What is Authentic

Assessment?
Introduction
In what ways do our students achieve more learning outcomes?
What are the ways with which we could measure students’
achievements? Assessment of student learning requires the use
of a variety of techniques for measuring outcomes which plays a
significant role in effective teaching and learning processes. As
stipulated in DepEd Order No. 73, s. 2012, assessment shall be
used primarily as quality assurance to track student progress to
the attainment of standards, promote self-reflection, and personal
accountability for one’s learning, and provide a basis for the
profiling of student progress. Apart from conventional types of
assessment, another important type of assessment, the authentic
type of assessment will be presented in this lesson including its
nature and characteristics.
Specific Learning
Outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, the pre-
service teacher can:
a. discuss the natureand
characteristics of authentic assessment
“Both assessment and evaluation are based on the
judgment of an experienced, thoughtful human
being – an expert. Machines don’t assess, papers
don’t assess, tests don’t assess. Humans assess. And
what better person is there to assess the progress
and development of his or her students than the
classroom teacher. “
- Larry Malone
Lawrence Hall of Science,
University of California, Berkeley

Reference:
Hart, D. (1994). Authentic Assessment: A Handbook for Education. California: Addison Wesley Publishing Co.,
1994), p.2
 Authentic Assessment:

Can you think of professions which require some direct

demonstration of relevant skills before someone can be
employed in that field?
Doctors, health professionals, teachers, chef, and others must all
provide direct evidence of competence to be hired. Completing a
written or oral test or interview is usually not sufficient.
Shouldn't we ask the same of our students before we say they are
ready to graduate? Or pass a course? or move on to the next
grade? (Jon Meuller, Authentic Assessment Toolbox, 2014)
 Authentic Assessment:
How well do multiple-choice tests really evaluate
student understanding and achievement?
educators believe that there Many is a
assessment alternative. These more effective teachers
strategies that do not focus entirely on recalling facts.
Instead, they ask students to demonstrate skillsuse and
concepts they have learned. This strategy is called
authentic assessment. testing
What is Authentic Assessment?
• The definition of authentic assessment can vary
depending on which research literature is consulted.
• When defining authentic assessment, some believe that
the only way to authentically assess a skill or
concept would be to directly replicate what a
student may expect to find in industry or the real-
world. An example of this may be a nursing student
who performs a role play with a simulation
robot/mannequin and performs the same procedures
they would perform on a patient in the hospital.
Similarly, a preservice teacher performs a
microteaching on a certain topic simulating a real
What is Authentic Assessment?
• Others may define authentic assessment not by the
literal physical replication of the learned
concept, but instead by the cognitive thought
processes that the student used to arrive at
the same conclusion. Perhaps this same student
had to give a presentation of the step by
step procedures they would go through
with the patient. They are still going
through the same thinking process, but the product
to prove their learning is different.
What is Authentic Assessment?
• Authentic assessment aims to students'
abilities evaluate 'real-world' words,
students
in learncontexts.
how to apply their In skillsother
to authentic
tasks and projects.
• Authentic assessment does not encourage rote learning
and passive test-taking. Instead, it focuses on
students' analytical skills; ability to integrate
what they learn; creativity; ability to work
collaboratively; and written and oral expression
skills. It values the learning process as much as the
finished product.
What is Authentic Assessment?
Here are some definitions:
“A form of assessment in which students are asked to perform
real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of
essential knowledge and skills” -- Jon Mueller (2011)
"...Engaging and worthy problems or questions of importance, in
which students must use knowledge to fashion performances
effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or
analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and
consumers or professionals in the field." -- Grant Wiggins --
(Wiggins, 1993, p. 229).
"Performance assessments call upon the examinee to demonstrate
specific skills and competencies, that is, to apply the skills and
knowledge they have mastered." -- Richard J. Stiggins --
(Stiggins, 1987, p. 34).
What is Authentic Assessment?
Distinctions between hands-on and real world tasks:
 A ‘hands-on’ task, students build stuff; create works; get
their hands dirty; and perform something. In pure
and applied sciences and business courses, we observe
students create and use learning as a demonstration
of practical and theoretical understanding.
 In ‘real-world’ task there may or may not be mere writing
or a hands-on task, but the assessment is meant to focus on
the impact of one’s work in real or realistic contexts.
A real- world task requires students to deal with
the messiness of real or simulated settings,
purposes, and audience (as opposed to a
simplified and “clean” academic task to no
audience but the teacher-evaluator).
What is Authentic Assessment?
Common Dimensions of Authentic assessment:
1. the context of the assessment
 realistic activity or context
 the task is performance-based.
 the task is cognitively complex.
2. the role of the student
 a defense of the answer or product is required.
 the assessment is formative.
 students collaborate with each other or with
the teacher.
What is Authentic Assessment?
Common Dimensions of Authentic assessment:
3. the scoring
 the scoring criteria are known student
or developed.
 multiple indicators or portfolios used for
are scoring.
 the performance expectation is mastery.
 History of Authentic
Assessment?
The earliest reference to authentic tests is likely that made by Archbald and
Newman in 1988, in a book critical of standardized testing, that sought to
promote assessment centered on meaningful real- world problems or tasks.
Assessment is authentic when it measures products or performances that “have
meaning or value beyond success in school” (Newman, Brandt & Wiggins, 1998,
p.19).
 Wiggins was also an early proponent for the use of the term authentic to describe
assessment with real- world application (1989). “‘Authentic’ refers to the
situational or contextual realism of the proposed tasks” (Newman, Brandt &
Wiggins, 1998, p.20).
 Wiggins’ position is essentially that traditional assessment is not inauthentic, it is
simply less direct and, probably, less meaningful to students. He argues that
traditional assessment is not faithful to the domains of performances and contexts
that are most important for higher order thinking and learning (1993).
History of Authentic
Assessment?
 Since the early 90’s, teacher educators, theorists and
researchers have flocked to support authentic assessment as a
more valid and productive approach towards student
evaluation.
 A review of published researches reveals a wide range of
descriptions for the term, some of which overlap with other
classroom assessment terms, such as performance-based
assessment and formative assessment. In fact, there was an
observed conceptual overlap between performance
assessment, formative assessment and authentic assessment.
Which one
is true?
Why?
History of Authentic
Assessment?
 Since the early 90’s, teacher educators, theorists and
researchers have flocked to support authentic assessment as a
more valid and productive approach towards student
evaluation.
 A review of published researches reveals a wide range of
descriptions for the term, some of which overlap with other
classroom assessment terms, such as performance-based
assessment and formative assessment. In fact, there was an
observed conceptual overlap between performance
assessment, formative assessment and authentic assessment.
Grant Wiggins’ Characteristics of
Authentic Assessment
A. Structure and Logistics
1. Are more appropriately public; involve an audience, a panel,
and so on.
2. Do not rely on unrealistic and arbitrary time constraints.
3. Offer known, not secret, questions or tasks.
4. Are more like portfolios or a season of games (not one-
shot).
5. Require some collaboration with others.
6. Recur – and are worth practicing for, rehearsing and
retaking.
7. Make assessment and feedback to students so central that
school schedules, structures, and policies are
modified to support them.
B. Intellectual Design Features
1. Are “essential” – not needlessly intrusive, arbitrary, or contrived to
“shake out” a grade.
2. Are “enabling” – constructed to point the student toward more sophisticated
use of the skills or knowledge.
3. Are contextualized, complex intellectual challenges, not “atomized”
tasks.
4. Involve the student’s own research or use of knowledge, for which
“content” is a means.
5. Assess student habits and repertoires, not mere recall or plug-in skills
6. Are representative challenges – designed to emphasize depth more than
breadth.
7. Are engaging and educational.
8. Involve somewhat ambiguous (“ill structured”) tasks or problems.
C. Grading and Scoring Standards
1. Involve criteria that assess essentials, not easily counted
(but relatively unimportant) errors.
2. Are not graded on a “curve” but in reference to performance
standards (criterion-referenced, not norm-referenced).
3. Involved demystified criteria of success that appear to students
as inherent in successful activity.
4. Make self-assessment a part of the assessment.
5. Use a multifaceted scoring system instead of a one
aggregate grade.
6. Exhibit harmony with shared schoolwide aims – a standard.
D. Fairness and Equity
1. Ferret out and identify (perhaps hidden) strengths.
2. Strike a constantly examined balance between
honoring achievement and native skill or fortunate prior training.
3. Minimize needless, unfair and demoralizing comparisons.
4. Allow appropriate room for student learning
styles, aptitudes and interests.
5. Can be – should be – attempted by all students, with the test
“scaffolded up,” not “dumbed down,” as necessary.
“accountability” serve student
6. Reverse typical test-design
procedures: they make
learning (Attention is
primarily paid to “face” and “ecological” validity of
Navarro and Santos’
Characteristics of
Authentic Assessment
7 Characteristics of Authentic Assessment
1. It starts with clear and definite criteria of performance
made known to the students.
2. It is criterion-referenced rather than norm-referenced
and so it identifies strengths and weaknesses but
does not compare students nor rank their
levels of performance.
3. It requires students to make their own answers to
questions rather than select from given options as in
multiple choice items, and requires them to use a range
of HOTS.
7 Characteristics of Authentic Assessment
4. It often emphasizes performance and students are
required to demonstrate their knowledge, skills or
competencies in appropriate situations. It does not rely
on ability to recall or memorize details, instead students
are asked to demonstrate skills and concepts they have
learned.
5. It encourages both teacher and students to determine
their rate of progress cooperatively attaining the desired
student learning outcomes.
7 Characteristics of Authentic Assessment
6. It does not encourage rote learning and passive taking of tests, instead,
students are required to demonstrate analytical skills, ability to
integrate what they learn, creativity, ability to work in group, and
skills in oral and written communications. In brief, this assessment
values not only the finished products which are the learning
outcomes, but also the process of learning.
7. It changes the rule of students as passive test takers into

becoming active and involved participants in

assessment activities that emphasize what they
capable of doing. are
Related or Alternative
Terms for Authentic
Assessment
Authentic Assessment is sometimes called as:
1. Performance Assessment (or Performance-based) -- so-
called because students are asked to perform meaningful
tasks. This is the other most common term for this type of
assessment. For some educators, authentic assessments are
performance assessments using real-world or authentic
tasks or contexts.
2. Alternative Assessment -- because authentic assessment is
an alternative to traditional assessments.
3. Direct Assessment -- because authentic assessment
provides more direct evidence of meaningful
application of knowledge and skills.
Rubric:

Content (5x4) = 20
Relevance (5x3) = 15
Mechanics / Conventions (5x2) = 10
Title (5x1) = 5

Total = 50
 References:
Navarro, R.L. & Santos, R.D. (2013). Authentic Assessment of Student Learning
Outcomes 2nd edition. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.
Mueller, Jon (2018) Authentic Assessment Overview. Available online at
https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-strategies/authentic-assessment-overview
http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/whatisit.htm
Wiggins, Grant (2018). 27 Characteristics Of Authentic Assessment. Available at
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/27-characteristics-of-authentic-assessment/
Howard, Erin (2015). Authentic Assessment Explained. Available online at
http://www.lc2.ca/item/239-authentic-assessment-
explained#:~:text=Authentic%20Assessments%20are%20Direct%20Measures,skill
%20through%20demonstration%20or%20application
Frey, B.B., Schmitt, V.L., & Allen, J.P. (2012). Defining Authentic
Classroom Assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, Vol 17, No 2