Meeting 2: The principles of Assessment
Authentic Assessment
Rising interest in the authentic assessment of students is driven by a commitment to a constructivist perspective. Authentic assessments require students to use processes appropriate to the content and skills being learned and to how they are used in the real world. It is the difference between learning scientific facts and doing what scientists do. How many people take paper-and-pencil tests as part of their occupation?
Authentic assessments can be applied to most types of performance or products that students develop to demonstrate their knowledge or understanding of the content. The most commonly used rating scales for authentic assessments include performance checklists, attitude scales, product-rating checklists, and rubrics.
example here
Portfolio Assessment
If your assessment plan involves determining the overall individual performance of each student, traditional or electronic portfolio assessments can help achieve your goal. Portfolios are used to assess tangible products that exemplify student accomplishments in terms of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. A key component of portfolios is their requirement for students to self-reflect on their own learning as demonstrated in the
portfolio products. For example, students are asked to select a piece of work that dem onstrates achievement of a learning objective and then to explain why they chose the piece and how it shows the target knowledge and skills. The reflections can be extended to develop metacognitive skills by asking the students to describe what they would do differently to improve their learning.
To use portfolios, begin by deciding between traditional or electronic formats. Then identify the types of artifacts that will demonstrate student achievement of the standards and objectives and select or develop an appropriate rating scale (previously described). The rubrics should be given to students before they begin working on the products. The types of artifacts that a portfolio might contain include the following:
- Written documents such as poems, stories, or research papers
- Audio recordings of debates, panel discussions, or oral presentations
- Video recordings of skits, lab experiments, or 3-D models
- Computer multimedia projects such as animated timelines, podcasts, or WebQuests