas neat and clean and
handling waste correctly

4. Use kitchen utensils and equipment correctly 0 1 2 3 4

5. Use knives correctly 0 1 2 3 4

6. Store food and equipment correctly 0 1 2 3 4

Example of a graphic rating scale
Descriptive Graphic Rating Scales

Directions: Rate the student’s delivery of his/her oral presentation. Make your
ratings by placing an X anywhere along the horizontal line under each performance
criterion.

1. To what extent did the student maintain good posture?

________________________________________________________
| | | | |
Much Some Stands
distracting swaying, consistently
swaying, leaning, or without
leaning, or slouching, but swaying,
slouching not overly leaning, or
distracting slouching

2. To what extent did the student maintain eye contact with the audience?

________________________________________________________
| | | | |
No eye Some eye Consistent
contact contact, eye contact
initiated but not
consistent
Class activity for groups
• Design a score sheet to assess the performances
in an inter-class group singing/prose reading or
drama competition.
– What are the performance criteria?
– Which tool(s) will be used?
• Briefly explain your answer.
Common errors in rating
• Personal bias error
– generosity error,
– severity error,
– central tendency error
• Halo effect
– An assessor’s general impression of a person influences the rating of
individual characteristics, causing the person to receive similar
ratings on all characteristics, obscuring strengths and weaknesses
• Logical error
– An assessor rates two characteristics as more (or less) alike than
they are because of the assessor’s incorrect beliefs concerning their
relationship
Possible ways to overcome rating errors

• Training for assessors

• Use of standardized cases
• Monitoring assessors’ performance
• Double or multiple assessors
• Post-assessment data analysis
References:
Brookhart, S. (2015) Performance Assessment. Learning
Sciences International
https://www.learningsciences.com/wp-content/uploads
/2020/06/pa_lookinside.pdf

Stiggins, R. J. (1987) Design and Development of

Performance Assessments. Educational Measurement:
Issues and Practice Volume 6, Issue 3 p. 33-42
http://www.edmeasurement.net/resources/Module1Pe
rformanceAssessment-Stiggins1987.pdf