CHAPTER 3

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT

Overview
Traditional testing cannot 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 chapter discusses about performance assessment. The nature,
principles, types, characteristics and steps in designing performance-based assessment
are presented in this chapter.

What to Expect?
At the end of the chapter, the students can:

1. define performance assessment,

2. discuss the difference between a product- and process- based performance
assessment,
3. describe the characteristics of a good performance assessment,
4. enumerate the steps in conducting performance assessments,
5. explain the significance of performance assessment as compared to paper-and-
pencil assessment, and
6. design appropriate performance assessment tools for intended student learning
outcomes.

What is performance assessment?

Performance assessment or performance-based 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 is a form of testing that requires students to
perform a task rather than select an answer from a ready-made list. It provides teachers
with information about how well a student understands and applies knowledge and goes
beyond the ability to recall information.
Performance-based tasks or activities that best exemplified performance-based
assessments include actual performances of making 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. These may also
include asking students to explain historical events, generate scientific hypotheses,
solve math problems, converse in a foreign language, or conduct research on an
assigned topic.

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 Performance assessment provides 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.
In defining the purpose of assessment, the teacher should identify whether the
students will have to demonstrate a process or a product. If the learning outcomes deal
on the procedures which you could specify, then it focuses on process assessment.
Process-based performance assessment evaluates the actual task performance rather
than the output or product of an activity. This assessment aims to know what processes
a person undergoes when given a task. In assessing the process, it is essential that
assessment should be done while the students are performing the procedures or step.
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.
Sometimes, even though you teach specific process, the learning outcomes
simply imply that the major focus is product that the student produces. Nitko (2011)
suggested focusing assessment on the product students produce if most or all of the
evidence about their achievement of the learning targets is found in the product itself,
and little or none of the evidence you need to evaluate students is found in the
procedures they use or the ways in which they perform. Assessment of products must
be done if the students will produce a variety of better ways to produce high quality
products, sometimes, method or sequence does not make much difference as long as
the product is the focus of the assessment.
Both product-based and process-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 process-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

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B. Process-Based Assessment
Oral Paper presentation, poster presentation, individual
Presentations/Demonstrations 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 Playing basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball,
Demonstration/Competition and other sports

Similar to performance assessment is the concept of authentic assessment.

Authentic assessment requires students to actually demonstrate 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, 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 putting up a new
investment. This performance task entails students to identify the market needs and
gaps, plan out the marketing mix 7Ps (product, price, place, promotion, people, process
and physical) and the 4Ms (money, materials, manpower, machine) of operations, and
forecast the cost and revenues of the business. This task slows 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

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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 judgement 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 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 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 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

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projects, the expected quality and level of 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 the opportunity to give feedback on teacher-made
rubrics and to revise them, and training them on how to apply for self- and peer-
assessment.

What are the general guidelines in designing performance assessment?

The learning outcomes at the end of the course serves as the bases in designing
the performance assessment tasks. With the 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 evidences are then identified. To guide you in
designing performance assessments, 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 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, following three-
course components should be explicitly clear and linked, as shown below:

Intended Learning Teaching-Learning Performance Assessment

Outcomes Activities Tasks
At the end of the course,
the students should be
able to:
 Perform dance routines Lecture, class discussion, Culminating dance class
and creatively combine movement exercises, recitals, practical test for
variations with rhythm, dance demonstration, each type of dance,
coordination, correct actual dancing with teacher reflection papers, peer
footwork technique, and partners, collaborative evaluation rating
frame, facial and body learning
expressions
 Participate in dance Required attendance and Actual dance performance
socials and other participation in school and in school or community
community fitness community dance programs, reaction/reflection
advocacy projects. performances papers

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How do you conduct performance assessment?
Unlike in most traditional tests wherein student responses can be scored using
an answer key, performance assessments require the teacher’s and peers’ judgement
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 the basic steps in planning and implementing performance
(process)-based or product-based assessments:

1. Define the purpose of performance or product-based assessment.

The first step in designing performance-based assessments is to define the

purpose of assessment. Defining the purpose of assessment provides information on
what students need to perform in a task given. Purpose must be specified at the
beginning of the process so that proper kinds of performance criteria and scoring
procedures can be established. Basic questions which teachers ask in determining
possible learning competencies to be considered are listed below.

Five Questions to consider in Determining Competencies

Questions Examples
1. What important cognitive skills or  communicate effectively in writing
attributes do I want my students to  employ algebra to solve real-life
develop? problems
2. What social and affective skills or  Work independently
attributes do I want my students to  Appreciate individual differences
develop?
3. What metacognitive skills do I  Reflect on the writing process
want my students to develop?  Self-monitor progress while working on
the independent project
4. What types of problems do I want  Perform research
my students to be able to solve?  Predict consequences
5. What concepts and principles do I  Understand cause-and-effect
want my students to be apply to relationships
apply?  Use principles of ecology and
conservation

Example of process-oriented performance-based assessment in which the main

domain is Oral Language and Fluency (Enclosure No. 4, DepEd Order No. 73, s. 2012).

Subject: English Grade 7

Content Standard: The students demonstrate oral language proficiency and
fluency in various social contexts.
Performance Standard: The learner proficiently renders rhetorical pieces.
Task: Oral-aural Production (The teacher may use dialogs or
passages from other written or similar texts).
Specific competencies:
1. Observe the right syllable stress pattern in different categories
2. Observe the use of the rising and falling intonation, rising intonation, and the
combination of both intonation patterns in utterances
3. Demonstrate how prosodic patterns affect understanding of the message.

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 Example of product-oriented performance-based assessment task.

Performance Task: Creating a Book Cover

Competencies: The students should be able to:
1. Generate appropriate shots for book cover using digital camera,
2. Use a page lay-out software (MS Publisher) or presentation software (MS
Powerpoint);
3. Create size estimation of image, shapes, and textbox in terms of
importance, emphasis and visual hierarchy, and
4. Demonstrate skills in information design principles such as clarity, balance,
relevance contrast, alignment, repetition and proximity

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 output. The performance tasks should be interesting,
challenging, achievable, and with sufficient depth and breadth so that valid evaluation
about students’ learning can be made.
Example of process-oriented performance task on problem-solving and decision-
making.

Key Competencies:
1. Use reading skills and strategies to comprehend and interpret what is read.
2. Demonstrate competence in speaking and listening as tools for learning
3. Construct complex sentences.
Your friend is going through a difficult time. You have tried talking about the
issue but to no avail. After much thought you recall a book you had read where the
character went through a similar experience as your friend. How might the book
help your friend deal with the problem? What other sources of information or
resources could you find to help your friend? What might be some strategies your
friend could use? Use your writing skills to compose a letter to your friend as to why
he should read the book or resources you have collected. Be sure your letter
contains examples from the readings, your feelings and encouragement.
As a problem solver, devise a plan to meet with your friend to identify possible
solutions to the problem after he has read the materials. Be sure you are
considerate of feelings and outline steps you’ll take to make sure your discussion is
one of collaboration.
You will be assessed on your ability to make informed decisions, your ability
to create a letter with complex sentences, your ability to solve problem ad your
ability to work collaboratively with a peer.
Adapted from Educational Planning, Portland Public Schools

The example below shows performance task for product-oriented performance-

based assessment.

Competency: Prepare Useful Solution

Performance Task:
Barangay Luntian is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the theme
“Kalikasan Ko, Mahal Ko”. The barangay captain called for a council meeting to
discuss the preparations for the program. As a councilor, you are asked to take
charge of the preparation of “Natural Beverage” for the guests. This healthful drink
should promote your locally produced fruits or vegetables as well as health and
wellness. On your next council meeting, you will present your plan for the
preparation of the drink and let the council member do the taste testing. The
council members will rate your drink based on the following criteria: practicality,
preparation, availability of materials, composition of solution(drink).

Taken from Enclosure No. 4, DepEd Order No. 73 , s. 2012

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3. Define the criteria. Criteria are guidelines or rules for judging student responses,
products, or performances. Before conducting the assessment, the performance
criteria should be predetermined. The set of criteria should be discussed and agreed
upon by the teachers and the students. Performance criteria are important since they
define for the students the types 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 objectively and as consistent as possible. There are four types of criteria
that can be used for evaluating student performances:

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 the aspects of performance that will be assessed, (2)
performance descriptors or the characteristics associated with each dimension or
criterion, 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 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 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 that 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 for oral presentation and another rubric for applicable
only for research output)
Note: Discussions about rubrics will be dealt again more deeply in Chapter 6.

5. Assess student’s performance/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 to students on
how to they have performed the tasks, clarifying to them what they understand, what
they don’t understand, and where they can improve.

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Summary

 Performance Assessment refers to 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.
 The characteristics of a good performance assessment are (1) it is authentic, that
is, it includes performance tasks that are meaningful and realistic, (2) it provides
opportunities for students to show both what they know and how well they can do
what they know, (3) it allows students to be involved in the in the process of
evaluating their own ad their peers’ performance and output, (4) it assesses more
complex skills, and (5) it explains the task, required elements, and scoring criteria
to the students before the start of the activity and the assessment.
 To guide you in designing performance assessments, 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?, (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, 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, and (7) what are specific
performance indicators for each criterion?
 The basic steps in planning and implementing performance-based or product-
based assessments are: (1) define the purpose of performance or product-based
assessment, (2) choose the activity/output that you will assess, (3) define the
Enrichment
criteria, (4) create the performance rubric, and (5) assess student’s
performance/product

Enrichment
To read or view more on the following topics, please visit the links below.
a. Performance-Based Assessment in Math
https://www.edutopia.org/practice/performance-based-assessment-making-
math-relevant
b. Performance-Based Assessment: Reviewing the Basics
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/performance-based-assessment-reviewing-
basics-patricia-hilliard
c. Video-Discussion of Performance Assessment
i. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPs_Uzc7NuQ
ii. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYcGO1Izs-U

Assessment
A. Let us review what you have learned about designing performance assessment
tasks.
1. What are the types of performance assessments?
2. What are the characteristics of a good performance assessment?
3. What are the general guidelines in designing performance assessments?
4. What are the basic steps in conducing performance (process) -based or product-
based assessments?

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 To be able to check whether you have learned the important information about
identifying and designing performance assessments, please complete the following

graphical representation:
B. Differentiate process-oriented from product-oriented performance-based
assessment using the template provided.

C. In your field of specialization, identify several learning outcomes which can be best
measured with performance-based assessment tasks. For each learning
competency, formulate three tasks.

Field of Specialization: __________________

Learning Competencies Performance Tasks

D. By now, you should be ready to design effective performance assessments to

assess your student learning outcomes. Let us apply what you have learned by
creating an assessment plan for the subjects that you are currently teaching. For
each subject, list down the desired learning outcomes and course topic for each
desired learning outcome and identify the appropriate performance tasks to assess
students’ achievement of the expected outcome. It is important that you have an
assessment plan for each subject that you teach.
Example of a Performance Assessment Plan:

Subject: General Chemistry Laboratory 1

Overall Desired Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course, the
students are expected to execute procedural tasks in laboratory experiments and
to apply proper waste disposal procedures.

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 Desired Learning Course Topic Types of Performance
Outcomes Tasks
Design simple experiments All topics with Oral Presentation of
to test hypotheses experiments experiment
plans/protocol, pre-lab
exercises, oral
presentation of
experiment results
Properly use and handle All topics with Actual laboratory
equipment and chemicals experiments performance
Practice good laboratory All topics with Actual laboratory
skills and techniques experiments performance
Practice All topics with Peer evaluation through
teamwork/collaborative experiments rubric
skills
Apply concepts, theories End of the course Projects, products
and ideas learned in a “real
world” setting

Use the following template to come up with your performance assessment plan.
Subject: ______________
Overall Desired Learning Outcomes:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Desired Learning Course Topic Types of Performance
Outcomes Tasks

References
Cajigal, R. and Mantuano, M.L. (2014). Assessment of Learning 2. Quezon City:
Adriana Publishing Co., Inc.
David et al. (2020). Assessment in Learning 2. Manila: Rex Book Store.
De Guzman, Estefania S. & Adamos, Joel L. (2015). Assessment of Learning 1.
Quezon City: Adriana Publishing Co., Inc.
Jones, Cheryl A. (2005). Assessment for Learning. Learning and Skills Development
Agency. Argyll Street. London: Regent Arcade House.
Navarro, Rosita L. & De Guzman-Santos, Rosita (2013). Authentic Assessment of
Student Learning Outcomes (Assessment of Learning 2) 2nd Edition. Quezon
City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.
Navarro, Rosita L. & De Guzman-Santos, Rosita (2013). Assessment of Learning
Outcomes (Assessment 1). Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.
Walvoord, Barbara E. & Anderson, Virginia Johnson. (2009) Effective Grading: A Tool
for Learning and Assessment in College. 2nd Edition. San Francisco, California:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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