Performance Assessment

Sample performance assessment for an undergraduate Child Development or Early Childhood Education course. Performance Assessment of a group project for five to seven students.

Purpose & Learning Objective

Part 1

Students will be able to demonstrate the knowledge acquired through child center site visitation regarding different early child development educational philosophies (Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, and Bank Street) by performing a power point presentation that will compare and contrast the site observations to the scholastic research they had completed in regards to the philosophies.  Student will have a comprehensive understanding of the educational philosophies which was learned via observation (site visits), research and will demonstrate acquired understanding by an oral presentation accompanied by power point presentation.

Part 2

Students will create their own mock children’s center with a written mission statement and educational philosophy to correspond to the mission statement. The objective will be to create a mock brochure for the fictitious child care center.

Assessment Context

The assessment context is the method in which the learning objective will allow students to demonstrate the knowledge or skill they have gained. It is the task or situation in which learners will be able to demonstrate the knowledge or skill they have gained.

For the above sample Part 1, the assessment context is an oral presentation that is 15 to 20 minutes in length that is accompanied by a Power Point presentation. The assessment context for Part 2 is a written mission statement and matching educational philosophy to be formatted into a sample brochure.

Holistic Rubric

Sample marking system for the oral presentation part of the fictitious performance assessment  

Testing Constraints

Limits that are applied to the assessment. 

• Duration – Four week project (weeks 1-2: on site observations, week 3: Power Point and presentation, week: 4 brochure due)
• References – At least two scholarly references, references must current (not be over 10 years old)
• Group work – student groups of five to seven people allowed
• Technology – Power Point program, computer resources to create brochure

Holistic Rubric

Oral Presentation grading rubric

Testing Color Theory

Explaining the thought process and rationale behind the test items created for “Color Theory”

Learning Outcomes for Color Theory Preschool

• Student will prepare all secondary colors from primary colors through paint mixing with 100% accuracy (purple, green, orange)
• Student will correctly predict that yellow and blue will create green without error
• Student will identify all primary and secondary colors with 100% accuracy

Sample Test Items

Question #1: True/False – Is this red? (Examiner shows green card)

Question #2: Matching- Match blue.

Question #3: Multiple choice -Touch blue. (All primary and secondary colors are presented to student)

Question #4: Short answer- What color? (Examiner shows green card)

Question #5: Short answer – What colors make green?

Question #6: Essay Question- How do you make purple, green and orange?

According to the text “Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom Application and Practice, 9^th Edition” “Objective test items include items with the following formats: true –false, matching, multiple choice, and completion or short answer” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010, p. 130) Due to the nature of testing students that are developing pre-literacy skills, written tests are impractical.  The questions one through four are appropriate for testing color recognition as memory is at the lowest level of the cognitive domain.  The fifth question is formulated with a short answer as it meets the second branch up Bloom’s Taxonomy “comprehension” or understanding.

Kubiszyn & Borich state that “An essay item is one for which the student supplies, rather than selects, the correct answer. The student must compose a response, often extensive, to a question for which no single response or pattern of responses can be cited as correct to the exclusion of all other answers” (2010, p. 158) Applying the testing format to the learning outcome Student will prepare all secondary colors from primary colors through paint mixing with 100% accuracy (purple, green, orange)allows an educator to gauge the student’s concept of color theory. The open ended essay item will test a verbal student’s mastery of Bloom’s Taxonomy level application. An educator can determine if the student can apply information regarding colors to solving the problem of creating secondary colors. The essay question allows the student to formulate an answer without prompting the necessity of color mixing or primary colors.

An educator can determine if the student can apply previous information (Bloom’s Taxonomy: Knowledge or “memory”) regarding colors to solving the problem of creating secondary colors. In addition, the question of “how” versus “what” allows the student to go into the process of secondary color theory (color mixing). The question goes beyond “what” what colors make purple, green and orange. It is a procedural question as well. To simplify the question an educator may choose to break down the essay question into how to create each individual secondary color.

It is important to note that these methods of verbal testing are dependent on the preschool student’s comprehension and articulation of verbal language. Modification will be necessary for students that do not meet the above prerequisites for a verbal testing format. For example, an appropriate modification for a student who has a high level of language comprehension but is not yet communicating verbally themselves would be question samples:

Question #2: Matching- Match blue.

Question #3: Multiple choice -Touch blue. (All primary and secondary colors are presented to student)

As these samples do not require any spoken language on the student’s answer (only the fine motor skills necessary for pointing and matching a colored card).

Reference: Kubiszyn, T. & Borich, G. (2010). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (9th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

Favorite Color?

Color Theory

According to the text “Educational Testing and Measurement: Classroom Application and Practice, 9^th Edition” “Objective test items include items with the following formats: true –false, matching, multiple choice, and completion or short answer” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010, p. 130)

Reference:

Kubiszyn, T. & Borich, G. (2010). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (9th ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.

When testing students that are developing pre-literacy skills, written tests are impractical. For the purpose of testing the learning outcomes for preschool color theory verbal adaptations of the true/false, matching, multiple chose and short answer will be utilized. 

Bloom’s Taxonomy Knowledge – Color Recognition Tests

Learning Outcome: Student will identify all primary and secondary colors with 100% accuracy