Traditional vs.

Authentic Assessment

By: Dr. Elizabeth W. Santos

Traditional Assessment

… are the conventional method of testing such as

 quiz
 exam
 standardized test
 diagnostic test
Authentic Assessment

An assessment that is performance oriented.

It aims to measure not only the correctness of the response,

but also the thought process involved in arriving at a
response, and that encourage students to reflect their own
learning in both depth and breadth.

The belief is that instruction will be pushed into a more

thoughtful, reflective, richer mode as well.
Performance Assessment

• Call upon the examinee to DEMONSTRATE specific skills

and competencies that is to APPLY the skills and
knowledge they have mastered (Stiggins, 2018)
• 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, 2019)
Traditional vs. Authentic
Assessment
Traditional vs. Authentic
Assessment
Traditional vs. Authentic
Assessment
Structure and Logistics of Great Authentic
Assessments (Wiggins 2020)

1.Are more appropriately public; involve an audience, panel, etc.

– Realistic communications with stakeholders, presentations if
appropriate to share results, emails with updates of projects can be
assessments.

2.Do not rely on unrealistic and arbitrary time constraints

– Realistic time constraints- this may mean a large project that is
broken down as happens in real life.
Structure and Logistics of Great Authentic
Assessments (Wiggins 2020)

3. Offer known, not secret, questions or tasks. – Clearly breakdown

the task, questions to be answered.
What are we as teachers actually looking for?
A clear rubric can be developed from this step.

4. Are not one-shot – more like portfolios or a season of games

– Assigning a larger project that is broken down into smaller
projects may be more authentic. Also, this will make the earlier parts
of the assignment renewable which is an added bonus.
Structure and Logistics of Great Authentic
Assessments (Wiggins 2020)

7. Make feedback to students so central that school structures and

policies are modified to support them – This suggestion is good, but
may be difficult to implement if a teacher is not part of the program
development.
Structure and Logistics of Great Authentic
Assessments (Wiggins 2020)

5. Involve some collaboration with others – Realistic collaboration

can include access to a mentor, tech support or working with a
partner for all or parts of the assignment.

6. Recur – and are worth retaking – Creating assessments that

measure progress of a certain skill – e.g. How fast can you
complete a certain task- this may be valuable in the trades.
Intellectual Design Features

8. Are “essential” – not contrived or arbitrary just to shake out a

grade – This advice sits at the core of what authentic assessment is
– questions about whether the assessment is useful in real life and if
it is renewable can useful here.

9. Are enabling, pointing the student toward more sophisticated and

important use of skills and knowledge – Assessments building
knowledge and skills over time- students are progressing from
beginner to advanced levels.
Intellectual Design Features

10. Are contextualized and complex, not atomized into isolated

objectives – This points again to the use of larger projects based on
real world situations that are broken down into smaller assignments
to keep everybody moving forward at a good pace.

11. Involve the students’ own research – Pointing us again to the

usefulness of renewable assignments.
Intellectual Design Features

12. Assess student habits and repertories, not mere recall or plug-in
– This may require assessing in the field, and may be difficult to
implement in a standard classroom setting. Should be easier in a
trades subject.

13. Are representative challenges of a field or subject- This point is

another way to remind us of the point of authentic assessment – ‘
Would this happen in real life?’
Intellectual Design Features

14.Are engaging and educational – To me this points to real-world problem

solving, are students taking responsibility? Engagement with the assessment
itself can include building the assessment as a class or evaluating other students
projects as a few examples.

15. Involve somewhat ambiguous (ill-structures) tasks or problems – This seems

to go against the 3rd point in Structure and Logistics where he calls for tasks to
be clearly stated, but in the interest of keeping it relevant to the real world, some
vagueness may be appropriate. Assessment can be about effective ways of getting
clarity from others, or the vagueness can serve to give some creative outlet to the
students – but this must be acknowledged in the rubric.
Grading and Scoring

16.Involve criteria that assess essentials, not merely what is easily

scores – are the assessments meaningful, do students need to know
how to do this (the task being assessed).

17. Are not graded on a curve, but in reference to legitimate

performance standards or benchmarks –This is a great point to
remind us of the importance of a clear and detailed rubric to keep
things fair and to mark students based on individual merit.
Grading and Scoring

18.Involve transparent, de-mystified expectations – Clear rubric, clear

instructions unless creative interpretation is part of the assessment.

19.Make self-assessment part of the assessment – Self-assessments can help

students take responsibility for their grades and their learning (McGill,2021) and
has been shown to increase engagement. Self-assessment can also be considered
feedback on the habits, strengths and weaknesses of a student and give them a
starting point for improvement. Areas to focus on can be Abilities, Processes and
Products of learning (Andrade, 2019).
Grading and Scoring

20. Use a multi-faceted analytic trait scoring system instead of one

holistic or aggregate grade – Again, the importance of a detailed
rubric and the benefit of a large problem or project broken down
into smaller assignments.

21. Reflect coherent and stable school standards – Keep learning

outcomes in mind as we develop assessments, courses and
programs.
 Fairness

22.Identify (perhaps hidden) strengths [not just reveal deficits] – A self-

assessment can come in handy here. Also, having students evaluate each
other can help to unveil hidden strengths. From a teachers standpoint, this
will require good observational skills.

23.Strike a balance between honoring achievement while mindful of

fortunate prior experience or training [that can make the assessment
invalid] – This seems a bit tricky. It can be difficult to correctly
assess the quality of prior experience. Also, Is it fair that a student
gets high marks because they already know how to do something?
 Fairness

24. Minimize needless, unfair, and demoralizing comparisons of

students to one another – Behaviour to exhibit at all times but
especially as a teacher!

25. Allow appropriate room for student styles and interests [ – some
element of choice] – This point is a reminder about keeping
assessments accessible by using different formats,, to account for
different learning styles and student engagement (by giving them
agency).
 Fairness

26. Can be attempted by all students via available scaffolding or

prompting as needed [with such prompting reflected in the ultimate
scoring] – Assessment has clear questions and tasks to guide
students, this is important as authentic assessments are part of the
learning process.

27. Have perceived value to the students being assessed. – Is the

assessment meaningful? Is the assessment renewable? Are students
learning a skill or information they can use in the real world?
 References
Shaw, A. (2020, September 1). Authentic assessment in the online classroom . center for
teaching and learning: Wiley education services.
https://ctl.wiley.com/authentic-assessment-in-the-online-classroom/0
Wiggins, G. (2020, May 16). 27 characteristics of Authentic Assessment.
TeachThought.
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/27-characteristics-of-authentic-assessment/
Andrade, H. (2019, August 2). A critical review of research on student self-
assessment. Frontiers in Education.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2019.00087/full
Feedback and self-assessment. (n.d.). McGill University.
https://www.mcgill.ca/gradsupervision/supervisees/self-assessment#:~:text=Receiving%
20feedback%20from%20others%20is,by%20examining%20your%20own%20practice
Thank You!