MODULE 3

Performance Assessment

INTRODUCTION

For the longest time, students’ works have been assessed using traditional
testing. But through time, assessing students’ learning require more modern approach.
Gone are the days of rote learning, drills, paper-and-pencil measurements and many
ore traditional students’ activities and teachers’ not-so transparent style of grading.
Performance-based assessments have recently experience a re-emergence in
education literature and curricula. For sometime, it has become a valid alternative to
traditional test methods. Now, performance-based assessment has become a powerful
tool in measuring students’ learning.

This module introduces you to performance-based assessment. This module

separately discusses to kinds of performance-based assessment namely product-based
and process-based. You will also experience designing product-orient, and process-
oriented performance-based assessment tasks using the GRASPS model.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this module, you should be able to:

a. Explain performance-based assessment’
b. Differentiate product-oriented, and process-oriented performance-based
assessment ;
c. Design performance-based assessment tasks using the GRASPS model;
LEARNING CONTENT

Lesson 1: WHAT IS PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT?

This lesson discusses the meaning and nature of performance-based assessment.

The definition of performance-based assessment varies depending on author,

discipline, publication, and intended audience. In this module, we shall define
performance-based assessment using a general perspective.
Performance-based assessment measures students' ability to apply the skills and
knowledge learned from a unit or units of study. Typically, the task challenges
students to use their higher-order thinking skills to create a product or
complete a process (Chun, 2010). Tasks can range from a simple constructed
response (e.g., short answer) to a complex design proposal of a sustainable
neighborhood. Arguably, the most genuine assessments require students to
complete a task that closely mirrors the responsibilities of a professional, e.g.,
artist, engineer, laboratory technician, financial analyst, or consumer advocate.

Although, performance-based assessment varies in definition, they share

key characteristics. Performance-based assessment is complex, authentic,
process/product-based, open-ended, and time-bound.

Performance assessment is especially useful for assessing students’ achievement

of complex learning standard (e.g., analyzing author’s purpose), assessing their ability to
apply concepts they learned to solve problems (e.g., using understanding of past
presidential elections to predict what will happen in this presidential election), and
assessing skills (e.g., using an electronic library card catalog). As a colleague once said,
“The only way to know if they can swim is to put them in the pool.” Some simple skills,
though (e.g., kindergarten students making equal sets with colored counters) are also
best assessed by observing student performance.
 Performance tasks must be carefully designed so that the student responses
really do give evidence of the knowledge and skills we are trying to assess. Performance
criteria must be clear and help students focus on those things, particularly, so they can
“show what they know.” Performance tasks help show students what real work in a
discipline looks like — what it means to be a writer, mathematician, historian, or
scientist, for example. And when students understand the criteria for success with a
learning task and apply those criteria as they work, research shows that their
performance — and their achievement — increases.
Now that we have discussed the meaning and purposes of performance-
based assessment, you are now ready to learn the two types of performance-
based assessment.

LESSON 2: PROCESS AND PRODUCT-ORIENTED PERFORMANCE-BASED

ASSESSMENT

Process-oriented Performance-based Assessment

The final output of students in learning matters greatly. But their

experiences producing this final output matters greatly. This lesson looks into
how students arrived at their output. Doing so will let you understand how
learners put what they have learned in to action. This will give teachers a
complete picture of learning.
Information about outcomes is of high importance; where students end
up matters greatly. But to improve outcomes, we need to know about student
experience along the way – about the curricula, teaching, and kind of student
effort that lead to particular outcomes.
Assessment can help us understand which students learn best under
what conditions; with such knowledge comes the capacity to improve the
whole of their learning. Process-oriented performance-based assessment is
concerned with the actual task performance rather than the output or product
of the activity.
Lesson 2.1 Learning Competencies
Learning competencies is a general statement that describes the use of
desired knowledge, skills, behaviors, and abilities. They often define specific
applied skills and knowledge that enables learners to successfully perform
specific functions in an educational setting.
Competencies in process- and product-oriented performance-based
assessment are stated in directly observable behaviors of the students.
Competencies are defined as groups or clusters of skills and abilities needed
for a particular task. The competencies (skills, knowledge, behaviors, and
abilities) exemplify behaviors that range from “beginner” to expert levels.
Some examples of learning competencies can be categorized into three,
namely functional, interpersonal, and critical thinking.
Functional competencies are skills that require to use on a daily basis or
regular basis such as cognitive, methodological, technological, and linguistic
abilities. Interpersonal competency requires oral, written, and visual
communication skills, as well as the ability to work effectively with diverse
teams; and Critical thinking competencies require ability to reason effectively,
use systems thinking, and make judgments and decisions toward solving
complex problems.

Below is an example of learning competencies for a process-oriented

performance-based assessment:
Task: Recite a Poem by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
Objectives: The activity aims to enable the students to recite a poem entitled
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe. Specifically:
1. RECITE the poem from memory without referring to notes;
2. USE appropriate hand and body gestures in delivering the piece;
3. MAINTAIN eye contact with the audience while reciting the poem;
4. CREATE the ambience of the poem through appropriate rising and
falling intonation;
5. PRONOUNCE the words clearly and with proper diction.

*taken from Advanced Methods in Educational Assessment & Evaluation

Notice that in this example, the objective starts with a general statement
of what is expected of the student from the task and then breaks down the
general objectives into easily observable behaviors when reciting a poem. Note
that these behaviors are those that can be observed while the task is being
performed since we are talking about process-oriented performance-based
assessment. The objectives in the above example constitute the learning
competencies for the task.
The specific objectives can range from simple to complex observable
process. A competency that consists two or more skills is said to be complex.
The following are examples of simple competencies:
 Speak with a well-modulated voice;
 Draw a straight line from one point to another point;
 Color leaf with a green crayon;
 Weigh 2 grams of solid material

In contrast, below are examples of complex competencies;

 Recite a poem with feelings using appropriate voice quality, facial
expressions, and hand gestures;
  Solve the area of a regular polygon by dividing the polygon into
triangles, and find the areas of each resulting triangle;
 Draw and label the major parts of the human body

Lesson 2.2 Task Designing

As teachers, there is a need to carefully design the assessment task for
your students. You must ensure that the particular learning process to be
observed contributes to the overall understanding of the subject or course.
Here are some generally accepted standards for designing a task:
 Identify an assessment task that would highlight the
competencies to be evaluated. For example, designing a bulletin
boar, writing an essay, manipulating a microscope, singing a specific
song
 Identifying an activity that would entail more or less the same
sets of competencies. If an activity would result in too many possible
competencies then the teacher would have difficulty assessing the
student’s competency on the task.
 Find a task that would be interesting and enjoyable for the
students. Tasks such as writing an essay are often boring and
cumbersome for the students.

Below is an example of how you design a task:

The topic is on understanding biological diversity.
Possible Task Design: Bring the students to a pond or creek. Ask them to
find all living organisms as they can find living near the pond or creek. Also,
bring them to the school playground to find as many living organisms as they
can. Observe how the students will develop a system for finding such
organisms, classifying the organisms and concluding the differences in
biological diversity of the two sites.
 Process-oriented performance-based assessment technique is more
suitable for science laboratory classes.
Take note that performance-based assessment, either process or
product-based performance-based assessment uses rubric, either holistic or
analytic. You may review the uses and samples of rubrics in the previous
module.

LESSON 3: PRODUCT-ORIENTED PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

In the previous lesson, we discussed about assessing student’s
performance by looking in to the process or how they arrived at an output. In
this lesson, we will discuss product-oriented performance-based assessment
and then, design tasks for this kind of assessment including a rubric that will
measure the proficiency of the student’s performance.

Lesson 3.1 Product-oriented Learning Competencies

Student performances can be defined as targeted tasks that lead to a
product or overall learning outcome. Products can include a wide range of
student works that target specific skills. Some examples include communication
skills such as those demonstrated in reading, writing, speaking, and listening,
or psychomotor skills requiring physical abilities to perform a given task.
Target tasks can also include behavior expectations targeting complex tasks
that students are expected to achieve. Using rubrics is one way that teachers
can evaluate or assess student performance or proficiency in any given task as
it relates to a final product or learning outcome. Thus, rubrics can provide
valuable information about the degree to which a student has achieved a
defined learning outcome based on specific criteria that defined the framework
for evaluation.
The learning competencies associated with products or outputs are
linked with an assessment of the level of “expertise” manifested by the
product. Thus product-oriented learning competencies target at least three (3)
levels: novice or beginner’s level, skilled level, and expert level. Such levels
correspond to Bloom’s taxonomy in the cognitive domain in that they represent
progressively higher levels of complexity in the thinking process.
There are other ways to state product-oriented learning competencies.
For instance, we can define learning competencies for products or outputs in
the following way:
Level 1: Does the finished product or project illustrate the minimum
parts or functions? (beginner level)
Level 2: Does the finished product or project contain additional parts and
functions on top of the minimum requirements which tend to enhance the fina
output? (skilled level)
Level 3: Does the finished product or project contain the basic minimum
parts and functions, have additional features on top of the minimum, and is
aesthetically pleasing? (expert level)
Below are examples of product-oriented performance-based tasks and
competencies:

Example 1
The desired product is a representation of a cubic prism made out of
cardboard in an elementary geometry class
Learning Competencies: The final product submitted by the students
must:
1. Possess the correct dimensions 5 inches by 5 inches by 5 inches
(minimum requirement)
2. Be sturdy, made of durable cardboard and properly fastened
together (skilled requirement)
3. be pleasing to the observer, preferably properly colored for
aesthetic purposes (expert requirement)
Example 2
The product desired is a scrapbook illustrating the historical event called
EDSA People Power
Learning Competencies: The scrapbook presented by the students must:
1. contain pictures, newspaper clippings and other illustrations of
the main characters of EDSA People Power Revolution
(beginner’s requirement)
2. contain remarks and caption for the illustrations made by the
student for the roles played by the characters of EDSA People
Power Revolution (skilled requirement)
3. be presentable, complete, informative and pleasing to the
reader of the scrapbook (expert requirement)

These examples show that all product-oriented performance-based

learning competencies are ‘evidenced-based”. The teacher needs
concrete evidence that the student has achieved a certain level of
competence based on submitted products or projects.

Lesson 3.2 Task Designing

How should you design a task for product-oriented performance-based
assessment? The design of the task in this context depends on what the
teacher desires to observe as outputs of the students. The concepts that may
be associated with task designing include:
 Complexity. The level of complexity of the project needs to
be within the range of the ability of the students. Projects
that are too simple tend to bore the students while projects
that are too complicated will most likely frustrate them.
 Appeal. The project or task must be appealing to the
students. It should be interesting enough so that students
 are encouraged to pursue the task to completion. It should
lead to self-discovery of information by the students.
 Creativity. The project needs to encourage students to
exercise creativity and divergent thinking. Given the same
sets of materials and inputs, allow students to best present
the project. It should lead the students into exploring the
various possible ways of presenting the final output.
 Goal-based. Finally, the teacher must bear in mind that the
project is produced in order to attain a learning objective.
Thus, projects are assigned to students not just for the sake
of producing something but for the purpose of reinforcing
learning.

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

The following are learning tasks that will empower your understanding of the
different lessons found in this module. Answer them truthfully and extensively.

Activity 1: NAME IT!

Identify an assessment tasks, one for process-oriented and one for
product-oriented (based from your specialization) and write atleast three(3)
learning competencies for each
Process-Oriented
TASK: ______________________________________________________
Objectives:
1. ____________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________

Product-oriented
TASK: ______________________________________________________
 Objectives:
1. ____________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________

Recommended learning materials and resources for supplementary reading

To better further your understanding on the principles of high quality classroom

assessment, please click on the following links:

Differentiating Process-oriented and Product-oriented Performance-based

Assessment

https://www.academia.edu/30918888/PRODUCT_ORIENTED_ASSESSMENT

FLEXIBLE TEACHING AND LEARNING MODALITY (FTLM) ADAPTED

Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, Schoology, Gmail, YouTube, Zoom

ASSESSMENT TASKS

Design either a process-oriented or product-oriented performance-based task. Identify

the competencies (objectives), and create a rubric (either holistic or analytic) that will
be used for the assessment task you designed.

REFERENCES

Books

R. Santos, 2007. Advanced methods in educational assessment and evaluation, Lori mar
Publishing

Online Resources

https://www.academia.edu/30918888/PRODUCT_ORIENTED_ASSESSMENT
https://study.com/academy/lesson/performance-assessments-product-vs-process.html