Unit 3: Performance Assessment

Topic 1: Performance Assessment and Its Types

Time Allotment: 3 hours

Learning Objectives
Upon the completion of this topic, you are expected to:
 Recall the concepts of performance assessment;
 Compare and contrast the types of performance assessment;
and
 Identify the characteristics of a good performance assessment.

Presentation of Content

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 a student understands and applies knowledge and goes
beyond the ability to recall information. It is used for assessing learning
outcomes that involve designing or creating of 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 a musical instrument, and demonstrating writing
skills through extemporaneous essay writing, article review and
reflective papers. Both product-based and performance-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.

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The table below presents some examples of product-based and

performance-based assessments.
Types Examples
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 paper, poems, story,
movie, TV scripts, portfolio,
essay, article report, research
paper, thesis

Verbal Products audiotapes, debates, lectures,

voice recording,
scripts

Performance-Based Assessment
Oral Presentations/ Demonstrations paper presentation, poster
presentation, individual 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, storytelling, poem
reading

Athletic Skills playing basketball, baseball,

Demonstration/Competition soccer, volleyball and other
sports

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Note: 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.

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 a putting up a new investment. This performance task
entails students to identify the market needs and gaps, plan out the
marketing mix (7Ps) and the 4Ms of operations, and forecast the costs
and revenues of the business. This task allows students to have hands-
on experience in performing a tasks 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- skills
competencies. Since the main goal of teaching and learning is for
students’ acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, course
assessment 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 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.”

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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
rubric can facilitate self-assessment and peer assessment.

4. It assesses more complex skills.

Unlike traditional tests that usually assess a single skills 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 projects, the expected quality and level
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 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.