Authentic Assessment in Teaching and Learning

10 Questions

What is a key characteristic of authentic assessment?

Challenging learners to demonstrate real-world knowledge and skills

In authentic assessment, what is the goal for students?

To transfer classroom knowledge to real-life scenarios

How has higher education assessment culture shifted?

Towards encouraging students to be responsible for their learning

What is a key focus of authentic assessment formats?

Focusing on higher order cognition skills

Why is it important to use authentic assessment according to the text?

To help students develop attributes needed in unknown future work scenarios

Which type of skill is NOT considered a twenty-first-century skill?

Following instructions

Which of the following is NOT a way of thinking skill included in the twenty-first-century skills?

Collaboration (teamwork)

Which skill is NOT included in the 'Living in the world' category of twenty-first-century skills?

Critical thinking

When planning for authentic assessment, what is the main aspect that needs to be linked to course learning outcomes and activities?

Authentic learning activities and resources

In the context of authentic assessment, where does the continuum of different task types range from?

Non-academic settings to university-based

Study Notes

Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment represents meaningful and significant forms of accomplishment, demonstrating mastery of skills and knowledge needed in real-life settings.
It involves applying learned knowledge to real-life scenarios, demonstrating mastery by transferring classroom knowledge to outside world situations.

Shift in Higher Education Assessment

Shift from objective and standardized testing culture to one that encourages:
- Student responsibility for their own learning
- Interpretation, performance, and collaboration
- Use of higher-order cognition skills
- Various assessment formats
- Formative and summative purposes
- Focus on learning and competence development (Gulikers et al., 2004)

Importance of Authentic Assessment

Helps students become lifelong learners
Develops soft skills and 21st-century skills, including:
- Ways of thinking (creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making)
- Ways of working (communication, collaboration)
- Tools for working (information literacy, ICT literacy)
- Living in the world (citizenship, life and career, personal and social responsibility) (Binkley et al., 2012)

Planning for Authentic Assessment

Adopt an active learning and student-centered approach to teaching and learning
Link authentic assessment to course learning outcomes and authentic learning activities and resources
Consider a continuum of task types, from university-based to workplace-based activities