Basic Concepts and Principles of Alternative Assessment

ASSESSMENT IN LEARNING 2 Instructor: Kent E. Escobin

Basic Concepts, Theories, and Principles in using Alternative Assessment

•Have you ever experienced making a portfolio and/or a project as a requirement in school?

•Have you ever done exhibits and culmination activities as basis of determining your learning in a certain
concept?

•Assessment is generally defined as the process of gathering quantitative and/or qualitative data for the
purpose of making decisions.

What is the fine line between assessment of learning and assessment for learning?

•Assessment of learning can be defined as the systematic and purpose-oriented collection, analysis, and
interpretation of evidence of student learning in order to make informed decisions relevant to the
learners.

•Assessment for learning refers to the use of assessment to identify the needs of students in order to
modify instruction.

Traditional vs. Alternative Assessment

What is Alternative Assessment?

• Alternative assessments, also referred to as performance tests or authentic assessments, are used to
determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they do or do not know. In other words,
an alternative assessment measures applied proficiency more than it measures knowledge. Typical
examples of alternative assessments include portfolios, project work, and other activities requiring some
type of rubric.

The essence of this assessment method focuses on the idea that students are given the opportunity to
do one or more of the following:

• Demonstrate their ability

• Perform a meaningful task

• Receive feedback by a qualified person in terms of relevant and defensible criterial

“Alternative assessments are used to determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast

what they do or do not know.”

Characteristics of Alternative Assessment

Advantages and Disadvantages of using Alternative Assessment
Principles in Assessing Learning using Alternative Assessment

1. Assessment is both process- and product -oriented.

2.Assessment should focus on higher-order cognitive outcomes.

3. Assessment can include a measure of non-cognitive learning outcomes.

4.Assessment should reflect real-life or real -world contexts.

5. Assessment must be comprehensive and holistic.

6. Assessment should lead to student learning.

MODELS OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

• Oftentimes, when teachers assess learning, they tend to think of certain strategies that would resonate
well with them. However, it is always a standard to be creative on the way how learning is being assessed
to make sure that assessment tools measures what it intends to measure while taking into consideration
student diversity. Teachers could always design an assessment that exposes students to a different
academic experience.

MODELS OF ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

•There are three models of alternative assessment. 1. Authentic Assessment

2. Developmental Assessment 3. Emergent Assessment

AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT: ASSESSING BY DOING

•What is Authentic Assessment?

•Authentic assessment is based on students’ abilities to perform meaningful tasks they may have to do
in the “real world.” In other words, this form of assessment determines students’ learning in a manner
that goes beyond multiple choice tests and quizzes.

WHY CONSIDER USING AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT?

Authentic Assessment
Requires students to contextualize and apply what they have learned.

Traditional Assessment

Asks students about what they learned out of context and tends to encourage rote memorization (“what
do we need to know for the test?”)

Forces students to work within the ambiguities and grey areas present in the real world.

Encourages students to think about issues in “right” versus” wrong terms.

Challenges students with a full array of tasks, challenges, and priority-setting that is required in solving
problems in the real world.

Tends to focus on single answers to problems.

Look at students’ abilities to plan, craft, and revise thorough and justifiable arguments, performances,
and products.

Rarely provides students opportunities to plan, evaluate, adjust, and revise responses.

Often include ambiguous problems and roles that allow students to practice dealing with the ambiguities
of the real world.

Frequently focus on discrete, static (and often arbitrary) elements of the skills necessary to work on
ambiguous challenges.

Wiggins, Grant (1990). The case for authentic assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation.
2(2).
HOW CAN I DEVELOP AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT?

Here are some suggestions for developing an authentic assessment:

• Identify at least one task students need to be able to do to be successful in employment and/or
continuing education.

• Work with your fellow teachers to determine how students might be able to demonstrate their ability
to do the task(s).

• Identify criteria to evaluate the task(s).

• Evaluate students’ abilities to complete the criteria of the task(s).

WHAT ARE SOME AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES?

•Biology lab practical •Portfolio

•Music jury •Mock trial •Acting in a play

DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT: ASSESSING BY PROGRESS

•What is Developmental Assessment?

•Authentic assessment looks at students’ progress in developing skills, abilities, values, etc., rather than
evaluating students’ final products

WHY CONSIDER USING DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT? • Not every type of learning is best assessed by
looking at the quality of a final

Product. In fact, sometimes there is no expectation that students should, or even could, fully develop in
the assessed area by the end of a course or program. An example of this is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Theoretically, very few people ever fully develop to the final “self-actualized” stage. A few advantages of
this assessment model are:

• Developmental assessment is useful for outcomes based on students’ development rather than their
abilities to create a final product.

• This assessment is based on relevant principles of development in your discipline.

• This type of assessment emphasizes emerging knowledge and skills, rather than recognizing only
students’ final products.

• Developmental assessment gives you the ability to focus on strengths and unique aspects of your
program.

HOW CAN I CREATE DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENTS?

• Developmental assessments require some sort of pre- post-design. If you would like to know how
much a student has developed their knowledge, skills, abilities, and/or values, you need to measure that
information at the beginning of a learning experience, then again at the end.

• Example: One could administer a test at the beginning of a class, then ask the same students to take
the same test at the end of a class. By comparing students’ performances on the pre- and post-tests, an
instructor could determine students’ levels of development.

WHAT ARE SOME DEVELOPMENTAL ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES?

•Methodologies tend to rely on observational and work sampling techniques that continually focus on
performance, processes, and products over selected periods of time and in a variety of contexts.

•Example: An instructor may compare two work samples using a developmental rubric to determine
students’ levels of development.

EMERGENT ASSESSMENT: ASSESSING BY DISCOVERY

• What is Emergent Assessment?

• Emergent assessment is a model based on Michael Scriven’s (1967) goal free evaluation model. With
emergent assessment, assessment is structured using “effects” rather than learning outcomes. This
model honors the idea that you may bias your assessment by specifically defining what you are looking
for (i.e. when you focus exclusively on a learning outcome, you may be ‘putting on blinders’ regarding
the other things that may be happening with student learning). This assessment model tends to be more
qualitative in nature.
WHY CONSIDER USING EMERGENT ASSESSMENT?

• Emergent Assessment addresses concerns about inquiry shared by many disciplines, particularly those
disciplines that tend to use more qualitative methodologies. A few examples of these concerns are:

1. There may be differences between explicitly stated learning outcomes and their associated
implicit learning.

• Prevents overlooking unintended outcomes (both good and bad).

• Focus is on what program actually does, rather than what it intends to do.

2. Does defining learning outcomes in “testable” ways alter the learning outcomes (and not always
in desirable ways)?

•With this type of assessment, the assessment process and learning outcomes are equally subject to
evaluation as student learning.
 3. Are we sacrificing the roles of assessment for the goals of assessment? In other words, are we
sacrificing the process for the outcomes (i.e., assigning grades or writing an assessment report)?

•This assessment method more directly takes student’s needs into consideration than a more traditional
assessment model.

• How Can I Develop Emergent Assessment?

• Profile the actual effects of instruction or educational program against

• What are Some Emergent Assessment Methodologies?

• Methodologies may include anything that includes a global, comprehensive

Determine what affect the academic program is having. • Examples:

• Writing Samples

• Especially those requiring reflection

• Interviews or focus groups with students • Brainstorming sessions with students

• Ecological observation of students engaged in work in a classroom