Unit 5: Evaluating Pupils’ Achievement in Social Studies
How can we evaluate our pupils’ achievement?
What is assessment?
 Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it
determines whether or not the goals of education are
being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades,
placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum,
and, in some cases, funding. Assessment inspire us to ask
these hard questions: "Are we teaching what we think we
are teaching?" "Are students learning what they are
supposed to be learning?" "Is there a way to teach the
subject better, thereby promoting better learning?"
Authentic Assessment
 An authentic assessment is designed to resemble complex
and real-life situations. Teachers can design assessments
that feel realistic in nature to see how a student will
approach and resolve a problem. While traditional tests
have right or wrong answers, authentic assessments have
varying solutions based on how a student comes to
interpret and solve a challenge, problem or task.
 Authentic assessments can be created for any subject
matter. Overall, they tend to fulfill this criteria:
1) Realistic in nature
2) Asks the students to actively “perform” the subject matter in a
sense
3) Resemble the workplace or societal environment
4) Require innovation and critical-thinking
5) Allow opportunities for consultation and/or feedback
Why Use Authentic Assessment?
In some cases, authentic assessment may be a better alternative to
traditional tests. In other cases, it may work best in combination
with tests. There are several benefits and reasons to use authentic
assessment. It’s best to implement when:
1) You want to directly measure understanding on a topic or idea
2) There are various ways to demonstrate understanding
3) You want to see learning in action
4) You want to integrate teaching, assessment, and learning all
together
A. TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT
 Traditional assessment refers to such testing techniques
as multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blanks, true-false,
matching, and essays.
 Assessments that use traditional methods(e.g., quiz) as a
means for evaluating student performance.
 Traditional form of student assessment involves the
average grading of a set of standardized test questions
with a limited number of answer choices to be responded
at a given time period.
Traditional Assessment Vs. Authentic Assessment: The Differences
Characteristics of Traditional Tests
 Have one correct response
 Do not have real-world constraints
 Isolate skills, facts, and specific knowledge
 Results in a score
 Are unknown in advance
 Are graded easily
Characteristics of authentic ctests
 Are meant to be known to students in advance
 Are complex and have multiple right answers
 Contain recurring tasks
 Have real-world constraints
 Provide insight to a student’s knowledge
B. PORTFOLIO
 A portfolio is a collection of students’ work over a period
of time. It could be day-to-day workor selection of the
learner’s best piece of work. Think of a file which contains
whatever a child has written for one year. It would give a
chronological picture of how a child has undergone the
learning process. Learning is not a mystery. It is the sum
total of the efforts put by the child and facilitated by the
teacher.
The file we are thinking of documents all such efforts. Briefly, a
portfolio can include the following.
 the work done by the child
 the feedback given by the teacher
 the observations made the by child on his/her own
learning
 the observations made the by child on his/her own
learning record of activities undertaken by the child at
home or out of classroom contexts
 a record of activities undertaken by the child at home or
out of classroom contexts
There is no rule as such as to what should or should not be included
in a portfolio. The aim is to provide a comprehensive profile of the
child as a learner. But depending on the requirements, sometimes
we can prepare a separate portfolio for evaluation purposes. The
bulky file that is created in a year's time cannot be handled easily.
Nor is it possible to send it to the parents. Such a bundle of
information may not make much sense either. So a separate file
which is an extract of a year's work can be prepared. This might
include the best works of the child over a period of time, the
observations of the teacher and the reflections of the child.
In portfolio assessments summing up student learning in marks
obtained through a term end test is not held very important.
Evaluation is to help the learner reflect and improve his/her efforts.
Evaluation should help the teacher develop better insights in to the
students' different styles of learning. Portfolios of children are in
away all-inclusive records of the learning processes the students
engage themselves in.
C. Performance task
Performance assessments are a useful tool for evaluating a
student's understanding of a subject and if they're able to apply
their knowledge in specific situations. Educators use performance
assessment soften to identify the best methods for teaching
students and assisting them throughout their learning process in a
course.
Why are performance assessments used?
Here is a list of reasons an educator may decide to use a
performance assessment:
1) Performance assessments can engage and pique the interest of
students.
2) Performance assessments can be accurate indicators of what
students know and whether they can use their knowledge.
3) Performance assessments can increase instructor confidence
by allowing them to evaluate lesson plan effectiveness.
4) Performance assessment tasks can identify how well an
instructor is teaching and provide progress reports for student
learning.
D. Scoring rubrics
A rubric is a learning and assessment tool that articulates the
expectations for assignment sand performance tasks by listing
criteria, and for each criteria, describing levels of quality (Andrade,
2000; Arter&Chappuis, 2007; Stiggins, 2001).
Rubrics contain four essential features (Stevens&Levi,2013):
1. a task description or a descriptive title of the task students
are expected to produce or perform;
2. a scale (and scoring) that describes the level of mastery
(e.g., exceed expectation, meets expectation, doesn't
meet expectation);
3. components/dimensions students are to attend to in
completing the assignment/tasks (e.g., types of skills,
knowledge, etc.); and
4. description of the performance quality(performance
descriptor) of the components/dimensions at each level of
mastery.
 A rubric can be analytic or holistic. An analytic rubric
articulates different dimensions of performance and
provides ratings for each dimension.
 A holistic rubric describes the over-all characteristics of a
performance and provides a single score.
Here are some pros and cons: Why You Should Consider Rubrics
HOLISTIC RUBRIC Rubrics help instructors:
ADVANTAGE 1. Provide students with feedback that is clear, directed and
 Emphasize What Learners Can Do focused on ways to improve learning.
 Easy to Create and Use 2. Demystify assignment expectations so students can focus
 Consistent and Reliable on the work instead of guessing "what the teacher
DISADVANTAGE wants."
 No Place for Specific Feedback 3. Adapt your approach to teaching aspects of a course
 Scoring Can Be Challenging based on thematic gaps in student learning that are easily
 Criteria Are Not Weighted identified by reviewing rubrics across a class.
ANALYTIC RUBRIC 4. Develop consistency in how you evaluate student learning
ADVANTAGE across students and throughout a class.
 Feedback on Strengths and Weaknesses ü 5. Reduce time spent on grading; Increase time spent on
 Criteria Are Weighted teaching.
DISADVANTAGE Rubrics help students:
 Time-Consuming to Create 1. Focus their efforts on completing assignments in line with
 Consistency Can Be an Issue clearly set expectations.
2. Self and Peer-reflect on their learning, making informed
changes to achieve the desired learning level.
Getting Started with Rubrics
STEP 1: Clarify task/performance expectations.
STEP 2: Identify the characteristics of student performances. What is
it that students are supposed to demonstrate (skills, knowledge,
behaviors, etc.)? [components/dimensions]
STEP 3: Identify how many mastery levels are needed for each
performance component/dimension. Decide what score should be
allocated for each level. [scale] STEP 4: Describe performance
characteristics of each component/dimension for each mastery
level. [performance descriptor]
STEP 5: Pilot-test the rubric with a few sample papers and/or get
feedback from your colleagues (and students) on the rubric. Revise
the rubric