Lesson 3

Performance Assessment

Suggested Timeframe: 4.5 hours

How do you assess students' learning outcomes using various types of
performance assessment tools?

UNDERSTAND
Desired Significant Learning Outcomes:
In this lesson, youare expected to:

design appropriate performance assessment tools for intended student

learning outcomes.

Significant Culminating Performance Task and Success Indicators

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to demonstrate your
knowledge and skills in developing performance assessment tools that
are most applicable to a particular student outcome. You are considered
successful in this culminating performance task if you have satisfied the
following indicators of success:
Performnance Tasks Success Indicators
Knowing the various Identify the appropriate performance
types of performance assessment tool for aspecific performance or
assessment tools product.
Designing performance Create a performance assessment tool that
assessment tools is alignedwith the desired learning outcomes
(DLO) and the teaching and learning activities
(TLAS).

Prerequisite of This Lesson

To be able to perform successfully the above culminating performance
tasks, you should have distinguished between traditional and performance
assessments, understood the processes in setting learning objectives andstudent
outcomes and in preparing the table of specifications, identified the different
types of performance assessment tasks, and learned the guidelines in designing
performance assessment tools.

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 PREPARE
To be abie to learn or enhance your skils on how to deveiop good and emertve
performance assesSment tools review your pror knowiedge on thhe diterences
between traditiona and altenative assessment and how and when to choose a
particuiar assessment method most appropnate to the identified learning objectves
and desinred learning outcomes of your cOurse
What is performance assessment?
Performance assessment is an assessment activity or set of activities that
require students to generate products or performonces that provde direct
or indirect evidence of their knowledge, skilis, and abilities in an academic
content domain. It provides teYchers with information about how wella student
understands and applies knowledge and goes beyond the ability to recal
information. Product-based assessment is used for assessing iearning outcomes
that involve designing or creating projects or products such as research papers,
art exhibits, reflective essays, and portfolios. On the other hand. performance
based tasks inciude actual performances of making those products, Such s
carrying out laboratory experiments, exhibiting creatìve and artistic talents, such
as dancing, painting, and playing a musical instrument, and demonstratingwriting
skills through extemporaneous essay writing, article review, and reflective papers.
Both product-based and performance-based assessments provide information
about how astudent understands and applies knowledge and invove hands-on
tasks or activities that students must complete individually or in small groups
Below are examples of product-based and performance-based assessments:

Types Examples
A. 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 papers,poems, story,
movie/TV scripts,portfolio, essay.
article report, research paper, thesis
Verbal Products audiotapes, debates, lectures, voice
recording, scripts
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 B. 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, story
telling:poem reading
Athletic Skills Demonstration/ playing basketball, baseball, soccer,
Competition volleyball, and other sports
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, givinga speech, or performing on a stage.
What are the 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 toevaluate its suitability against the following criteria:
1. It is authentic, that is, it includes performance tasks that are meaningful and
realistic.
Performance assessmentshould present or require tasks thatare realistic
and related toeveryday 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 task that is done in the actual world.

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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-skill
competencies. Since the main goal of teaching and learning is for students'
acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, course assessments
should therefore help answer the questions "Do the students know it?" and
"Howwell 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".
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 wellas to be involved in
evaluating their classmates' performance. Self-assessment allows studentsto
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 a rubric can facilitate self-assessment and peer assessment.
4. It assesses more complex skills.
Unlike traditional tests that usually assess a single skill 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

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 tthe hie These tNm lasts N )Ssess stuients AOwletge
tiNesai Neses ketitg but also tap their crtivity planning

Atthe strtotthecass itisinportant thatthe requiementsof the subject

rE r s t nd eaned to the students These inctude the required
tasts tiesrOects the rte qitY and leve performance or
utout the ritr obe n e d for aSsessment and the rubric to be used
Idea students should be invoed in the whole assesmnent process from
the veVonset by proviing themassessment options getting them invoed
in discuISSions and decisiomng on performne standards and
criteria,
allowing them oportunity to give feedbck on teacher-made rubrics and
to revise them and trainìng them on how to appy rubric for selt-
Ssessment.
andpeer

What are the general guidelines in designing performance assessment?

The learning outomes at the end of the course serve as the bases in designing
the performane assessment tasks With the learming outcomes identiffed the
evidene of student learning that are most relevant for ech leaming outcome
and the standardor criteria thatwill be used to evaluate those evidence are then
identified. To guide you in designing performanoe assessments the following
questions may be addressed:
1. What are the outcomes to be assessed?
2. What are the capabilitiesskills implicit or expliit in the expected outcomes
(eg. problem-soving decision-making critical thinking communication skills)?
3 What are the appropriate performance aSsessment tasks or tools to measure
the outeomes and skills?
4 Are the speciñc performnance tasks aligned with the outcomes and skills
interesting engaging challenging. and measurable?
5. Are the performance tasks authentic and representative of real-world
Scenarios?
6. What criteria should be inciuded to rate students' performance level?
7. What are specific performance indicators for each criterion?

Furthermore, the choice of teaching and learning activities is also of utmost

importance in choosing the performance assessments to use. There should also
be an alignment among the learning outcomes, the teaching learning activities,
and assessment tasks. For example, in a Physical Education-Dance class, the

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fwi: heewurse ONponents should be explicitly cder and linked, as
shown below:

Intended Learning Teaching-Learning Performance

Outcomes Activities Assessment Tasks
At the endof the course, the
students should be able to:
" Perform dance routines leure cass Culminating dance
and creatively combine dscUssion, class recitals,
pIactical test for
variations with rhythm,
cOordination,correct dance demonsttation, each type of darnce,
footwork technique, frame, tuat dancing witth reflection papers,
facial and body expression. thcher and partners, peer evaluation
collaborative learning rating
" Participate in dance socials Required attendance Actualance
and other community and participation performance in
fitness advocacy projects. in school and school or community
Community dance programs, reaction/
performances reflection papers

How do youconduct performance assessment?

Unlike in most traditional tests wherein student responses can be scored
using an answer key, performance assessments require the teacher's and peers'
judgment when evaluating the resulting products and performances. This
necessitatesusing a set of predetermined criteriathat are aligned with desired
targeted standards or desired Bearning outcomes.
The following are the basic steps in planning and implementing performance
based o product-based assessments:
1. Define the purpose of performance or product-based assessment. The
teacher nmay ask the following questions?
What concept, skill, or knowiedge of the students shoutd be assessed?
At what level should the students be performing?
What type of knowBedge is being assessed (e g., remembering to creating)?
Choose the octivity/ouvtput that youwill assess. The required performance or
output should be feasibie given the time constraints, availability of resources,
and amount of data/materials needed to make an informed decision about
the quality of a student's performance or product. The performance tasks
should be interesting. challenging, achievable, and with sufficient depth and
breadth so that valid evaluation about students'learning can be made.

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 rules for judging student
3. Define the criteria. Criteria are guidelines orconducting the assessment,
responses, products, or performances. Before
predetermined. The set of criteria should
the performance criteria should be
the students. Performance
be discussed and agreed upon by the teacher and the types of behavior
criteria are important since they define for the students allow the teacher
well as
or attributes of a product that are expected, as
andthe students to evaluate aperformance or product as objectively and as
criteria that can be used for
Consistent as possible. There are four types of
evaluating student performances:
knowledge and
A. content criteria - to evaluate the degree of a student's
understanding of facts, concepts, and principles related to the topic/
subject;
a
B. process criteria - to evaluate the proficiency level of performance of
skill or process;
C. quality criteria - to evaluate the quality ofa product or performance;
and
D. impact criteria - to evaluate the overall results or effects of a product or
performance.
4. Create the performance rubric. A rubric is an assessment tool that indicates
the performance expectations for any kind of student work. It generally
contains three essential features: (1) criteria or the aspects of performance
that wil be assessed, (2) performance descriptors or the characteristics
associated with each dimension or criterion, and (3) performance levels that
identifies students' level of mastery within each criterion. There are different
types of rubrics:
A. holistic rubric in holistic rubric,. student performance or output is
evaluated by applying allcriteria simultaneously, thus providing a single
score based on overall judgment about the quality of student's work
B. analytic rubric -.in analytic rubric, student's work is evaluated by using
each criterion separately, thus providing specific feedback about the
student's performance or product along several dimensions
C. general rubric - contains criteria that are general and can be applied
across tasks (e.g., the same rubric that can be used to evaluate oral
presentation and research output)
D. task-specific rubric - contains criteria that are unique to a specific task
(i.e., a rubric that can only be used for oral presentation and another
rubric applicable only for research output)
For a more detailed discussion on the types of rubric and the steps in
developing a rubric, please refer to Lesson 6: Process in Developing and Using
Rubrics for Alternative Assessment.

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5. Assess student's performance/product. In assessing a student's work, it is
important to adhere to the criteria set and use the rubric developed. This
is to ensure objective, consistent, and accurate evaluation of student's
performance. It is also important to provide specific andmeaningful feedback
and explanation to students on how they have performed the tasks, clarifying
to them what they understand, what theydon't understand,and where they
can improve.

DEVELOP
Let us review what you have learned about designing performance
assessment tasks.
1. What are the types of performance assessments?
2. What are the characteristics of a good performance assessment?
3. What are the general guidelines in designing performance assessments?
4. What are the basic steps inconducting performance-based or product-based
assessments?
To be able to check whether you have learned the important information
about identifying and designing performance assessments, please complete the
following graphicalrepresentation:
Performance
Assessment

What are the When to

What is a good How to How to
performance create? conduct?
types? use? assessment?

APPLY
By now, you should be ready to design effective performance assessments
toassess your student learning outcomes. Let us apply what you have learned
by creating an assessment plan for the subjects of your choice. For each subject,
list down the desired learning outcomes and course topic for each desired
learning outcome, and identify the appropriate performance tasks to assess
students' achievement of the expected outcome. It is important that you have an
assessment plan for each subject that you intend to teach.

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