The Nature of Performance-Based Assessment

Meaning and Characteristics

 Performance-Based Assessment is one in which the teacher observes and makes

judgment about the students’ demonstration of a skill or in creating a product, constructing
a response, or making a presentation.

 Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) is an alternative form of assessment that moves

away from traditional paper-and-pencil test (Ferman, 2005).

 Performance-Based Assessments process the creative aspect of the students in bringing

out what know and what they can do through different performance tasks such as exhibits,
projects work samples.

 According to Linn (1995), performance assessments provide a basis of teachers to

evaluate both the effectiveness of the process or procedure used (e.g. approach to data
collection, manipulation of instruments) and the product resulting from performance of a
task (e.g. completed report of results, completed art work).

 Performance products are outputs produced by students that provide concrete samples
of their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.

Some performance assessment proponents contend that genuine performance assessments

must possess at least three features (Popham, 2011):

 Multiple evaluation criteria

 Pre-specified quality standards

 Judgmental appraisal

TYPES OF PERFORMANCE TASKS

1. Solving a problem- critical thinking and problem solving are important skills that need to
be sharpened and developed by the learners.

2. Completing an inquiry- an inquiry task is one in which the students are asked to collect
data in order to their understanding about a topic or issue.

3. Determining a position- the task requires students to make decision clarify a position.

4. Demonstration task- this task shows how the students use knowledge and skills to
complete well-defined complex tasks.
5. Developing exhibits- Exhibits are visual presentations or displays that need little or no
explanation from the creators.

6. Presentation task- This is a work or task performed in front of an audience.

7. Capstone performances- these are tasks that occur at the end of a program study.

STRENGTHS OF PERFORMANCE- BASED ASSESSMENT

 Performance assessment clearly identifies and clarifies learning targets

 Performance assessment allows students to exhibit their own skills, talents, and
expertise.

 Performance assessment advocates constructivist principle of learning

 Performance assessment allows the teachers to explore the main goal and processing of
teaching and learning process.

 Performance assessment uses variety of approaches to student evaluation.

LIMITATIONS OF PERFORMANCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

 Development of high quality performance assessment is a tedious process.

 Performance assessment requires a considerable amount of time to administer.

 Performance assessment takes a great deal of time to score.

 Performance task score may have lower reliability.

 Performance task completion may be discouraging to less able students.

SUMMARY OF THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF PERFORMANCE-BASED

ASSESSMENT

Strengths
Integrates assessment with instruction
. Learning occurs during assessment
Provides opportunities for formative
Weaknesses
. Reliability may be difficult to establish
Measurement error due to subjective nature
of the scoring may be significant
Inconsistent student performance across the
assessment time may result in inaccurate conclusion
Tends to be more authentic than other types Few samples of student achievement
of assessments
More engaging; active involvement of Requires considerable teacher time to
students prepare and student time to complete
Provides additional way for students to Difficult to plan for amount of time needed
show what they know and can do
Emphasis on reasoning skills Limited ability to generalize to a larger
domain of knowledge.
Forces teachers to establish specific criteria
to identify successful performance
Encourages student self- assessment
Emphasis on application of knowledge
Encourages re-examination of instructional
goals and purpose of schooling.