Marinduque State College: 4.1. Principles of Good Practice in Assessing Learning Outcomes

Republic of the Philippines
Marinduque State College

Main Campus: Boac / Branches: Santa Cruz • Torrijos • Gasan
Panfilo P. Manguera Sr. Rd., Tanza, Boac, Marinduque 4900
Tel. No.: (042) 332-2028 Email Address: sucpresident.msc@gmail.com
Website: www.mscmarinduque.edu.ph

Now that you have learned how to write the
learning outcomes, we will now proceed on how do
we assess if we have produced the desired learning
outcome. The strategy, method and teaching
approaches will be tackled on your other Professional
Education subjects. In this chapter, we will have an
overview of what are the assessment tools that you can
use to gather information on whether the instruction,
services and activities that the program provide are
producing the desired learning outcome.

4.1. Principles of Good Practice in Assessing Learning Outcomes

1. The assessment of student learning starts with the institution’s mission and core
values. There should be a clear statement on the kinds o learning that the institution
values most for it’s learners.
2. Assessment works best when the program has clear statement of objectives aligned
with the institutional mission and core values. Such alignment ensures clear, shared
and implementable objectives – CONSTRUCTIVE ALIGNMENT.
3. Outcomes-based assessment focuses on the student activities that will still be
relevant after formal schooling concludes. The approach is to design assessment
activities which are observable and less abstract such as “to determine the student’s
ability to write a paragraph” which is more observable than “to determine the
student’s verbal ability.
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4. Assessment requires attention not only to outcomes but also and equally to the
activities & experiences that lead to the attainment of learning outcomes. These are
supporting student activities.
5. Works best when it is continuous, on-going, and not episodic. It should be cumulative
because improvement is best achieved through a linked, series of activities done
over time in an institutional. This is synonymous to spiral progression.
6. Assessment should begin by specifying clearly & exactly what the facilitator of
learning is assessing.
7. The intended learning outcome is the basis of the assessment task not the contents.
The contents are used in development of the assessment and task not in the
attainment of the learning outcome.
8. Set the criterion of success or acceptable standard of your success.
9. Make use of varied tools for assessment data gathering & multiple sources of
assessment data.
10. Learners must be given feedback about their performance.
11. Assessment should be on real-world application and not out of context.
12. Emphasize on the assessment the higher order thinking skills/learning.
13. Provide opportunities for self-assessment.
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4.2. The Outcomes Assessment Phases in the Instructional Cycle

As we have discussed in the previous chapters, setting a learning outcome is based
on the institution’s curriculum guide.
Generally, the first phase of outcomes assessment phases begins with the
institution’s mission (the Department of Education in the Philippine Secondary Education).
Thus, a program goal is being followed by the educators as a guide. As an educator, after
the learner has finished the program you want to know how your area of expertise can help
achieve that goal.
Knowing what are the program goals will help you understand how your subject
objectives can help achieve the institution’s mission. Given the subject, you can now set
your desired learning outcomes and implement first a diagnostic assessment.
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Diagnostic assessment bridges the gap between the previous learning and what is
to be taught. Focusing on lesson specifics helps you as an educator to employ supporting
activities that will help you achieve the learning outcomes. After you are done with the
lesson and activities, you can now check your student’s immediate learning outcomes
through formative assessment such as quizzes, feedbacks or oral questioning.
This allows you to know on what particular area they are having troubles with and
helps you evaluate your teaching methodology. It aims to guide the teacher whether he/she
needs to review and reteach as it serves as a quantitative feedback of the learner’s
knowledge.
After reteaching or reviewing the lesson, mastery of learning comes after and this
involves reinforcement activities. Since we are more concerned with the deferred outcomes,
a summative assessment is necessary to understand if the learning lasts after a duration of
time. This kind of assessment also determines whether the learning outcome is aligned to
the institution’s mission and goals.
4.3. Diagnostic versus Formative versus Summative Assessment

DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT
-Also known as “Assessment FOR Learning”
-It bridges the gap between the previous learnings and the topics to be discussed.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
-it has a shorter time period like quizzes, oral-questioning, seat works, etc.
-it is used to determine whether the teaching materials were effective.
-assesses the immediate learning outcome

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
-this assesses the actual learning of the student at the end of the course / program.
-it answers whether deferred learning outcomes was achieved.

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4.4. Assessment as an Evaluation Tool for Learning Outcomes
We have gone a long way in understanding, interpreting and applying the concept of
learning outcomes. Now, let us learn how assessment of learning is an evaluation process
that tells whether the intended learning outcomes (through the teaching-learning process)
have been converted into achieved learning outcomes. We will also discuss how to find out
that learning outcomes re measured through the use of various assessment tools in the
succeeding chapters.
Knowledge, Process, Understanding, Performance (KPUP) –
Determination of Levels of Learning Outcomes
Knowledge, Process, Understanding, Performance reflect different learning
outcomes that are arranged in hierarchy or complexity. Knowledge being the most basic
and performance being the highest level of learning outcomes.
LEARNIN DESCRIPTION OF LEARNING GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR
G LEVEL OUTCOMES EDUCATORS
What do you want your learners to
Knowledge: facts, concepts, know in terms of facts, concepts,
1 procedural knowledge; procedure & multiple thinking?
metacognition (Example: How to divide numbers,
what are fractions, who were the
presidents of the Philippines?)
Process: skills that the student use What do you want your students to do,
2 based on facts and information for with what they know? (Example:
making meaning and Identifying the parts of the frog’ body
understanding after dissection.
What do you want the learners to
3 Understanding: big ideas or understand? (Example: How do the
concept elements of weather interact to produce
climate change?)
5
What product / performance can my

Product / Performance: products learners Can you
demonstrate their learning?
place the evidences in a
(material/tangible) or portfolio to show your learning
4 performance (oral, visual,
written) that are evidences of outcome? show the
Can you create a play to
principles? Can the learners
learning. present a report of readings and
researches?
The first three (3) levels of learning outcomes (knowledge, process & understanding)
can be assessed through the traditional pen-&-paper examination. The tools for this will be
discussed later in this chapter and how to develop them will be discussed in the next
chapter. The highest level (Performance/Product) is considered authentic learning for it
manifests the actual achieved learning outcomes. For this matter, authentic evaluation is
done which is a test that measures real life tasks, performance and actual products. Rubrics
are used to rate the achieved learning outcomes. On how to develop this kind of assessment
and rubrics will be discussed on Assessment of Learning 2.
Levels of Assessment describe levels of the learning outcomes which were discussed
earlier. The levels of learning outcomes are also used to describe the levels of assessment.
As per Department of Education Order 73, series of 2012, levels of learning outcomes are
also levels of assessment. To sum it up, the levels of assessment follow also the levels of
thinking skills from lower level to higher level. Below are the prescribed ratings by the
Department of Education when it comes to assessment.
TYPE OF PERCENTAGE
LEVELS OF LEARNING WHAT TO ASSESS? ASSESSMEN TYPE OF VALUE IN
T ASSESSMENT
1. Knowledge Who, What, When, 15 %
How and Why
2. Process Constructed Meaning Pencil & 25 %

from Knowledge Paper
Assessment
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Explanations,
Interpretations.
Applications,
3. Understanding Empathy, 30 %
Perspective,
Self-Knowledge, Big
ideas, principles and
generalization
4. Products Transfer of
Performance understanding to life Checklist / 30 %
situations as products Rating Scale
or performance

4.5. Variety of Assessment Instruments
It is best to use a variety if assessment instruments or tools when assessing student
learning outcomes. Below is a chart that would help you understand the relation of
assessment instruments and how you can use them in your teaching methodology.
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Traditional / Written Assessment

This kind of assessment is commonly referred as “Objective Assessment” as it is
given uniformly to learners and assess the learning outcomes. However, it does not consider
other factors affecting learning and how such learnings can be applied to real-life scenarios.
A. Selected Responses - Learners select their responses from a set of given choices.
a. Alternate Response - Learners are asked to categorize an idea or knowledge
between two opposing ideas
Example: True or False Exams, Yes or No, Agree or Disagree
b. Multiple Choice Examinations - Learners are asked to choose an appropriate
answer from a set of choices
c. Matching Type - Learners are asked to match an idea to a related or matching
concept.
B. Constructed Responses - Learners construct their own responses but should be
restricted by the questions & directions of the assessment.
a. Completion type – The students supply the missing ideas or concepts.
Common examples are ‘identification’ type of exam and fill-in the blanks.
b. Short Answers - Assessments that asks a question and needs specific answers
without choices for the learners. The use of ‘Wh-’ questions is a common
example.
c. Essays - Restricted type of essays is always encouraged to shorten
correctionability and time duration.
d. Problem Solving - Problem solving asks
the learners to create a solution out of
given situations. Diagrams and analysis
are also considered a type of
problem-solving assessment.
e. Enumeration - This is a shortened type of
essay and the learners need to give
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multiple specific answers to a given question or situation.

Authentic Assessment
Authentic assessment involves application of what has been learned inside the
classroom and it’s essence in real-life situations. This can be categorized into two as follows:
A. Process-Oriented Performance Assessment
This determines the learner’s progress and how he/she is developing with
respect to the learning outcomes through observation of set indicators of
learning as they execute or perform the expected learning outcome.
B. Product-Oriented Performance Assessment
This assesses the student’s learning progress by assessing his output or actual
learning outcome based on a set of learning outcomes.
A few examples of these assessments are experimentation, oral presentation,
role-playing, recital performances, reflective journals and portfolios. Note that in authentic
assessment the teacher is focused on assessing the learning through different criteria that is
not measurable through the pen-&-paper type of assessment.
In order to assess the learner’s progress through his output and performance, a
teacher set criteria with corresponding rating. This is called rubrics.
Rubrics

A rubric is an authentic assessment tool which
measures student’s work. It is a scoring guide that seeks to
evaluate a learner’s performance based on a full range of
criteria rather than a single numerical value. There are two
kinds of rubrics depending on what you are trying to assess.

A. Holistic Rubrics
A holistic rubric covers the instrument as a whole;
students receive an over-all score based on a
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pre-determined scheme. Educators only use holistic this kind of rubrics when the criteria to

be observed cannot be separated from each other. When choosing this type of rubric, you
have to consider that the set indicators should be assessed simultaneously and dependent
on
each
other. The most common usage of holistic rubric is in grammar and language, wherein the
spelling and sentence structure follows the rule of subject-verb agreement. In this case, you
assess and rate on a whole composition rather than just on spelling and grammar separately.
Example of Holistic Rubrics for Public Speaking
B. Dimensional / Analytic Rubrics
A dimensional / analytic rubric articulates levels of performance for each criterion
and yields sub-scores for each criterion. This level of performance could vary from
beginner, intermediate to expert level. A checklist is different from rubrics. A checklist only
allows you to check whether the learner as able to execute the task or not.

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Example of Analytic Rubrics

For educators, the rubrics allows you to give assessment and judgement as to what
degree of level was the learner able to achieve the desired learning outcome. It caters and
addresses the limitations of the objective type of learning by providing multiple
opportunities that can point out the student’s strength and weaknesses. It allows you as an
educator to know in which particular area you should help your learners when it comes to
achieving the learning outcome.
A rubric should not be confused with a checklist. A checklist is limited to answers like
answers of ‘yes-or-no’, ‘able-and-unable’, ‘agree-or-disagree’ etc. It’s a binary choice rather
than giving you an idea as to ‘how much’ has been learned by the students.

4.6. Difference of Authentic Assessment and Traditional Assessment
Below is a table that shows the difference of traditional and authentic assessment.

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