LECTURE NOTES ON 21st CENTURY ASSESSMENT

21ST Century Skills

• Must build on the core literacy and numeracy that all students must master.
• Students need to think critically and creatively, communicate and collaboratively, and work globally to be
productive, accountable citizens and leaders.
• Educators need to focus on: What to Teach: How to teach It: And How to Assess It.
• (Greenstein, 2012; Schmoker, 2011).

1. Characteristics of the 21st Century Assessment

Responsive
 Visual performance-based work generates data that inform curriculum and instruction.
o Teachers – can adjust instructions
o School leaders – can consider additional educational opportunities for students
o Policy makers – can modify programs and resources to cater to the present needs of the school
community
 the processes for responding to assessment are thoughtfully developed, incorporating best practices in
feedback and formative assessment.
 Feedback is to be targeted to be to the goal and outcome.
 Students are informed of progress toward the attainment of goal.
o Self-reflection, peer feedback and opportunities for revision will be a natural outcome.

Flexible
 Lesson design, curriculum and assessment require flexibility, suppleness and adaptability.
 Assessment and response may not be fitted to expected answers.
 Assessment need to be adaptable to students’ settings.
 These approaches best fit for the demands of the learning environment at present since as students’
decisions, actions and application vary, the assessments and the system need to be flexible, too.


Integrated
 Assessments are to be incorporated into day-to-day practice rather than add-ons at the end of instructions
or during a single specified week of the school calendar.
 Assessment are enriched by metacognition
 Assessment is about
o stimulating thinking
o building on prior learning
o constructing meaning
o thinking about one’s thinking
 Assessment offers opportunities for students to consider their
o Choices
o Identify alternative strategies
o Transfer earlier learning
o Represent knowledge through different means

Informative
 Students display their range of emerging knowledge and skills.
 Exemplars routinely guide students toward achievement of targets
  Complex learning takes time
o Learning objectives
o Instructional strategies
o Assessment methods
o Reporting processes are aligned
 Students have opportunities to build on prior learning in a logical sequence.

Multiple methods
Students demonstrate knowledge and skills through relevant tasks, projects, and performance.

Communicated
Communication of assessment data is clear and transparent for all the stakeholders. The educational community
recognizes achievements of the students beyond the standardized test scores.

Technically Sound
To be reliable, the assessment must be precise and technically sound to that users are consistent in their
administration and interpretation of data.

Systemic
Twenty-first century assessment is part of a comprehensive and well-aligned assessment system that is balanced
and inclusive of all students, constituents, and stakeholders and designed to support improvement at all levels.

2. Instructional Decision in Assessment

• The educational assessment process starts in analyzing the criterion together with the teaching-learning
environment.
• This help to determine the strengths, weaknesses, needs, and personality characteristics, skills and abilities of
the learner.

Decision-making at different Phases of Teaching-Learning process

Assessment in Classroom Instruction

1. Placement Assessment

2. Formative Assessment
3. Diagnostic Assessment
4. Summative Assessment

Types of Educational Decision

1. Instructional
2. Grading
3. Diagnostic
4. Selection
5. Placement
6. Guidance and Counseling
7. Program or Curriculum
8. Administrative Policy
OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT

* Knowing what is expected from the learner by their teachers at the end of the particular lesson helps them to meet
those targets successfully.
* All assessment and evaluation activities must be founded on the identified students intended learning outcomes.

Student Learning Outcomes

Student learning outcome is the totality of accumulated knowledge, skills, and attitudes that the students
develop during a course of study.

Sources of Students Expected Learning Outcome

As aforementioned, outcomes or targets for every lesson is expected to be defined and clarified by the teacher
at the start of the course/learning activities.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD LEARNING OUTCOME

It is important to define outcomes as clearly and explicitly as possible.

Factors that need to be considered in crafting the students expected learning outcomes:

1. Mission statement of the school

2. Mandated policies on competencies and standards issued by government education agencies
3. Competencies expected by different professions, business, and industry
4. Development plan and goals as well as the current thrusts of both the national and local governments
5. Current global trends and developments so that graduates can complete globally
6. General 21st century skills focusing on the following:
* Oral and written communication
* Quantitative reasoning ability together with scientific methodology
* Analyzing, synthesizing and developing creative solution
* Use of technology
* Information literacy

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD LEARNING OUTCOME

 Very specific, and use verbs

 Focused on the learner
 Are realistic
 Focus on the application and integration of acquired knowledge and skills
 Good learning outcomes prepare students for assessment and help them feel engaged in and empowered by the
assessment and evaluation process.
 Offer a timeline for completion of the desired learning

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT

What is Assessment?
 Arends, 1994 - refers to the full range of information gathered and synthesized by teachers about their
students and their classrooms.
  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 program {DepEd No. 73, s. 2012}
Traditional and Authentic Assessment
Traditional Assessment
• It refers to the use of pen and paper objective test of assessing any quality, ability, skill or knowledge.
• Traditional assessment often focus on learner’s ability of memorization and recall, which are lower level
of cognition skills (Smaldino, 2000).
Authentic Assessment
• It refers to the use of assessment methods that simulate true to life situations.
• Authentic assessment focuses on the analytical and creative thinking skills, students to work
cooperatively and that reflect student learning, student achievement, and attitudes of relevant activities.
The commonly reported dimensions of authenticity are grouped into three broad categories (Frey, 2012)
A. The context of the Assessment
Realistic activity or content.
The task are performance-based.
The task are cognitively complex.
B. The role of the Student
A defense of the answers or product is required.
The assessment is formative.
Students collaborate with each other or with the teacher.
C. The Scoring
The scoring criteria are known or students-developed.
Multiple indicators or portfolios are used for scoring.
The performance expectation is mastery.

Basic characteristics of authentic assessment

1. The task should be representative of performance in the field.
2. Attention should be paid to teaching and learning the criteria for assessment.
3. Self-assessment should play a great role.
4. When possible, students should present their work publicly and defend it.

Uses of Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessments are direct measures.

Authentic assessments capture constructive nature of learning.
Authentic assessments integrate teaching, learning and assessment.
Authentic assessments provide multiple paths to demonstration.
Attributes of Traditional and Performance Assessment

Attribute Traditional Assessment Performance Assessment

Assessment Activity Selecting a response Performing a task
Nature of Activity Contrived activity Activity emulates real life
Cognitive Level Knowledge/comprehension Application/analysis/synthesis
Development of Solution Teacher-structured Student-structured
Objectivity of Scoring Easily achieved Difficult to achieved
Evidence of Mastery Indirect evidence Direct evidence

Formative Evaluation and Summative Evaluation

Assessment for Learning pertain to use formative evaluation to determine and improves students’
learning outcomes.
Assessment of Learning uses summative evaluation which provides evidence of students’ level of
achievement in relation to curricular learning outcomes.

Formative Assessment
Provides feedbacks on the effectiveness of teaching and learning process as seen from the students
learning.

Formative Assessment
“All those activities undertaken by a teacher, and by their students in assessing themselves, which provide
information to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged”
(Black and William, 1998.)
Assessment for Learning pertain to the use of formative evaluation too determine and improve students’
learning outcomes.

Summative Assessment
• Summative assessment are typically traditional paper and pencil measures such as unit tests, long tests,
exams, essays, or projects that a portion of a student’s final grade.
• Assessment of Learning uses summative evaluation which provided evidence of students’ level of
achievement in relation to curricular learning outcomes.

Characteristic of Formative and Summative Assessment

Norm and Criterion-Referenced Assessment

Norm-referenced assessment gives us information on what the students can perform by comparing to
another student.
Criterion-referenced is a limited percentage of competition for those who are high scorers.

Summary Comparison of Two Basic Approaches to Achievement

Norm-referenced Criterion-referenced

Principal use Survey testing Mastery testing

Major Emphasis Measures individual Describes tasks students can

differences in achievement perform

Interpretation of Results Compares performance to that Compares performance to a

of other individual clearly specified achievement
domain

Content of Courage Typically covers a broad area Typically focuses on a limited

of achievement set of learning tasks
 Nature of Test Plan TOS is commonly used Detailed domain specification
are favored

Item Selection Procedures Items are selected that provide Includes all times needed
maximum discrimination adequately to describe
among individuals (to attain in performance. No attempt is
reliable ranking). Easy items made to alter item difficulty of
are typically eliminated from to eliminate easy items to
the test. increase the spread of scores

Performance Standards Level of performance is Level of performance is

determined by relative position commonly determined by
in some known group (ranks absolute standards
fifth in a group of 20) (demonstrates mastery by
defining 90 percent of
technical terms)

Contextualized and Decontextualized Assessment

In contextualized assessment, the focus is on the students’ construction of functioning knowledge and
the students’ performance in application of knowledge in the real work context of the discipline area.
Decontextualized assessment includes written exams and term papers, which are suitable for assessing
declarative knowledge, and do not necessarily have a direct connection to a real life context (Biggs,
2011)

Analytic and Holistic Assessment

Analytic assessment refers to specific approach in the assessment od learning outcomes.

Holistic assessment refers to a global approach in the assessment of a student-learning outcome.

Reference/s:

 Cajigal, Ronan M. & Mantuano, Maria Leflor D. (2014). Assessment of Learning 2, Adrianaa Publishing Co., Inc.
Quezon City

Prof. Arnold B. Asotigue

Instructor, CPE106