Performance & Product-Based Assessment

Performance Assessment Defined

• Assessment activity that requires students to generate products or performances.
• Offers direct or indirect evidence of their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
• Gives teachers information about a student's comprehension and application skills.
• Assessment goes beyond the capacity to remember information.

Product-Based Assessment

• Used to assess learning outcomes by designing or creating projects.
• Examples of projects include research papers, art exhibits, reflective essays, and portfolios.

Types of Products

• Visual: Charts, illustrations, graphs, collages, murals, maps, timeline flows, diagrams, posters, advertisements, video presentations, art exhibits.
• Kinesthetic: Dioramas, puzzles, games, sculptures, exhibits, dance recitals.
• Written: Journals, diaries, logs, reports, abstracts, letters, thought or position papers, poems, stories, movie/TV scripts, portfolios, essays, article reports, research papers, theses.
• Verbal: Audio tapes, debates, lectures, voice recordings, scripts.

Performance-Based Tasks

• Actual performances of creating products.
• Performances include laboratory experiments and exhibiting creative and artistic talents.
• Dancing, painting, and playing a musical instrument apply.
• Writing skills can be shown through extemporaneous speaking, article reviews, and reflective papers.

Oral Presentations/Demonstrations

• Paper and poster presentations for Assigned topics.
• This includes individual or group reports.
• Demonstration of skills include baking, teaching, and problem-solving.

Dramatic/Creative Performances

• Dance, recital, dramatic enactment, or poetry interpretation.
• Also includes role-playing, and playing musical instruments.

Public Speaking

• Debates, mock trials, simulations, interviews, and panel discussions apply.
• Storytelling and poem reading are included.

Athletic Skills

• Demonstrations and competitions include basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, and other sports.

Authentic Assessment Defined

• Requires students to demonstrate their skills and knowledge learned from class.
• Tasks are as close as possible to real-world settings or contexts.
• Examples include doing actual research, making a case study, giving a speech, or performing on a stage.

Characteristics of a Good Performance Assessment

• Authentic - includes meaningful and realistic performance tasks.
• Provides opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know.
• The goal of teaching and learning is the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills. -Course assessments should answer "Do the students know it?" and "How well can they use what they know?".
• Allows students to evaluate their own and their peers’ performance and output.
• Self-assessment lets students judge their learning process, track progress, and find areas to improve.
• Peer assessment allows students to give constructive feedback that can be used to improve.
• Scoring or grading must be based on criteria set by the teacher and students, using a rubric.
• Assesses more complex skills, unlike traditional tests that assess a single skill by remembering concepts.
• Performance assessment allows students to engage higher order cognitive skills to solve realistic problems.
• Activities require skills like planning, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and creative skills.
• Explains the task, required elements, and scoring criteria to students before starting the activity/assessment.
• It is important to present the subject requirements, including tasks, activities, projects, and expected quality.
• Assessment criteria and the rubric to be used must also be explained.
• Students should be involved in the assessment process, by providing input, and giving feedback.
• Students should provide feedback and revise teacher-made rubrics, and training on rubric use.

General Guidelines in Designing Performance Assessment

• Learning outcomes serve as the foundation.
• The standard or criteria used must evaluate student learning, and be relevant to each learning outcome.
• Questions to consider: -What outcomes are being assessed? -What capabilities or skills are implicit or explicit in the expected outcomes? -What tasks or tools measure the outcomes and skills? -Are the tasks aligned with the outcomes, engaging, and measurable? -Are the tasks authentic and representative of real-world scenarios? -What criteria should be included to rate performance level? -What indicators are specific for each criterion?
• It is also important to choose related teaching and learning activities.
• There should be alignment between learning outcomes, activities, and assessment tasks.

How to Conduct Performance Assessment

• Performance assessments need teacher and peer input when grading the products or performances.
• A set of aligned predetermined criteria are needed to ensure a judgment can be made.

Steps to Plan and Implement Performance-Based Assessments

• Define the aim of the assessment. -What concept, skill, or knowledge should be assessed? -At what level should students be performing? -What type of knowledge is being assessed?
• Choose the activity or output to assess. -The performance or output should be feasible, considering limitations of time and resources. -Tasks should be interesting, challenging, achievable, and have sufficient depth.
• Define guidelines or rules for judging student responses, products, or performances. -Criteria should be pre-set and agreed upon by the teacher and the students.
• Well defined criteria allow teacher and students to evaluate the results as objectively and consistently as possible.

Types of Assessment Criteria

• Content Criteria: Evaluates the degree of the student's knowledge and understanding of facts/concepts.
• Process Criteria: Evaluates the proficiency level of a performance or skill.
• Quality Criteria: Evaluates the value of a product or performance.
• Impact Criteria: Evaluates the overall results or effects of a product or performance.

Performance Rubrics

• A rubric is an assessment tool specifying performance expectations.

Three Features of a Rubric

• Criteria: the aspects of performance that will be assessed.
• Performance Descriptors: characteristics associated with each dimension or criterion.
• Performance Levels: levels that identify a student's level of mastery within each criterion.

Types of Rubrics

• Holistic Rubric: Evaluates all criteria at once, providing a single score based on overall judgment of the work's quality.
• Analytic Rubric: Evaluates each criterion separately, providing feedback about the student's performance or product.
• General Rubric: Uses general criteria applicable across various tasks. -It can evaluate both oral presentation and research output.
• Task-Specific Rubric: Contains specific criteria unique to a task. -It may be for oral presentations or for research output.

Student Performance Assessment

• Adhere to the set criteria and use the rubric developed. -Ensure an objective, consistent, and accurate evaluation of the student’s performance.
• Give specific and helpful feedback to show students how they performed, what they understand, and where to focus for improvement.