NAME: MYRHELLE L.

VALENCIA DATE: March 8, 2021

BLOCK & SECTION: BSED FILIPINO 2 WEEK NO: 4

TOPIC 1: DEVELOPING AUTHENTIC CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT

Introduction

Authenticity is an important element of new modes of assessment. The problem

is that what authentic assessment really is, is unspecified. In this article, we first review
the literature on authenticity of assessments, along with a five-dimensional framework
for designing authentic assessments with professional practice as the starting point.
Then, we present the results of a qualitative study to determine if the framework is
complete, and what the relative importance of the five dimensions is in the perceptions
of students and teachers of a vocational college for nursing. We discuss implications
for the framework, along with important issues that need to be considered when
designing authentic assessments.

Objectives

At the end of the lessons, the Pre-service Teachers will be able to:

1. discuss the importance of authentic assessment

2. make connections between the principles of high quality assessment and the
development and use of authentic assessment techniques and tools within and across
teaching areas.
 Try this!

“I can’t claim to be an authority on anything, but I can honestly say

that certain matters absolutely fascinate me, and that I write about
them all the time. The two basic topics which fascinate me are ‘What is
reality?’ and ‘What constitutes the authentic human being?’ . . . I
consider that the matter of defining what is real—that is a serious
topic, even a vital topic. And in there somewhere is the other topic, the
definition of the authentic human. Because the bombardment of
pseudo-realities begins to produce inauthentic humans very quickly,
spurious humans—as fake as the data pressing at them from all sides.”

Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction Author (1928–1982)

Think ahead!

a. Based on the quote above, what do you think is authentic assessment looks like in the classroom? Write your
idea in not less than 50 words.
 Read and Ponder

A Five‐Dimensional Framework for Authentic Assessment

Authenticity is an important element of new modes of assessment. The problem is that what assessment
authenticity really is, is unspecified.
But here are three points to keep in mind when planning for assessments with authenticity:
1. Not all assessments have to be authentic. Traditional paper-and-pencil tests are still very useful tools for
assessing important basic knowledge and many skills. If the majority of your own classroom assessments are
made up of matching and multiple-choice questions, that might be perfectly appropriate.
2. Regardless of the specific tasks or content involved, authentic assessment should be considered. Consider
the extent to which each instructional objective reflects valued skills outside the classroom.
3. Not all authentic tasks need be assessed; they may be formative or act as instruction. Authenticity is likely to
improve the quality of any type of assessment.

Baron and Boschee also suggest a simple multistep process for producing scoring rules for authentic
assessment:
1. Design a scoring rubric for each criterion. It should evaluate the degree to which students have incorporated
all the important components of the thinking process involved.
2. Verify that the task will provide all the information necessary to produce a valid score.
3. Consider modifying the task to increase interest or the amount of information produced.
4. For your records, include on the rubric the task, learner outcome (objective), and complex thinking skill
required.
5. Consider assigning different weights to each criterion if they differ in importance.
6. Share the criteria with students and your reasoning in selecting the criteria. (Consider student involvement in
criteria selection.)
7. Of course, share results with students, emphasizing what they have mastered or learned.

Fischer and King (1995) published a concise guide to implementation of authentic assessment. They suggest
that a portfolio assessment approach is best and provide a list of eight authentic characteristics that are found
in real-world classroom assessments. This style of assessment will contain several of these components:
1. Represents realistic tasks in a variety of contexts done for a variety of purposes
2. Ongoing, formative assessment
3. Samples a wide range of cognitive strategies
4. Designed for different developmental levels
5. Individualized
6. Provides for collaborative reflection between students and teachers
7. Assessment guides instruction
8. Emphasizes what students know and can do
ASSESSING SKILLS WITH AUTHENTIC TASKS

Skill Definition Assessable Tasks

Proced Knowledge of how to ● Thinking aloud
ural perform, how to do
knowle something ● Using a computer
dge
● Safety procedures
● Driving a car
● Conducting an experiment
● Showing work while solving a math problem
Problem Use of critical- ● Testing a hypothesis
solving thinking and
decision-making ● Writing a research paper
skills to find a
● Making value judgments
solution
● Solving mathematical “story problems”
● Judging the credibility of evidence
● Deductive reasoning (e.g., geometry
problems)
● Concept mapping to identify variables
of a problem
Collaboration Working with ● Listening (e.g., eye contact, asking
others toward a
shared goal questions, reflective responses)
● Cooperation (e.g., turn-taking, sharing, being
polite)
● Produce a product as a group
● Present as a group
Motivation Level of desire ● Setting goals
or willingness
to do ● Creating a plan to reach a goal
something
● Self-assessing success
● Demonstrating persistence

THE FIVE DIMENSIONS OF ASSESSMENT AUTHENTICITY AND THEIR CHARACTERISING

ELEMENTS
 CRITERIA TASK
Based on the criteria used in professional practice
Integration of knowledge, skill and attitudes
Meaningfulness, typicality and relevance in student's eye
Related to realistic Degree
product/process
of ownership of problem and solution space
Degree of complexity
Transparent and explicit *Solution space (one/multiple)
Criterion-referenced *Structure (well/ill-defined)
*Domains (mono/multidisciplinary)

PHYSICAL CONTEXT
Similarity to professional workspace (fidelity)
Availability of professional resources (methods/tools)
Similarity to professional time frame (thinking/acting)

SOCIAL CONTEXT
Similarity to social context of professional practice
*individual work/ decision-making
*group work/ decision-making

FORM/RESULT
Demonstration of competence by professionally relevant
results
Observation or presentation of results
Multiple indicators of learning

Task
An authentic task is a problem task that confronts students with activities that are also carried out in
professional practice. The fact that an authentic task is crucial for an authentic assessment is undisputed, but
different researchers stress different elements of an authentic task. An authentic assessment task requires
students to integrate and use knowledge, skills and attitudes as professionals do. Furthermore, the
assessment task should resemble the complexity of the criterion task. This does not mean that every
assessment task should be very complex as is often argued by advocates of authentic assessments. Even
though most authentic problems are complex, involving multidisciplinarity, ill‐structuredness, and having
multiple possible solutions, real‐life problems can also be simple, well‐structured with one correct answer and
requiring only one discipline. The same need for resemblance holds for ownership of the task and of the
process of developing a solution.

Physical Context
Where we are, often if not always, determines how we do something, and often the real place is dirtier (literally
and figuratively) than safe learning environments. Think, for example, of an assessment for auto mechanics for
the military. The capability of a soldier to find the problem in a non‐functioning jeep can be assessed in a clean
garage, with the availability of all the possibly needed equipment, but the future physical environments will
possibly involve a war zone, inclement weather conditions, less space, and less equipment. Even though the
task itself is authentic, it can be questioned whether assessing students in a clean and safe environment really
assesses their capacity to wisely use their competencies in real‐life situations. The physical context of an
authentic assessment should reflect the way knowledge, skills and attitudes will be used in professional
practice. Fidelity is often used in the context of computer simulations, which describes how closely a simulation
imitates reality. Authentic assessment often deals with high‐ fidelity contexts. The presentation of material and
the amount of detail presented in the context are important aspects of the degree of fidelity. Likewise, an
important element of the authenticity of the physical context is that the number and kinds of resources
available, which mostly contain relevant as well as irrelevant information, should resemble the resources
available in the criterion situation.
Social Context
Not only the physical context, but also the social context influences the authenticity of the assessment. In real
life, working together is often the rule rather than the exception and emphasises that learning and performing
out‐of‐school mostly takes place in a social system. Therefore, a model for authenticity should consider social
processes that are present in real‐life contexts. What is really important in an authentic assessment is that the
social processes of the assessment resemble the social processes in an equivalent situation in reality. At this
point, this framework disagrees with literature on authentic assessment that defines collaboration as a
characteristic of authenticity. Our framework argues that if the real situation demands collaboration, the
assessment should also involve collaboration, but if the situation is normally handled individually, the
assessment should be individual. When the assessment requires collaboration, processes like social
interaction, positive interdependency and individual accountability need to be taken into account. When, on the
other hand, the assessment is individual, the social context should stimulate some kind of competition between
learners.
Assessment Result/Form
The assessment result/form is related to the kind and amount of output of the assessment task, independent of
the content of the assessment. In the framework, an authentic result/form is characterised by three elements. It
should require students to demonstrate their learning or competencies by creating a quality product or
performance that they can be asked to produce in real life. In addition, this should be observable for others.
Students have to be able to present to others that their results reflect genuine mastery of the required
competencies. The rationale behind requiring students to demonstrate their learning through an observable
performance in a real‐life situation is that this permits making inferences, as validly as possible, about
underlying competencies and predicting future functioning in comparable work situations. Since the
demonstration of relevant competencies is often not possible in one single test, an authentic assessment
should involve a full array of tasks and multiple indicators of learning in order to come to fair conclusions about
(professional) competence.

Criteria
Criteria are those characteristics of the assessment result that are valued; standards are the level of
performance expected from various grades and ages of students. Criteria and standards should concern the
development of relevant professional competencies and should be based upon criteria used in the real‐life (i.e.,
criterion) situation. Moreover, some criteria should be related to a realistic outcome, explicating characteristics
or requirements of the product, process, performance or solutions that students need to create. Setting criteria
and making them explicit and transparent to learners beforehand is important in authentic assessment,
because this guides learning and after all, in real life, employees usually know on what criteria their
performances will be judged. Moreover, this implies that authentic assessment requires criterion‐ referenced
judgment.

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT PROCESS

Identify
values and
assumptions

Design
Sharing
learning
assessment
opportunities
results
(episodes)

Designing
Interpret
assessment
data
format
(score)
 Applying authentic assessment procedures in the real classroom can be challenging. Though the
community of classroom assessment scholars agrees that authentic assessments are potentially a powerful,
transformative tool, there is not yet agreement on which aspects of authenticity are most important. Nine
different dimensions of authenticity were presented, with the realistic nature of the assessment being
emphasized. The overlap between the modern assessment approaches of authentic, formative, and
performance-based was discussed. Validity and reliability issues of authentic assessment include determining
what is authentic and the necessarily subjective nature of the scoring.

See if you can do this!

I. Reflect and answer the following questions.

1. Think about the word “realistic.” What would a realistic classroom assessment actually be like? (25 points)
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2. Which aspects of authenticity (those FIVE dimensions) seem to you to be most important? Why? (25 points)
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II. IN THIS LESSON,

a. I learned that (KNOWLEDGE)

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b. I felt that (VALUE/ATTITUDE)
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c. I developed (SKILL)
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