MODULE 2

Learning Objectives

1. Be aware on the nature, principles, types, advantages, and limitations of performance-

based assessment
2. Apply the principles in constructing and interpreting performance-based assessment
3. Be able to develop a portfolio of performance-based assessment tools that measures
learners’ competencies of a given subject

Lesson 1 Nature of Performance Based Assessment

Introduction

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 lesson gives an
introduction to performance assessment. It discusses the nature, principles, types, advantages,
and limitations of performance-based assessment.

ENGAGE
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
(eg, 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. 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 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 completed. These
could be in form of problem-solving demonstration, tasks and other authentic experiences that
would influence the thinking processes, skills and product required from performance tasks.
Below are some performance-based assessment task (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 21" 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 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 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 task multiple
correct answers, and fast-paced performances, scoring depends on teacher 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 Weaknesses
Integrates assessment with instruction. Reliability may be difficult to establish.

Learning occurs during assessment. Measurement error due to subjective nature of

the scoring may be significant.
Provides opportunities for formative
assessment. Inconsistent student performance across time
may result in inaccurate conclusions.
Tends to be more authentic than other types of
assessments. Few samples of student achievement.

More engaging, active involvement of Requires considerable teacher time to prepare

students. and student time to complete.

Provides additional way for students to show Difficult plan for amount of time needed.
what they know and can do.
Limited ability to generalize to a larger domain
Emphasis on reasoning skills. of knowledge.

Forces teachers to establish specific criteria to

identify successful performance.

Encourages student self-assessment.

Emphasis on application of knowledge.
EXPLORE
Think of a slogan that would describe performance-based assessment. Tell something
about your slogan and share it with your classmates.

APPLY
Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________________
A. Form a group with 3-5 members each. Brainstorm on the nature of the performance based-
assessment and create a webbing as a graphic organizer.

Webbing is a graphic organizer that provides picture of how words or phrases connect to
an object, concept or topic.

PERFORMANCE
BASED
ASSESSMENT

B. List down five activities which are considered as the list you have made, what do you think
are the competencies to be accomplished? What assessment procedures were done by the
Instructor?
 Activities Competencies Assessment Procedure/s

ASSESS
Name: ______________________________________ Date: __________________________

A. 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.

Performance Task to be
Types of Performance Tasks Workable Tasks (Authentic)
Undertaken
B. Plus - Minus - Interesting Framework Write down the pluses and minuses of using Performance-
Based Assessment.

Plus (+) Minus (-) Interesting (?)

Example: Clarifies the meaning Requires a considerable time to To what extent does
of complex learning targets in construct, complete and score. Performance-based assessment
authentic contexts. measure the level of authenticity?
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

LEARNING KEY POINTS

 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).
 Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) is an alternative form of assessment that moves
away from traditional paper-and-pencil tests (Ferman, 2005). It involves students to produce
project, whether it is an oral, written or group performance.
 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.
 Linn (1995) stated that performance assessments provide 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).
 Genuine performance assessments must possess at least three features: (a) Multiple
evaluation criteria; (b) Pre-specified quality standards; and (c) Judgmental appraisal.
(Popham, 2011)
 Performance task could be in the form of problem-solving, demonstration, developing
exhibits, presentation tasks and other authentic experiences.