Chapter 4

PROCESS-
ORIENTED,
WMSU PERFORMANCE-
BASED
ASSESSMENT
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Too often, we tend to assess students’ learning
through their outputs or products or through some
kind of a traditional testing.
 However, it is important to assess not only these
competencies but also the processes which the
studentsunderwent in order to arrive at these
products or outputs.
It is possible to explain why the students’ outputs
are as they are through an assessment of the
processes which they did in order to arrive at the
final product. This chapter is concerned with
process-oriented,performance-based assessment.
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Assessment is not an end in itself but a
vehicle for educational improvement.
Its effective practice, then begins with and
enacts a vision of the kinds of learning we
most value for the students and strive to
help them achieve.
Assessment is most effective when it
reflects an understanding of the learning
as multidimensional, integrated, and
revealed in performance over time.
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Learning is a complex process. It entails
not only what students know but what they
can do with what they know; it involves not
only knowledge and abilities but values,
attitudes, and habits of mind that affect
both academic success and performance
beyond the classroom.

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Assessment should reflect these
understanding by employing a diverse
array of methods, including those that call
for actual performance, using them over
time so as to reveal change, growth, and
increasing degrees of integration. Such an
approach aims for a more complete and
accurate picture of learning.

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1. Process-Oriented Learning
Competencies

Information about outcomes is of high

importance; where students “end up”
matters greatly. But to improve outcomes,
we need to know about student
experience along the way – about the
curricula, teaching, and kind of student
effort that lead to particular outcomes.

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Assessment can help us understand
which student learn best under what
conditions; with such knowledge comes
the capacity to improve the whole of their
learning. Process-oriented performance-
based assessment is concerned with the
actual task performance rather than the
output or product of the activity.

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1.1 Learning Competencies
The learning objectives in process-oriented
performance-based assessment are stated
in directly observable behavior of the
students. Competencies are defined as
group of clusters of skills abilities needed
for a particular task. The objectives
generally focus on those behaviors which
exemplify a “best practice” for the particular
task.
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Such behavior range from a “beginner” or
novice level up to the level of an expert.
An example of learning competencies for
a process-oriented performance-based
assessment is given to the next slide :

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Task: Recite a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”.
Objectives: The activity aims to enable the students to
recite a poem entitled “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe,
specifically to;
1. Recite the poem from memory without referring to
notes;
2. Use appropriate hand and body gestures in
delivering the piece;
3. Maintain eye contact with the audience while
reciting the poem;
4. Create the ambiance of the poem through
appropriate rising and falling intonation;
5. Pronounce the words clearly and with proper
diction.
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Notice that the objective starts with a
general statement of what is expected of
the student from the task (recite a poem by
Edgar Allan Poe) and then breaks down
the general objective into easily obsevable
behaviors when reciting a poem. The
specific objectives identified constitute the
learning competencies for this particular
task.
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As in the statement of objectives using
Bloom’s taxonomy, the specific objectives
also range from simple observable
processes to more complex observable
processes, e.g. creating an ambiance of
the poem through appropriate rising and
falling intonation. A competency is said to
be more complex when it consists of two or
more skills.
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 The following competencies are simple
competencies :
• Speak with a well-modulated voice;
• Draw a straight line form one point to
another point;
• Color a leaf with a green crayon

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The following competencies are more
complex competencies;
• Recite a poem with feeling using
appropriate voice quality, facial
expressions and hand gestures;
• Construct an equilateral triangle given
three non-collinear points;
• Draw and color a leaf with green crayon

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2. Task Designing
Learning tasks need to be carefully
planned. In particular, the teacher must
ensure that the particular learning process
to be observed contributes to the overall
understanding of the subject or course.
Some generally accepted standards for
designing a task include:

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• Identifying an activity that would highlight the
competencies to be evaluated, e.g. reciting a
poem, writing an essay, manipulating the
microscope etc.
• Identifying an activity that would entail more or
less the same sets of copetencies. If an activity
would result in too many possible competencies,
then the teacher would have difficulty assessing
the student’s competency on the task.
• Finding a task that would be interesting and
enjoyable for the students. Tasks such as writing
an essay are often boring and cumbersome for
the students. 16
Example: The topic is on understanding
biological diversity.
Possible Task Design: Bring the students
to a pond or creek.

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Ask them to find all living organisms they can
find living near the pond or creek. Also, bring
them to the school playground to find as many
living organisms they can. Observe how the
students will develop a system for finding such
organisms and concluding the differences in
biological diversity of the two sites. Science
laboratory classes are particularly suitable for
process-oriented performance-based
assessment technique.
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3. Scoring Rubrics
Rubrics is scoring scale used to assess
student performance along a task-specific
set of criteria. Authentic assessments
typically are criterion-referenced measures,
that is a student’s aptitude on a task is
determined by matching the student’s
performance against a set of criteria tpo
determine the degree to which the student’s
performance meets the criteria for the task.
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To measure student performance against
a pre-determined set of criteria, a ribric or
a scoring scale, is typically created which
contains the essential criteria for the task
and appropriate levels of performance for
each criterion. For example, the following
rubric (scoring scale) covers the recitation
portion of a task in English.

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Recitation Rubric
Criteria 1 2 3
Number of
Appropriate x1 1-4 5-9 10-12
Hand Gestures
Appropriate Lots of Few No apparent
Facial x1 inappropriate inappropriate inappropriate
Expression facial expression facial expression facial expression

Voice Monotone voice Can vary voice Can easily vary

Inflection x2 used inflection with voice inflection
difficulty
Incorporate Recitation Recitation has Recitation fully
proper contains very little some feelings captures
ambiance x3 feelings ambiance
through through feelings
feelings in the in the voice
voice

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 As in the given example, a rubric is comprised of
two components: criteria and levels of
performance. Each rubric has at least two
criteria and at least two levels of performance.
The criteria, characteristics of good performance
on a task, are listed in the left-hand column in
the illustrated rubric ( number of hand gestures,
appropriate facial features, voice inflectionand
ambiance). Actually, as is common in rubrics, a
short hand is used for each criterion to make it fit
easily into the table.
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The full criteria are statements of
performance such as “include a sufficient
number of hand gestures” and “recitation
captures the ambiance through appropriate
feelings and tone in the voice”.
For each criterion the evaluator applying the
rubric can determine to what degree the
student has met the criterion, i.e., the level
of performance.

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In the given, there are three levels of
performance for each criterion. For
example, the recitation can contain lots of
inappropriate, few inappropriate or no
inappropriate hand gestures.
Finally the illustrated rubric contains a
mechanism for assigning a score for each
project.

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(Assessments and their accompanying
rubrics can be use for purposes other than
evaluation and, thus, do not have to have
points or grades attached to them).
In the second-to-left column a weight is
assigned each criterion. Students can
receive, 1,2 or 3 points for “number of
sources”.

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But appropriate ambiance, more important
in this teacher’s mind, is weighted 3 times
(x3) as heavily. So, students can receive
3,6 or 9 points (i.e., 1,2 or 3 times 3) for
the level of appropriateness in this task.

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Descriptors
The rubric includes another common, but
not a necessary, component of rubrics–
descriptors.
Descriptors spell out what is expected of
students at each level of performance for
each criterion. In the given example, “lots
of inappropriate facial expressiona,”
“monotone voice used” are descriptors.

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A descriptor 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.
Similarly, the descriptors help the teacher
more precisely and consistently
distinguish between student work.

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Why include levels of performance?
1. Clearer expectation – it is very useful for the
students and the teacher if the criteria are
identified and communicated prior to
completion of the task. Students know what is
expected of them and teachers know what to
look for in student performance. Similarly,
students better understand what good (or bad)
performance on a task looks like if levels of
performance are identified, particularly if
descriptors for each level are included.
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Why include levels of performance?
2. More consistent and objective assessment

In addition to better communicating teacher

expectations, levels of performance permit the
teacher to more consistently and objectively
distinguish between good and bad performance.,
or between superior, mediocre and poor
performance, when evaluating student work.

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Why include levels of performance?
3. Better feedback

Furthermore, identifying specific levels of

student performance allows the teachers to
provide more detailed feedback to students.
The teacher and the students can more
clearly recognize areas that need
improvement.

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Analytic versus Holistic Rubrics
For a particular task you assigned
students, do you want to be able to
assess how well the students perform on
each criterion, or do you want to get more
global picture of the students’ performance
on the entire task? The answer to that
question is likely to determine the type of
rubric you choose to create or use:
Analytic or holistic.
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Analytic Rubric
• Most rubrics, like the recitation rubric mentioned,
are analytic rubrics. An analytic rubric articulates
levels of performance for each criterion so the
teacher can assess student performance on
each criterion. Using the Recitation rubric, a
teacher could assess whether a student has
done a poor, good or excellent job of “creating
ambiance” and distinguish that from how well the
student did on “voice inflection”.

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Holistic Rubric
• In contrast, a holistic rubric does not list
separate levels of performance for each
criterion. Instead, a holistic rubric assigns
a level of performance by assessing
performance across multiple criteria as a
whole. For example, the analytic research
rubric above can be turned into a holistic
rubric:

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3 – Excellent Speaker
• Included 10 – 12 changes in hand gestures
• No apparent inappropriate facial expressions
• Utilized proper voice inflection
• Can create proper ambiance for the poem

2 – Good peaker
• Included 5 - 9 changes in hand gestures
• Few inappropriate facial expressions
• Had some inappropriate voice inflection changes
• Almost creating proper ambiance

1 – Poor Speaker
• Included 1 - 4 changes in hand gestures
• Lots of inappropriate facial expressions
• Used monotone voiced
• Did not create proper ambiance

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When to choose a 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. As student
peformance increasingly varies accross criteria it
becomes more difficult to assign an appropriate
holistic category to the performance. Additionally, an
analytic rubric better handles weighting of criteria

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When to choose a holistic rubric?

• So, when may you use a holistic rubric? Holistic

rubric tens to be used when a quick or gross
judgement needs to be made. If the assessment is
the minor one, such as brief homework assignment,
it may be sufficient to apply a holistic judgement (i.e.,
check, check-plus, or no check) to quick review
student work. But holistic rubric can also be
employed for more substantial assignments. On
some task it is not easy to evaluate performance on
one criterion independently of performance on a
different criterion.
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• Example, many writing rubrics are holistic
because it is not always easy to disentangle
clarity from organization or content from
presentation. So, some educators believe a
holistic or global assessment of student
performance better captures student ability on
certain task. (Alternatively, if two criteria are
nearly inseparable, the combination of the two
can be treated as a single criterion in an analytic
rubric).
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How many levels of performance Should I include in
my Rubric?

• There is no specific number of levels a

rubrics should or should not possess. It
will vary depending on the task and your
needs. A rubric can have as few as two
levels of performance (e.g., a checklist) or
as many as you decide is appropriate.
Also it is not true that there must be an
even number or an odd number of levels.
Again, that will depend on the situation.
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How many levels of performance Should I include in
my Rubric?

• Generally, it is better to start with a smaller

number of levels of performance for a
criterion and then expand if necessary.
Making distinctions in student
performance across two or three broad
categories is difficult enough. As the
number of levels increases and those
judgements become finer and finer, the
likelihood of error increases.
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How many levels of performance Should I include in
my Rubric?

• Thus, start small. For example, in an oral

presentation rubric, amount of eye contact
might be an important criterion.
Performance on the criterion could be
judged along three levels of performance:

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makes eye contact with audience Never Sometimes Always

Although these three levels may not capture all

the variations in student performance on the
criterion, it may be sufficient discrimination for your
purposes. Or, at the least, it is a place to start. Upon
applying the three levels of performance, you might
discover that you can effectively group your
students’ performance in these three categories.
Furthermore, you might discover that the three
labels of “never” “sometimes” and “always”
sufficiently communicate to your students the
degree to which they can improve on making eye
contact. 42
• On the other hand, after applying the rubric you
might discover that you cannot effectively
discriminate among student performances with just
three levels of performance. Perhaps, in your view,
many students fall in between never and
sometimes, or between sometimes and always, and
neither label accurately captures their performance.
So, at this point, you may decide to expand the
number of levels of performance to include never,
rarely, sometimes, usually and always.

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Makes eye contact Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Always

• There is no “right” answer as to how many levels of

performance there should be for a criterion in an
analytic rubric; that will depend on the nature of the
task assigned, the criteria being evaluated, the
students involved and your purposes and
preferences. For example, another teacher might
decide to leaveoff the “always” level in the above
rubric because “usually” is as much as normally can
be expected or even wanted in some intances. Thus,
the “makes eye contact” portion of the rubric for that
teacher might be:
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Makes eye contact never rarely sometimes usually

We recommend that fewer levels of

performance be included initially because such is:

• Easier and quicker to administer

• Easier to explain to students ( and others )
• Easier to expand than larger rubrics to shrink

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