Authentic Assessments PDF

Topic  Authentic Assessments 6 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this topic, you should be able to: 1. Define authentic assessment; 2. Discuss authentic assessments in the classroom; 3. Differentiate the...

Topic  Authentic Assessments 6 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this topic, you should be able to: 1. Define authentic assessment; 2. Discuss authentic assessments in the classroom; 3. Differentiate the advantages and criticisms of authentic assessment; and 4. Compare authentic and traditional assessments.  INTRODUCTION Many teachers use traditional assessment tools such as multiple-choice and essay tests to assess their learners. How well do these multiple-choice or essay tests really evaluate learner understanding and achievement? These traditional assessment tools do serve a role in the assessment of learner outcomes. However, assessment does not always have to involve paper and pencil tests. It can also be a project, an observation or a task as long as it is able to demonstrate a learner has learnt the material. Are these alternative assessment tools more effective than traditional ones? Some classroom teachers are using testing strategies that do not focus entirely on recalling facts. Instead, they ask learners to demonstrate skills and concepts they have learnt. Teachers may want to ask the learners to apply their skills to authentic tasks and projects or to have learners demonstrate their knowledge in ways that are much more applicable to life outside of the classroom. Learners must Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  111 then be trained to perform meaningful tasks that replicate real world challenges. In other words, these teachers are trying to assess studentsÊ abilities in „real- world‰ contexts. In order to do this, learners are asked to perform a task such as to explain the historical events or solve math problems rather than select an answer from a ready-made list. This strategy of asking learners to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills is called authentic assessment. An authentic assessment is to have learners demonstrate their knowledge in ways that are much more applicable to life outside of the classroom. 6.1 WHAT IS AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT? According to Wiggins (1998), teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from learners and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to design and teaching. Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called backward design that delays the planning of classroom activities until goals have been clarified and assessments designed. This process helps to avoid the problems of textbook coverage and activity-oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent. Learner and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Authentic assessment, in contrast to more traditional assessment, encourages the integration of teaching, learning and assessment. In the traditional assessment model, teaching and learning are often separated from assessment whereby a test is administered after knowledge or skills have been acquired. An authentic assessment usually includes a task for learners to perform and a rubric by which their performance of the task will be assessed. Thus performing science experiments, writing stories and reports, solving mathematics problems that have real-world applications can be considered as authentic assessments. Useful achievement data can be obtained via authentic assessments. Teachers can teach learners how to do mathematics, do history and do science, not just know them. Subsequently, to assess what the learners had learnt, teachers can ask learners to perform tasks that replicate the challenges faced by using mathematical principles, conducting historical or scientific investigations. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 112  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS Well-designed traditional classroom assessments such as tests and quizzes can effectively determine whether or not learners have acquired a body of knowledge. In contrast, authentic assessments require learners to demonstrate understanding by performing a more complex task usually representative of a more meaningful application. These tasks require learners to analyse, synthesise and apply what they have learnt in a substantial manner and learners create new meaning in the process as well. In short, authentic assessment helps answer the question „How well can you use what you know?‰ whereas traditional testing helps answer the question „Do you know it?‰ The usual or traditional classroom assessments such as multiple-choice tests and short-answer tests are just as important as authentic assessment. Authentic assessments complement traditional assessments. Authentic assessments have been gaining acceptance among early childhood and primary school teachers where traditional assessments may not be appropriate. Examples of authentic assessment strategies (Brady, 2012) include: (a) Exhibiting an athletic skill; (b) Constructing a short musical, dance or drama; (c) Publishing a class brochure; (d) Creative arts: role plays, oral presentations, performances; (e) Planning: mind or concept maps, flow charts; (f) ICT Tools: webpages, videos, photos, depiction of freeze frames; (g) Creating: model building, creative writing; (h) Evaluating: teacher-learner feedback, peer feedback, peer teaching; and (i) Unstructured tasks: problem-solving tasks, open-ended questions, formal and informal observations. 6.1.1 Types of Authentic Assessments Authentic assessment is sometimes referred to as performance assessment, alternative assessment or direct assessment. (a) Performance Assessment Authentic assessment is sometimes called performance assessment or performance-based assessment because learners are asked to perform meaningful tasks. Performance assessment is „a test in which the test taker actually demonstrates the skills the test is intended to measure by doing real- Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  113 world tasks that require those skills, rather than by answering questions asking how to do them‰ (Ark, 2013). Project-based learning (PBL) and portfolio assignments are examples of performance assessments. With performance assessment, teachers observe learners while they are performing in the classroom and judge the level of proficiency demonstrated. Authentic tasks are rooted in curriculum and teachers can develop tasks based on what already works for them. Through this process, more evidence- based assignments such as portfolios become more authentic and more meaningful to learners. (b) Alternative Assessment Authentic assessment is an alternative to traditional assessment, hence the term used. Learners participate actively in evaluating themselves and one another through the use of checklists and rubrics in self and peer evaluations. Alternative assessments measure performance in ways other than the traditional paper and pencil or short-answer tests. For example, the Klang Valley science teacher may have the learners identify the different pollutants in the Klang River and report the information collected and analysed to the local environmental council. (c) Direct Assessment Authentic assessment provides more direct evidence of meaningful application of knowledge and skills. If a learner does well on a multiple- choice test we might infer indirectly that the learner could apply that knowledge in real-world contexts. However, we would be more comfortable making that inference from a direct demonstration of the application such as in the river pollutants example stated earlier. We do not just want learners to know the content of the disciplines when they leave school. We want them to apply other knowledge and skills that they have learnt as well. Direct evidence of learner learning is tangible, visible and measureable. It is a more compelling evidence of knowing exactly what learners have or have not learnt. Teachers can directly look at learnersÊ work or performances to determine what they have learnt. 6.1.2 Characteristics of Authentic Assessments Reeves et al. (2002) have much to say about the characteristics of authentic learning. Their list of ten characteristics summarise the features of authentic assessment as explained in the following: (a) Authentic activities have real-world relevance: The assessment is meant to focus on the impact of oneÊs work in real or realistic contexts. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 114  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS (b) Authentic activities require learners to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity: Problems inherent in the activities are open to multiple interpretations rather than easily solved by the application of existing algorithms. (c) Authentic activities comprise complex tasks to be investigated by learners over a sustained period of time: Activities are completed in days, weeks and months rather than minutes or hours. They require significant investment of time and intellectual resources. (d) Authentic activities provide the opportunity for learners to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources: The use of a variety of resources rather than a limited number of preselected references requires learners to detect relevant from irrelevant information. (e) Authentic activities provide the opportunity to collaborate: Collaboration is integral to the task, both within the course and the real world, rather than achievable by the individual learner. (f) Authentic activities provide the opportunity to reflect: Activities need to enable learners to make choices and reflect on their learning, both individual and socially. (g) Authentic activities can be integrated and applied across different subject areas and lead beyond domain-specific outcomes: Activities encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and enable learners to play diverse roles, thus building robust expertise rather than knowledge limited to a single well- defined field or domain. (h) Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment: Assessment of activities is seamlessly integrated with the major task in a manner that reflects real-world assessment rather than separate artificial assessment which is removed from the nature of the task. (i) Authentic activities create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else. (j) Authentic activities allow for competing solutions and diversity of outcomes: Activities allow for a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of rules and procedures. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  115 SELF-CHECK 6.1 What are the other names used to refer to authentic assessment? Why? ACTIVITY 6.1 To what extent has authentic assessment been used as an assessment strategy in Malaysian schools? Share your answer with your coursemates in the myINSPIRE online forum. 6.2 HOW TO CREATE AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS? Authentic assessments can seem overwhelming at first but it need not be the case. For a start, take small steps such as collecting data one day a week, analysing it and using the results to group learners in the following week. Follow these helpful steps to create your own authentic assessment: (a) Identify which standards you want the learners to achieve through this assessment. Standards, like goals, are statements of what learners should know and be able to meet. Standards must be observable and measurable. Teachers can observe a performance but not an understanding. Thus a statement such as „Learners will understand how to add two-digit numbers‰ is not observable whereas a statement such as „Learners will correctly add two-digit numbers‰ is observable and measurable. (b) Choose a relevant task for the standard or set of standards so that learners can demonstrate how they have or have not met the standards. In this step, teachers may want to find a way in which learners can demonstrate how they are fully capable of meeting the standard. For the standard such as „Understand how to add two-digit numbers‰, the task may be to ask learners to describe a real-life situation, story or problem. Teachers may elicit strategies from the learners, asking them to demonstrate and explain their reasoning to their classmates. That might take the form of a multimedia presentation which learners develop (individually or collaboratively), utilising Ten-Frames with some counters. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 116  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS (c) Define the characteristics of good performance for the task. This will provide useful information regarding how well learners have met the standards. For this step, teachers identify the criteria for good performance of this task. They may write down a few characteristics for successful completion of the task. (d) Create a rubric or set of guidelines for learners to follow so that they are able to assess their work as they perform the assigned task. SELF-CHECK 6.2 How do teachers use authentic assessments in the classroom? ACTIVITY 6.2 Give examples of authentic tasks for your subject area. Share your answer with your coursemates in the myINSPIRE online forum. 6.2.1 Advantages of Authentic Assessments According to Wiggins (1998), while standardised, multiple-choice tests can be valid indicators of academic performance, they often mislead learners into believing that learning is cramming and mislead teachers into believing that tests are after-the-fact, contrived and irrelevant. The move towards more authentic tasks and outcomes improves teaching and learning. More educators favour the use of more authentic assessments as a means of measuring learning outcomes not easily measured by standardised tests. Authentic assessment helps learners view themselves as active participants who are working on a relevant task rather than passive recipients of obscure facts. It helps teachers by encouraging them to reflect on the relevance of what they teach and provides results that are useful for improving instruction. Authentic assessments focus on the learning process, sound instructional practices and high-level thinking skills and proficiencies needed for success in the real world. As a result, they offer a huge advantage for learners who have been exposed to them over those who have not. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  117 Authentic assessments have many benefits, the main benefit being that it ensures learner success. Authentic assessments focus on progress rather than identifying weaknesses. Other important benefits of authentic assessment include: (a) It has the advantage of providing parents and community members with directly observable products and understandable evidence concerning their learnersÊ performance. The quality of learnersÊ work is more discernible to laypersons compared to the reliance on abstract statistical figures; (b) Uses tasks that reflect normal classroom activities or real-life learning. The tasks are a means for improving instruction, allowing teachers to plan a comprehensive, developmentally oriented curriculum based on their knowledge of each child; (c) Focuses on higher-order thinking skills such as applying, analysing, evaluating and creating in BloomÊs taxonomy; (d) Embeds assessment in the classroom context; (e) Requires active performance to demonstrate understanding. Kinaesthetic learners prefer being involved in activities. They need to apply the information and make it their own by constructing something or practising a technique or skill; (f) Promotes a wide range of assessment strategies; and (g) Involves the teacher and learner collaboratively in determining the assessment. 6.2.2 Criticisms of Authentic Assessments Authentic assessment provides solutions but it also creates problems. Criticisms of authentic assessments generally involve both the informal development of the assessments and difficulty in ensuring test validity and reliability given the subjective nature of human scoring rubrics as compared to computers scoring multiple-choice test items. Many teachers shy away from authentic assessments because this methodology is time intensive to manage, grade, monitor and coordinate. Teachers find it hard to provide a consistent grading scheme. The subjective method of grading may lead to biasness. Teachers also find that this method is not practical for large groups of learners. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 118  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS Rubrics are an essential component of authentic assessments. They are a wonderful tool to ensure a more authentic assessment of learnersÊ work. However, creating a rubric is time consuming in the initial stage but is worth the investment. Kohn (2006) observed that a rubric which was used to standardise the way we think about learner assignments has many faults. Learners who presumably grew accustomed to rubrics in other classrooms now seemed unable to function unless every required item is spelled out for them. However, this does not mean that the rubric is defective. As long as the rubric is only one of several sources and does not drive the instruction, it could conceivably play a constructive role. Based on the value of authentic assessments to learner outcomes, the advantages of authentic assessments outweigh these concerns. For example, once the assessment guidelines and grading rubrics are created, they can be kept in file and used year after year. There is nothing new about this authentic assessment methodology. It is not some kind of radical invention recently fabricated by the opponents of traditional tests to challenge the testing industry. Rather it is a proven method of evaluating human characteristics and has been in use for decades (Linquist, 1951). SELF-CHECK 6.3 1. What are some criticisms of authentic assessments? 2. What are the benefits of authentic assessments? 6.3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL ASSESSMENT AND AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT Assessment is authentic when we directly examine learner performance on worthy intellectual tasks. Traditional assessment, by contrast, relies on indirect or proxy „items‰ (which are efficient, simplistic substitutes) from which we think valid inferences can be made about the learnerÊs performance at those valued challenges (Wiggins, 1990). Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  119 Table 6.1 summarises the major differences between the authentic and traditional assessments. Table 6.1: Major Differences between Authentic and Traditional Assessments Attributes Authentic Assessment Traditional Assessment Reasoning and  Schools must help learners  Schools must teach this practice become proficient at body of knowledge and performing the tasks they skills. will encounter when they  To determine if teaching is leave schools. successful, the school must  To determine if teaching is then test learners to see if successful, the school must they have acquired the then ask learners to knowledge and skills. perform meaningful tasks that replicate real world challenges to see if learners are capable of doing so. Assessment and  Assessment drives the  Curriculum drives the curriculum curriculum. That is, assessment. The body of teachers first determine the knowledge is determined tasks that learners will first. That knowledge perform to demonstrate becomes the curriculum their mastery, and then a that is to be delivered. curriculum is developed  Subsequently, assessments that will enable learners to are developed and perform those tasks well, administered to determine which would include the if acquisition of the acquisition of essential curriculum has occurred. knowledge and skills. This has been referred to as planning backwards. Selecting a  Learners are required to  Learners are typically given response to demonstrate understanding several choices and asked performing a task by performing a more to select the correct answer. complex task usually representative of more meaningful applications. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 120  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS Contrived to  Learners are asked to  Tests offer contrived means real-life demonstrate proficiency by (Example: select one out doing something. four options in MCQ) of assessment to increase the number of times you can be asked to demonstrate proficiency in a short period of time. Recall or  Authentic assessments  Traditional tests tend to recognition of require learners to be reveal only whether the knowledge to effective performers of the learner can recognise and construction or acquired knowledge. recall what was learnt out application of  Teachers using this of context. Learners are knowledge methodology often ask often asked to recall or learners to analyse, recognise facts. synthesise and apply what they have learnt in a substantial manner and learners create new meaning in the process as well. Teacher-structured  Authentic assessments  What a learner can and will to learner- allow more learner choice demonstrate has been structured and construction in carefully structured by the determining what is person(s) who developed presented as evidence of the test. proficiency.  A learnerÊs attention will  Even when learners cannot understandably be focused choose their own topics or on, and limited to, what is formats, there are usually in the test. multiple acceptable routes towards constructing a product or performance. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  121 Indirect evidence  Authentic assessments offer  The evidence is indirect to direct evidence more direct evidence of particularly for claims of application and meaningful application in construction of knowledge. complex, real-world  Example: Asking a learner situations. to write a critique should  Example: In MCQ, a learner provide more direct effectively cannot critique evidence of that skill than the arguments someone asking the learner a series else has presented (an of multiple-choice and important skill often analytical questions about a required in the real world). passage. Reliability and  Authentic assessment  Traditional testing validity achieves validity and standardises objective items reliability by emphasising and, hence, the right and standardising the answer(s) for each problem. appropriate criteria for  Validity on most multiple- scoring such products. choice tests is determined  Test validity should merely by matching items depend in part upon to the curriculum content. whether the test simulates real-world tests of ability. Source: Adapted from Authentic Assessment Toolbox by Jon Mueller at http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/ 6.4 ASSESSMENT TOOLS Common assessment tools used are rubrics, rating scales and checklists. Rubrics, checklists and rating scales are authentic assessment tools that state specific criteria and allow teachers and learners to gather information and to make judgments about what learners know and can do in relation to the outcomes. The quality of information acquired through the use of checklists, rating scales and rubrics is highly dependent on the quality of the descriptors chosen for the assessment. Their benefit is also dependent on learnersÊ direct involvement in the assessment and understanding of the feedback provided. The purposes of checklists, rating scales and rubrics are to: (a) Provide tools for systematic recording of observations; (b) Provide tools for self-assessment; Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 122  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS (c) Provide samples of criteria for learners prior to collecting and evaluating data on their work recording the development of specific skills, strategies, attitudes and behaviours necessary for demonstrating learning; and (d) Clarify learnersÊ instructional needs by presenting a record of current accomplishments. 6.4.1 Scoring Rubrics Authentic assessments are typically criterion-referenced measures. That is, an assessment designed to measure learner performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria. The criteria or the learning standards are concise, written descriptions of what learners are expected to know and be able to do at a specific stage of their learning. To measure learner performance against a predetermined set of criteria, a rubric or scoring scale which contains the essential criteria for the task and appropriate levels of performance for each criterion is created. Rubrics are usually used in scoring or grading written assignments or oral presentations. However, they may be used to score any form of learner performance. Scoring rubrics have become a common method for assessing learners. Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes that are developed by teachers or other evaluators to guide the analysis of the products or processes of learnersÊ efforts (Brookhart, 1999). As scoring tools, rubrics are a way of describing evaluation criteria based on the expected outcomes and performances of learners. Each rubric consists of a set of scoring criteria and point values associated with these criteria. In most rubrics the criteria are grouped into categories so that the teacher and the learner can discriminate among the categories by level of performance. Rubrics have been introduced into todayÊs classrooms in order to give learners a better understanding of what is being assessed, what criteria the grades are based upon as well as what clear and compelling product standards are being addressed. The focus of rubrics and scoring guides is to monitor and adjust progress rather than to only assess the end result. As a guide for planning, rubrics and scoring guides give learners clear targets of proficiency. With these assessments in hand, they know what quality looks like before they start working. When learners use such assessments regularly to judge their own work, they begin to accept more responsibility for the end product. Rubrics and scoring guides offer several advantages for assessment: Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  123 LearnersÊ performance is improved by clearly showing them how their work is assessed and what is expected; (a) Learners become better judges of the quality of their own work; (b) Learners have more informative feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement; (c) Learners become aware of the criteria to use in providing peer feedback; (d) Criteria are determined in specific terms; (e) Assessment is more objective and consistent; (f) Amount of time spent assessing learner work is reduced; (g) Effectiveness of instruction is examined using multiple methods; and (h) Progress is measured and documented against benchmarks. The following rubric shown in Table 6.2 covers the research portion of a project. Table 6.2: Example of a Research Rubric Criteria 1 2 3 Wt. Score Number of 1ă4 5ă9 10ă12 x1 sources Historical Lots of Few No apparent x3 accuracy historical inaccuracies. inaccuracies. inaccuracies. Sources of Cannot tell Can tell with Can easily x1 information from which difficulty tell which source the where the sources the information information information came from. came from. was drawn from. Bibliography Bibliography Bibliography All relevant x1 contains very contains information little most of the is included. information. relevant information. Total Source: Adapted from Research Rubric http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/rubrics.htm Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 124  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS A rubric comprised two components, namely the criteria and the levels of performance. Each rubric has at least two criteria and at least two levels of performance. The criteria, which are the characteristics of good performance on a task in this example, are listed on the left-hand column in the rubric (number of sources, historical accuracy, sources of information and bibliography). The rubric also contains a mechanism for assigning a score to each project. In the second last column a weight (Wt.) is assigned for each criterion. Learners can receive 1, 2 or 3 points for number of sources criterion. However, the historical accuracy criterion which is considered more important in the teacherÊs opinion, is weighted three times (3) more heavily. This means, learners can receive 3, 6 or 9 points (that is 1  3, 2  3 or 3  3) for the level of accuracy in their projects. In the example, „lots of historical inaccuracies‰, „can tell with difficulty where the information came from‰ and „all relevant information is included‰ are descriptors. The descriptors help the teacher to be more precise and able to consistently distinguish between learnersÊ works. However, it is not easy to write good descriptors for each level and each criterion. 6.4.2 Rating Scales Rating scales allow teachers to indicate the degree or frequency of the behaviour, skills and strategies displayed by the learner. Rating scales state the criteria and provide three or four response selections to describe the quality or frequency of learnersÊ work. Teachers can use rating scales to record observations and learners can use them as self-assessment tools. Teaching learners to use descriptive words such as always, usually, sometimes and never, helps them pinpoint specific strengths and needs. Rating scales also provide learners with information for setting goals and improving performance. Rating scales list performance statements in one column and the range of accomplishments in descriptive words, with or without numbers, in other columns. Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  125 The descriptive word is more important than the corresponding number. The more precise and descriptive the words for each scale point, the more reliable is the tool. Effective rating scales use descriptors with clearly understood measures such as frequency. Scales that rely on subjective descriptors for quality such as fair, good or excellent, are less effective because the single adjective does not contain enough information on what criteria are indicated at each of these points on the scale. For example, the performance statement which describes a behaviour or quality as 1 = poor through to 5 = excellent is better than 1 = lowest through to 5 = highest or simply 1 through 5. The range of numbers should be the same for all rows within a section (such as all being from 1 to 5). The range of numbers should always increase or always decrease. For example, if the last number is the highest achievement in one section, the last number should also be the highest achievement in all the other sections as well. Figure 6.1 is an example of the rating scale used for interpersonal skills assessment. Figure 6.1: Interpersonal skills assessment ă Rating scale Source: http://www.northernc.on.ca/leid/docs/ja_developchecklists.pdf Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM) 126  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS 6.4.3 Checklists Checklists usually offer a „yes‰ or „no‰ format in relation to learners demonstrating specific criteria. An assessment checklist takes each achievement objective and turns it into one or more „learner can do‰ statements. Checklists may be used to record observations of an individual, a group or a whole class. The following are some of the characteristics of checklists. Checklists should: (a) Have criteria for success based on expected outcomes; (b) Be short enough for practicality (for example, one sheet of paper); (c) Highlight critical tasks; (d) Have sign-off points that prevent learners from proceeding without approval, if needed; (e) Be written in clear, detailed wording to minimise the risk of misinterpretation; and (f) Have space for the inclusion of other information such as the learnerÊs name, date, course, examiner and overall result. Table 6.4 shows an example of a checklist. Table 6.4: Example of a Checklist Name: Date: Class Achievement Items Yes No Comments Objective Communicate Can understand the numbers about numbers 1ă100 through listening Can say the numbers 1ă100 Can count 1ă100 Can write the numbers 1ă100 Can understand numbers 1ă100 when written in words Can write numbers 1ă100 in words Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)  TOPIC 6 AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS  127 SELF-CHECK 6.4 1. Define authentic assessment. 2. Compare authentic and traditional assessments. 3. What are the similarities and differences between rubrics, checklists and rating scales? ACTIVITY 6.3 1. Is authentic assessment a good replacement for traditional assessment? Justify. 2. Give an example of authentic assessment for the subject you are teaching. Share your answer with your coursemates in the myINSPIRE online forum.  The strategy of asking learners to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills is called authentic assessment.  Authentic assessment is sometimes called performance assessment, alternative assessment or direct assessment. Alternative assessment Contrived to real-life Backward design Direct evidences Checklists Direct assessment Copyright © Open University Malaysia (OUM)