Module 3: AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOME

At the end of the lesson, the students can:

• Identify various authentic assessment methods in Mathematics education
• Select appropriate authentic assessment method that can be utilized in Mathematics teaching and learning
• Design authentic assessment method that integrates other discipline (Sciences, Social Studies, etc.) in Mathematics project

Activity
Do the activity
DIVIDE THE PROPERTY
Goal :
• Your task is to divide a land property to its heirs equally.
Role:
• Your job is a geodetic engineer that can accurately survey/measure a land property
Audience:
• Your client is a family that needs to divide their land property to the heirs.
Situation:
• A family hired you to do a survey/measure and divide their land property into 3
equal parcel of lot. Their land is in rectangular shape with an area of 1000 m2 that is
40 by 25.

40 m

25 m

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Process Oriented Performance:
• You will divide the lot into 3 equal parcel of land. Find the area of each divided land and
its dimensions

Standards & Criteria for Success:

• You have to demonstrate understanding on the given situation
• You have to use the correct mathematical operation.
• You have to correctly calculate the area of the land
• You have to correctly identify the dimension (length and width) of the land

Analysis

1. Is the direction of the activity clear?

2. Were you able to do it properly following the criteria?
3. What did you observe about the content of the activity?

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 Abstraction

Lesson 1: Authentic Assessment

What is an authentic assessment?

Authentic assessment is a form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that
demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills.

Wiggins (1998) identifies a few key criteria:

a) It’s realistic.
b) It requires judgment and innovation.
c) It asks the student to “do” the subject.
d) It replicates or simulates the contexts in which adults are “tested” in the workplace, in civic life, and in
personal life.
e) It assesses the student’s ability to efficiently and effectively use a repertoire of knowledge and skill to
negotiate a complex task.
f) It allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback on and refine
performances and products.

An authentic assessment is one that requires students to apply what they’ve learned in a new, complex
circumstance or situation. Typically, this can take one of two forms: real-world assessments that require students to
engage in actual situations in their field, or realistic assessments that are relevant in nature but have students engage
in situations that mimic the real world (e.g., a case study).

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What does an authentic assessment look like?

An authentic assessment usually includes a task for students to perform and a rubric by which their
performance on the task will be evaluated.

For instance, the students’ task is to debone a milkfish. The instructional objective is, “ Given one fresh
milkfish, knife, basin, water, tray, and forceps, a sophomore secondary student will be able to split the milkfish and
within 20 minutes debone and wash the fish.

The finished product---- “boneless milkfish” as the performance of the student, is assessed by self, peer,
subject teacher, and teacher-adviser with the use of Rubric Assessment. This learning outcome of the student must
be placed in his portfolio to have a legal basis whether the assessment is excellent (5), very good (4), good (3), fair
(2), or poor (1).

CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT

1) Authentic Assessment starts with clear definite criteria of performance made known to the students.
2) Authentic Assessment is a 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) Authentic Assessment 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 higher-order
thinking skills (HOTS).
4) Authentic Assessment often emphasizes performance and therefore students are required to
demonstrate their knowledge, skills, or competencies in appropriate situations. Authentic assessment
does not rely on the ability to recall facts or memorize details, instead, students are asked to
demonstrate skills and concepts they have learned.
5) Authentic Assessment encourages both teacher and students to determine their rate of progress in
cooperatively attaining the desired student learning outcomes.
6) Authentic Assessment does not encourage rote learning and passive taking of tests; instead, students
are required to demonstrate analytical skills, the ability to integrate what they learn, creativity, and
the ability to work in a group, skills in oral and written communication. In brief, authentic assessment
values not only the finished products which are the learning outcomes, but also the process of
learning.
7) Authentic Assessment changes the role of students as passive test takers into becoming active and
involves participants in assessment activities that emphasize

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Distinction Between Authentic Assessment and Traditional Assessment

Authentic Assessment
Traditional Assessment
• Inventories
• Multiple choice
• Peer rating / Self rating
• Gap fill
• Journals
• True-false
• Portfolios
• Matching
• Discussions

• Interviews

Authentic assessment
Traditional Assessment
• To develop productive
• To develop productive
citizens
citizens
• Must be capable of
• Must possess a body of performing real tasks
knowledge and skills
• Schools must help
• Schools must teach this students become
body of knowledge and proficient at performing
skills tasks

• Test the students if they • Have the students

acquired the knowledge perform meaningful tasks
and skills

Traditional Assessment Authentic assessment

• Selecting a response • Performing a task

• Real-life
• Contrived • Construction /
• Recall / Recognition Application
• Student-structured
• Teacher-structured
• Direct evidence
• Indirect evidence

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Developing Authentic Classroom Assessments

1. Identifying Standards

Standards, like goals, are statements of what students should know and be able to do. However, standards are
typically narrower in scope and more amenable to assessment than goals.

Example: Students will be able to add two-digit numbers correctly

2. Selecting Authentic Tasks

Pick a task that is correlated to the knowledge that was taught on this topic. Find a way student can demonstrate
that they are fully capable of meeting the standard. The language of a well-written standard can spell out what a
task should ask students to do to demonstrate their mastery of it

3. Identifying the Criteria for the Task

Ask "What does good performance on this task look like?" or "How will I know they have done a good job on this
task?"

Criteria: Indicators of good performance on a task

Example:

Standard The student will conduct banking transactions.

Task make deposits, withdrawals or cash checks at a bank

Criteria Selects needed form (deposit, withdrawal),

Fills in form with necessary information,

Endorses check,

Locates open teller,

States type of transaction

4. Creating the Rubric

Once you have identified the criteria you want to look for as indicators of good performance, you next
decide whether to consider the criteria analytically or holistically.

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The Drawback of Authentic Assessment
A. authentic assessments require more time for both students and instructors than traditional assessments. For
students, authentic assessments typically take longer to complete than an average quiz or test. Because these
types of assessments are task based, they might be scaffolded over a number of modules or some other period
of time.

B. students might be more accustomed to traditional assessment, meaning that despite the advantages, they
might need some time to adjust to this new method.

C. For instructors, time is also of concern. Developing an authentic assessment can be an intense experience that
requires course writers to identify and/or research relevant tasks, ensure that those tasks are applicable to
students in different areas, and align those tasks with learning objectives and instructional materials.

D. unlike many traditional assessments, grading an authentic assessment is largely subjective. Because these
types of assessments typically address more complex levels of learning, grading will likely take much longer

Ways to use authentic assessment math in the classroom

A. Performance assessment

Students can demonstrate what they have learned and how to solve problems through a collaborative effort
in solving a complex problem together. Not only do they learn how to work in a team, but also how to brainstorm and
utilize their separate grains of knowledge to benefit the whole.

B. Short investigations

Typically, a short investigation starts with a basic math problem (or can be adapted to any other school subject)
in which the student can demonstrate how he or she has mastered the basic concepts and skills. As the teacher, ask
the students to interpret, calculate, explain, describe or predict whatever it is they are analyzing. These are generally
60- to-90 minute tasks for an individual (or group projects) on which to work independently, writing answers to
questions and then interviewed separately.

C. Open-response questions

A teacher can assess the student’s real-world understanding and how the analytical processes relate by, in a
quiz setting, requesting open responses, like:

• a brief written or oral answer

• a mathematical solution
• a drawing
• a diagram, chart or graph
These open-ended questions can be approximately 15-minute assessments and can be converted into a larger-
scale project.

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D. Portfolios

As students learn concepts throughout the school year, they can be documented and will reveal progress and
improvements as well as allow for self-assessment, edits and revisions. They can be recorded in a number of ways,
including:

journal writing

review by peers

artwork and diagrams

group reports

student notes and outlines

rough drafts to finished work

E. Self-assessment

After the teacher has clearly explained and provided the expectations prior to the project and then, once the
projects are complete, ask the students to evaluate their own projects and participation. Responding to the following
questions will help students learn to assess themselves and their work objectively:

• What was the most difficult part of this project for you?
• What do you think you should do next?
• If you could do this task again, would you do anything differently? If yes, what?
• What did you learn from this project?

Multiple-choice questions

Usually, multiple-choice questions do not reflect an authentic assessment math context. There are multiple-
choice questions being developed that reveal an understanding of the mathematical ideas required as well as
integrating more than one concept. These questions are designed to take about 2 or 3.

A rubric is a learning and assessment tool that is used to evaluate written outputs, products, or performance-
based tasks. It is a scoring guide that articulates the expectations and describes the levels of quality expected from a
learner. (Andrade, 2000; Arter & Chappuis, 2007; Stiggins, 2001).

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 Four Essential Features of Rubrics

1) a task description or a descriptive title of the task students are expected to produce or perform;

2) a scale (and scoring) that describes the level of mastery (e.g., exceed expectation, meets expectation,
doesn't meet expectation);

3) components/criteria students are to attend to in completing the assignment/tasks (e.g., types of skills,
knowledge, etc.); and

4) performance descriptor- spell out what is expected of students at each level of performance for each
criterion. It tells students more precisely what performance looks like at each level and how their work may be
distinguished from the work of others for each criterion, (Stevens & Levi, 2013)

Two Types of Rubrics

A. ANALYTIC
- An analytic rubric articulates different dimensions of performance and provides ratings for each criterion
or dimension

B. HOLISTIC
- A holistic rubric describes the overall characteristics of a performance and provides a single score.

In developing a rubric, it should be emphasized that higher points could be given for a certain level of
mastery depending on the complexity of the question.

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When to choose an analytic rubric?

Analytic rubrics are more common because teachers typically want to assess each criterion separately,
particularly for assignments that involve a larger number of criteria. It becomes more and more difficult to assign a
level of performance in a holistic rubric as the number of criteria increases.

When to choose holistic rubrics?

Holistic rubrics tend to be used when a quick or gross judgement needs to be made. If the assessment is a
minor one, such as a brief homework assignment, it may be sufficient to apply a holistic judgement

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Assessment

1. Define authentic assessment?

2. What is Performance-based assessment?
3. Is authentic assessment and performance based assessment the same? If not how do
they differ?
4. Give three distinctions between traditional and authentic assessment.
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of authentic assessment? (Give three)

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