EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I

Republic of the Philippines

Southern Leyte State University-Hinunangan Campus
Hinunangan, Southern Leyte

Module I Lesson 3:
Nature of Performance-Based 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 judgement, critical thinking and decision-making are the 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 module gives an introduction to performance assessment. It
discusses the nature, principles, types, advantages, and limitations of performance-based assessment.
Word Bank

Performance tasks Authentic Performance-based assessments

Process Product

Lesson 1: Types of Assessment

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the module the students will be able to:

1) Define, discuss, and analyze the nature and essential characteristics of performance-based
assessment;
2) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of performance-based assessment; and
3) Apply the principles in constructing and interpreting performance-based assessment

HENRY D. COMETA
EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I

In the previous section, we examined the principles of high quality assessment by integrating basic concepts of
assessment and discussing thoroughly the different types of assessment being utilized in the teaching and learning process.
These forms of assessment have been very effective in determining learning outcomes of the students.
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

Performance-Based Assessment 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.
Performance-Based Assessment (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 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 assessments 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 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 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 "How do we want them to provide evidence that they can transfer their learning to real life
situations?"
Moreover, Linn (1995) stated that performance assessments 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 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.
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.

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EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I
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):
 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. 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.
All educational institution expect students to demonstrate different skills in various learning areas and most often
subjected to classroom performance assessment. Some characteristics of this 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 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):
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 21st 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.
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 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

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EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I
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.

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 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

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EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I
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 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
Integrates assessment with instruction. Learning occurs
during assessment.
Provides opportunities for formative assessment.
Tends to be more authentic than other
WEAKNESS
Reliability may be difficult to establish.
Measurement error due to subjective nature of the scoring
may be significant. Inconsistent student performance
across time may result in inaccurate conclusions. Few
samples of student achievement.

Types of assessments. Requires considerable teacher time to

More engaging; active involvement of students.
Provides additional way for students to show what they
know and can do.
Emphasis on reasoning skills.
Prepare and student time to complete. Difficult to plan for
amount of time needed.
Limited ability to generalize to a larger domain of
knowledge.

Forces teachers to establish specific criteria to identify

successful performance.

Encourages student self-assessment.

HENRY D. COMETA
EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I
Emphasis on application of knowledge. Encourages re-
examination of instructional goals and the purpose of
schooling. Tell something about your slogan….

Progress assessment evaluates gradual improvements in student performance over time rather than
aiming for mastery of a small quantity of knowledge. Understanding the problem, creating an
Name: Engcoy,achievable
Wella Mae goal,
T.. finding the drivers that could help achieve that goal, and then testing tiny ideas to
change those drivers are the main elements of the approach. This cycle of improvement is
Year & Major:accelerated
BSED-ENGLISHwhen3done in a network since different members try different change ideas and share
their findings with the group. A few change ideas will climb to the top and can be scaled across a
system as a result of the constant interplay of various aspects.
LEARNING TASK (Module 1 Lesson 3)

Activate Prior Knowledge

Think of a slogan that would describe performance-based assessment.

Assessment & Application

Write Your Slogan here…
A. List down three activities which are considered as performance-based output. From the
Each
list you have, what andthink
do you every assessment
are the is to
competencies a be
work in progress. A
accomplished?
What assessment procedures were done by the instructor?
process of constant improvement in which potential
is realized.

HENRY D. COMETA
EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2
Activities Competencies
Creativity and Innovation Creative Consciousness
Level of Curiosity
Pattern Breaking Skills
Idea Nurturing Ability
Willingness to Experiment and
Take Risks
Courage and Resilience Level
Energetic Persistence
Critical Thinking and Problem the ability to solve issues
Solving effectively using knowledge,
facts, and data
Communication and Clear communication, active
Collaboration listening, taking responsibility
for mistakes, and valuing the
diversity of your coworkers are
all important skills to have.
B. As a teacher education student, think of a subject you plan to teach and make
workable tasks which are applicable to your teaching situation in the different
types of performance assessment.
Types of performance tasks Performance task to be taken
Presentations. Report on a topic or text,
narrate a tale, or retell an
experience using pertinent
information and descriptive
details while speaking clearly
and at a reasonable pace.
MODULE I
Assessment Procedures
-through examining many
points of view, solving
obstacles, and applying
concepts in unexpected
circumstances - employing
diagnostic and formative
assessments, as well as
providing pertinent remarks
with the use of meaningful
activities and a wide range of
possibilities
utilized to solve issues and
make decisions, and to
examine the extent of a
person's consistent internal
motivation or willingness to
use critical thinking abilities
when it counts in decision
making using a critical thinking
mindset measure
Group discussions, group
projects, and peer review.
Workable tasks ( Authentic)
Allow students to work in
groups if they want to.
Organize for numerous
groups to give presentations
at the same time.
Make it a challenge.
The teacher interrogates the
students.
The students inquire.
Feedback is given by
students.
Presentation duties can be
made more enjoyable,
productive, and manageable
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EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2
Portfolios Student writings, artwork, lab
reports, and reading logs are
included in this book.
Performances. Dramatic performances
MODULE I
by involving the audience
and making the practice
communicative.
Their portfolios frequently
contain engaging stories
about the students'
development as artists and
display their abilities
through a selection of real-
life performances. To
capture the range of
displays of meaningful
application from students
within these fields,
educators are spreading this
story-telling to other
subjects such as physical
education, mathematics,
and the social sciences.
Students can produce,
perform, and/or respond
critically to anything. Dance,
recitals, and dramatic
enactment are among
examples. It's possible that
the interpretation will be in
prose or poetry.

C. Discuss briefly the characteristics of performance-based assessment.

Use the table below.

Characteristics Brief discussion

1. Complex The vision that is inspiring many of the current efforts

to change assessment is direct assessment of
complex performances. More open-ended problems,
essays, hands-on science problems, computer
simulations of real-world problems, and portfolios of
student work are just a few examples.
2. Authentic A task for students to do and a rubric to evaluate
their success on the activity are frequently included
in an authentic assessment. Many examples of
authentic activities and rubrics can be found by
following the links below.
3. Product- PRODUCT-ORIENTED PERFORMANCE BASED
oriented ASSESSMENT – A product-oriented assessment is one
in which the assessor looks at and rates the finished

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EDUC 3110 Assessment of Learning 2 MODULE I
product rather than the actual process of making it. It
is only the product that is of concern, not the
procedure.
4. Open-minded The ability to be open to new ideas, approaches, or
proposals based on the information provided. Open-
mindedness, on the other hand, can be beneficial.
We are more inclined to consider creative, inventive,
or unusual techniques when we are open to new
ideas. We are also more receptive to feedback on our
own performance and suggestions for how we may
improve in the future. Learners who are open-
minded are more self-aware, well-liked by others,
and eager to improve their abilities.
5. Time-bound A Performance Based Assessment can be completed
in a short or extended period of time. Some tasks can
take many weeks or even a semester to complete.

HENRY D. COMETA