Authentic Assessment
Definition
Simply testing an isolated skill or a retained fact does not effectively measure a student’s capabilities. To accurately evaluate what a person has learned, an assessment method must examine his or her collective abilities.This is what is meant by authentic assessment. Authentic assessment presents students with real-world challenges that require them to apply their relevant skills and knowledge.
Basic Elements
Authentic assessment accomplishes each of the following goals:
Requires students to develop responses rather than select from predetermined options
Elicits higher order thinking in addition to basic skills
Directly evaluates holistic projects
Synthesizes with classroom instruction
Uses samples of student work (portfolios) collected over an extended time period
Stems from clear criteria made known to students
Allows for the possibility of multiple human judgments
Relates more closely to classroom learning
Teaches students to evaluate their own work
“Fairness” does not exist when assessment is uniform, standardized, impersonal, and absolute. Rather, it exists when assessment is appropriate–in other words, when it’s personalized, natural, and flexible; when it can be modified to pinpoint specific abilities and function at the relevant level of difficulty; and when it promotes a rapport between examiner and student.
Authentic assessment is designed to be criterion-referenced rather than norm-referenced. Such evaluation identifies strengths and weaknesses, but does not compare or rank students.
Authentic assessment is often based on performance: Students are asked to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, or competencies in whatever way they find appropriate.
There are several challenges to using authentic assessment methods. They include managing its time-intensive nature, ensuring curricular validity, and minimizing evaluator bias.
Recommended Reading
Fourth Generation Evaluation, by Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln. Newberry Park, CA: Sage Publications.
The content on this page was written by On Purpose Associates.
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To fully answer your question, I’d have to know more about the situation you are looking to assess. Authentic assessment is an approach to assessment based on getting a real-world demonstration of learning. Let’s say you were teaching math. Someone who wants to practice authentic assessment would not assess through a multiple choice test. Instead, the assessment would require the student to demonstrate proficiency through his or her ability to make change at a school store, for example.
Im a College student here in Lourdes College.. Philippines,Cagayan de Oro City…I would like to ask further more about Authentic Assessment…
Does doing an Anuthentic Assessment would really mean to assess the learning of the learners/students?
need your response…thanks….and add me in my yahoo account…..
you have a very good article equiping and upgrading teachers for effective practice
ayo
hello, your articles are nice. It helps a lot to me as a teacher