UNIT 3: Performance Assessment

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the unit, the students should be able to:
1. Identify the appropriate performance assessment tool for a specific performance or product
2. Create a performance assessment tool that is aligned with the desired learning outcomes and
teaching and learning activities

Module Content

What is Performance Assessment?

Performance 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 provides teachers with information about how well the students understand and apply knowledge
and go beyond the ability to recall information. It is used for assessing learning outcomes that involves designing or
creating projects or products such as research papers, art exhibits, reflective essays and portfolios. On the other hand,
performance-based tasks include actual performances of making those products, such as carrying out laboratory
experiments, exhibiting creative and artistic talents such as dancing, painting and playing musical instrument and
demonstrating writing skills through extemporaneous essay writing, article review and reflective papers. Both product-
based and performance-based assessment 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 performance-based assessment.
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, position papers,
poems, story, movie scripts, portfolio, essay, article report, research
paper, thesis
Verbal Products Audiotapes, debates, lectures, voice recording, scripts
B. Performance-Based Assessment
Oral presentations/Demonstration Paper presentation, poster presentation, individual or group report
on assigned topic, skills demonstration such as baking, teaching,
cooking
Dramatic/Creative Performances Dance, recital, dramatic enactment, prose or poetry interpretation,
role playing, playing musical instrument
Public Speaking Debates, mock trial, simulations, interviews, panel discussions,
storytelling, poem reading
Athletic Skills Demonstration/Competition Playing basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports

Similar to performance assessment is the concept of authentic assessment. Authentic assessment requires
students to actually demonstrates 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 do 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 tasks entails students to identify the market needs and gaps, plan out the
marketing mix (7Ps) and 4Ms of operations and forecast the cost and revenues of the business. This task allows
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 too 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 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 tasks will not only inform the teacher whether the students learned the different parts of the
research paper but also whether the students can conceptualize a good research paper, conduct a 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 task that can measure both competencies
of “knowing” and “applying” 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 judgment 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 marketing
class, the teacher may require the students to conduct marketing and market research, come up with 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 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 projects, the expected quality and level of performance or
output, the criteria to be included for assessment and the rubrics to be used. Ideally, the 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 and allowing them assessment options,
getting them involved in the discussions and decision-making on performance standards and criteria, allowing them
opportunity to give feedback on teacher-made rubrics and to revise them, and training them on how to apply rubric for
self- and peer- assessment.

What are the General Guidelines in Designing Performance Assessment?

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

Intended Learning Outcomes Teaching-Learning Activities Performance Assessment Tasks

At the end of the course, the
students should be able to:
• Perform dance routines
and creatively combine
variations with rhythm,
coordination, correct
Lecture class discussion Culminating dance class recitals,
Movement exercises practical for each type of dance,
Dance Demonstration reflection papers, peer evaluation
Actual Dancing with teacher and rating
partners
 footwork technique, frame,
facial and body expression.
• Participate in dance socials
and other community
fitness advocacy projects
Collaborative learning
Required attendance and Actual dance performance in school
participation in school and or community programs,
community dance performance reaction/reflection papers

How Do You Conduct Performance Assessment?

Unlike in most traditional tests wherein student responses can be scored using an answer key, performance
assessments require teacher’s and peers’ judgment 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 basic steps in planning and implementing performance-based or product-based
assessments:
1. Define the purpose of performance or product based-assessment.
The teacher may ask the following questions:
- What concept, skill or knowledge of the students should be assessed?
- At what level should the students be performing?
- What type of knowledge is being assessed (e.g. remembering, understanding…creating)?

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
product. The performance tasks should be interesting, challenging and achievable and with sufficient depth and breadth
so that valid evaluation about students’ learning can be made.

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

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 aspects of performance that
will be assessed, 2) performance descriptors or the characteristics associated with each dimension or criteria 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 the 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 a 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 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 in
oral presentation and another rubric applicable only for research output.

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