Authentic Assessment Tasks Research Articles

What does inclusion look like within an experiential teaching and assessing reflective learning model? Utilising authentic assessment to foster shared social membership

ABSTRACT The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights calls for accessible higher education (HE), stating that it is necessary for the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity. Within this context, our research is centred on the Aristotelian principles of equity and fairness. To achieve these outcomes, our completed, Stage One research (2008–2019, 5603 participants), took place inside the university context and focused on designing out identified barriers to access and participation in mandatory assessment tasks for all students, including those with a disability. Building on our Stage One learnings and to generate increased inclusion, Stage Two involved the development of authentic HE assessment tasks which generate external , reflective, and inclusive practitioners who value shared social membership. This research seeks to support and strengthen the core philosophy of HE and the guiding principles of the participating university, Queensland University of Technology, which state: ‘ … the real world asks us … to guide it towards collective benefit.’ To achieve these outcomes, this university ‘ … partners with students to develop their self-knowledge, professional integrity and ethical leadership to enable them to become … global citizens who create positive social change’. This Stage Two research has been facilitated by the unique, author created integration of the Teaching and Assessing of Reflective Learning Model and the Experiential Learning Model (TARLEM). TARLEM focuses simultaneously on developing discipline-based content, the mastery of reflective practice skills, and an understanding of the reason for the task in terms of the social impacts of international business decision-making. The cross-cultural, cross-discipline and online/on campus participants are enrolled students in a UG IBU degree (622 responses).e

Assessment as pedagogy: inviting authenticity through relationality, vulnerability and wonder

ABSTRACT Traditional authentic assessment tasks are frequently tied to future work and enmeshed in neoliberal and capitalist visions of education. We advocate an alternative approach where authenticity signifies meaningful learning outside the confines of the classroom to promote deep learning that ‘sticks’. We proffer an understanding of assessment as pedagogy, where pedagogy is an ontological endeavour that shapes not only what students know but how they understand themselves and their place in the world. We highlight creative assessments as a form of authentic pedagogy that eschews instrumentalism in three ways: highlighting opportunities for connection and community; reorienting students towards a more vulnerable conception of learning that is open to uncertainty; and eliciting wonder and joy via invitations to see the world anew. We argue creative assessments promote deeply authentic learning that can be transformative for students and educator-co-learners alike.

Re-envisioning pre-service teachers’ beliefs and feelings about assessment: the important space of authentic assignments

ABSTRACT In early 2020, Initial Teacher Education providers were forced to reimagine many long-established practices due to pandemic restrictions. One post-primary concurrent Initial Teacher Education programme in the Republic of Ireland responded by conceptualising and developing an initiative to engage pre-service teachers in an authentic assessment task through the preparation of a classroom-based assessment from the perspective of the pupil. They then engaged in peer review and peer feedback on these classroom-based assessments and partook in a Subject Learning and Assessment Review meeting. This required the professional development of assessment literacies on the part of pre-service teachers, as well as disturbing their personal assessment beliefs at a cognitive and affective level. This paper finds that the collaborative assignment experience challenged pre-service teachers’ previous conceptions about the purposes of assessment while providing them with insight and preparation for formative assessment processes in use throughout Irish post-primary schools.

Assessing Listening Comprehension Skills in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education EFL Classrooms: Current Practices, Challenges and Solutions

The present study aims to examine the current practices, constraints, and potential enablers when assessing students' listening skills in Indonesian Islamic higher education EFL classrooms. This study used a qualitative approach with a case study research design. The selection of the participants used purposive sampling. The study used interviews as a data gathering technique, involving six EFL lecturers in one Indonesian Islamic higher education institution in South Sulawesi. The findings show participants’ awareness of the various alternative methods to assess students’ listening skills. However, their discussions tend to focus on what is easiest to use as opposed to what matters most for students’ listening skills. Furthermore, participants’ descriptions of EFL lecturers’ constraints in assessing listening skills encompass various educational aspects, which could be classified into resources and practical constraints. The former includes a lack of representative language laboratories and learning resources for conducting quality listening assessment practices. The latter relates to time constraints, auditory surroundings, and designing and developing listening assessment instruments. Therefore, the participants raised several key strategies to enhance quality listening assessment practices, ranging from resources to practical strategies. This includes a high quality and sufficient quantity of educational resources, the use of diverse and authentic assessment tasks, and more collaborative work to share best practices and experience in conducting quality listening assessment practices. These findings imply the need for reformulation of existing practices and policies related to foreign language assessment that could have significant impacts on EFL students, teachers, and classrooms.

Evaluating student feedback literacies: a study using first-year business and economics students

Feedback is a process in which students play a central role. To support this process, recent conceptual research suggests that students need to develop feedback literacies. However, additional empirical research is required to validate emergent frameworks of feedback literacy, including an investigation of the components of feedback literacy, their interconnections and their impact on students’ learning. This study assessed students’ level of feedback literacy and the interconnections between the theorised components of a framework developed by Carless and Boud. It also investigated the association between students’ uptake of tutor feedback and their performance on a nested and authentic assessment task. Participants were N = 130 first-year Business and Economics undergraduate students. Data were obtained from these students through a self-report survey, analysis of changes made based on tutor feedback, and grade improvement on their final assessment. The results support interconnections between some of the components of the feedback literacy framework, and suggest a positive association between student feedback literacy and task performance. These findings not only strengthen understandings of feedback literacy theory, but also help educators identify which areas of student feedback literacy most need to be improved to enhance the effective use of feedback.

Can an Authentic Assessment Task Improve the Health Behaviours of Undergraduate Students?

Currently, more than ever, the mental and physical well-being of university students have been identified as priorities, and universities are well placed to address well-being by integrating health promotion into their courses. This study looks at the effectiveness of embedding an authentic assessment task to improve health-seeking behaviours related to sleep, stress, and nutrition into the curricula of undergraduate health-science students. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered both pre- and post-test, and content was qualitatively analysed. The study found that students were willing and able to improve health-seeking behaviours, with a significant increase in fruit consumption. There was no reported change in stress or sleep.

Assessing creative thinking skills in higher education: deficits and improvements

ABSTRACT The importance of creativity for survival in modern society is well recognised. However, the development of creative thinking skills through formal education still needs more attention, and the assessment of creative thinking skills using valid models in higher education is under-researched. Our paper presents the deficits and improvements in first-year business and economics undergraduates’ creative thinking skills using an authentic assessment task (product). We assessed creativity under three broad themes: creative expression, knowledge creation and creative problem solving, as presented in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). These themes were chosen to reflect students’ domain-specific expertise, motivations and creative thinking skills. Our analysis finds areas where students have deficits in creative thinking skills and how they have improved those skills through the assessment task. These findings imply the importance of providing students with opportunities to enhance creative thinking, mainly through the application of their learning. Our study provides insights into pedagogical strategies and assessment practices to enhance the creativity required from graduates in any field.

Social Studies Teachers' Authentic Assessment Practices, Tools and Challenges in Assessing Students' Learning Outcomes

Assessment is a vital aspect of curriculum practice. The study adopted explanatory mixed-method approach and sequential research design. The population for the study comprised all Social Studies teachers in Junior High Schools in the Ayensuano District. Convenient sampling techniques and census method were used to select the district, and all the one hundred and twenty-seven (127) teachers who teach Social Studies in the junior high schools in the district. The main instruments used for data collection and analysis were questionnaire and interview guide. The quantitative data was analysed both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The qualitative data was transliterated and coded based on themes. Pre-set themes were used to generate the transcript (text) data based upon the research questions and discussed. The study concluded that authentic assessment practices by Social Studies teachers included the occasional guidance they give to their students about how to interpret topics and situations into relevant tasks with a clearly defined goal, and how to relate their knowledge in practical challenges. The study also revealed that refined essays, oral presentations, interviews, case study discussions, and live performances as authentic assessment strategies or tools Social Studies teachers used in assessing their students' learning outcomes in lessons. The study indicated that large class size, traditional assessment (examination) system, insufficient logistics and infrastructure, a paucity of funds to begin various activities and programs, a lack of motivation from school administrators, time constraints and difficulty in developing some authentic assessment tasks coupled with assessing some lessons using authentic assessment method are some of the criteria that influence the effectiveness of authentic assessment execution in teaching Social Studies courses. It is recommended that educational leaders should provide the resources to motivate Social Studies teachers to use authentic assessments for students’ learning in the classroom situation. It is also recommended that, Colleges of Education, Universities and National Teaching Council should organise professional development workshops and seminars to build the capacity of trained Social Studies teachers on the effective uses of authentic assessment practices.

Development of Spatial Abilities of Preadolescents: What Works?

Creation in space and perception of spatial relations are important workplace skills that can be successfully developed in public education through the cooperation of art education, mathematics, and technology, the STEAM model that has been successfully employed in higher education. In a longitudinal school-based experiment, we enhanced the spatial skills of preadolescents through a STEAM-based educational programme. To design our methods of intervention in mathematics, visual arts, and information technology, we used the structure of spatial skills identified in previous studies. Developmental methods involved two- and three-dimensional visualisation tasks in real-life and virtual learning environments. We employed a pre- and post-hoc assessment design using a spatial ability task sequence standardised in Hungary that proved to be valid for assessing Slovak students as well. Authentic assessment tasks included real-life situations when visualisations of spatial relations were used for orientation and creation. Pre-test results showed significant differences between school classes: we identified high achievers and middle-to-low achievers. Our developmental programme was aimed at personalised talent development in the high-achieving classes and the general improvement of the performance of low achievers, raising insufficient pre-test results to an average post-test performance.

Awareness of Primary School Teachers on Authentic Assessment's Tasks in Teaching Maths in the Direction of Competence Development for Primary School Students – Case Study in Binh Duong Province of Vietnam

Awareness of Primary School Teachers on Authentic Assessment's Tasks in Teaching Maths in the Direction of Competence Development for Primary School Students – Case Study in Binh Duong Province of Vietnam

Designing authentic assessment tasks for EFL courses

Authentic assessment has been widely proven to have practicability value. Since EFL courses focus on the practicability value of the English language to the learners, it is urgent to implement authentic assessment in EFL courses. Authentic assessment, as an assessment for learning, is integrated into the teaching and learning process. Thus, for teachers, the task of authentic assessment needs to be designed and practiced in a targeted manner. The basic concept of authentic assessment coincides with constructivist learning theory, and thus constructivist theory can provide theoretical support for authentic assessment. In this paper, we define the characteristics of authentic assessment tasks and propose a checklist for teachers’ reference when designing them.

Lecturers' perceptions of authentic assessment in times of COVID-19 pandemic: a case of Indonesian universities

PurposeThe present study aims to provide a better understanding of authentic assessment in the COVID-19 pandemic era by exploring how Indonesian lecturers perceive authentic assessment in terms of input, process and output. It also examines the issue through the theoretical lens of authentic assessment following the tenet of a five-dimensional framework (5DF) including assessment task, physical context, social context, assessment result and standard authentic criteria.Design/methodology/approachThe study employed an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to garner data through qualitative interviews and authentic assessment questionnaires in which 48 lecturers from four universities were involved.FindingsThe study gleaned two important findings. The qualitative data showed that the university teachers enacted the cognitive assessment fruitfully. The study shows that lecturer participants experienced difficulties in integrating cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains into authentic assessment tasks during the teaching and learning process. Additionally, the results of quantitative data support the qualitative data that lecturer participants faced challenges (asking students to demonstrate or perform the tasks) in implementing both social and physical contexts in authentic assessment tasks of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study addresses practical and conceptual implications. Practically, it suggests the need to facilitate the development of lecturers' technological skills to design online authentic assessment in higher education that responds to fully online assessment, such as the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the study suggests that lecturers need to build their understanding of 5DF theoretical lens which include assessment tasks, physical contexts, social contexts, assessment result and standard authentic criteria to enhance their literacy in enacting authentic assessment.Originality/valueAlthough many studies have investigated the implementation of authentic assessment in higher education, only a few have examined how lecturers perceived online authentic assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study contributes to developing conceptual and empirical evidence regarding lecturers' perception of the implementation of authentic assessment based on 5DF theoretical lens in higher education settings during the pandemic of COVID-19.

How effective is asynchronous, online training for graduate and undergraduate student instructors?

PurposeThe authors developed online learning modules to train graduate and undergraduate student instructors (GUSIs) on grading and delivering feedback in quantitative disciplines. The authors report results from multiple assessments conducted during recent training events at a mid-sized, research-intensive institution and discuss implications for educational development.Design/methodology/approachUsing pre/post-assessments, the author measured participants' learning gains and skill development. In Study 1, the authors measured learning gains for 109 computer science GUSIs randomly assigned to complete the modules or not. Participants who completed the modules performed significantly better on the post-assessment relative to the control group across all seven module learning objectives aligned with GUSI responsibilities. In Study 2, we iterated on both assessments and modules, replicating Study 1 results for GUSIs from other quantitative disciplines. In Study 3, the authors compared learning gains from online modules to in-person training sessions, focusing on the authentic task of providing written feedback on student work.FindingsProficiency improved equally and significantly via both training modalities.Originality/valueAt research-intensive universities, GUSI training can be inconsistent and difficult to scale and rarely assessed via direct measures of outcomes. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to rigorously measure GUSI skill development via authentic assessment tasks such as grading student work and/or providing effective written feedback rather than simply testing knowledge. This study also addresses implications for designing and implementing effective GUSI training at scale.

Connecting students with ‘industry’: A pilot implementation of authentic assessment tasks in business education

Universities are continuing to encourage academics to implement more authentic assessment strategies into their teaching and learning activities to ensure that students are work-ready on graduation. Connecting students with the expectations of industry through these assessments encourages students to identify key competencies which need to be strengthened in order to ensure they are employable upon graduation. Since COVID-19 struck in early 2020, we have all had to consider how technology can assist in connecting people to continue to be able to work. This is no truer than with students and teaching staff as well as connecting students with industry. This paper reports on the implementation of a new authentic assessment project for business students where students worked both face-to-face and online to complete a major work-based project.

Lifelong Learning and Metacognition in the Assessment of Pre-service Teachers in Practice-Based Teacher Education

Initial teacher education should prepare pre-service teachers to develop effective teaching and lifelong learning tendencies. This study aimed to identify the component to consider in pre-service teachers’ assessment processes that promote lifelong learning and develop metacognition skills. For this, it analyzed how the planned and implemented actions by the teacher educators in Practice-based Teacher Education programs promoted metacognition and lifelong learning in the pre-service teachers. The method was a mixed explanatory sequential design. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were applied. Information was obtained from the learning and assessment resources (72 syllabi and 14 assessment tasks) and pre-service teachers’ opinions (survey: n = 231, interviews: n = 8). The findings identified three main components: (i) authentic and relevant assessment tasks, (ii) prior communication of instructions and evaluation criteria, and (iii) frequent performance-focused feedback from peers and teacher educators during and at the end of assignments. The study results can be valuable in teacher education programs to strengthen assessment processes, promote lifelong learning tendencies, and develop metacognitive skills among the teachers in training.

ĐẶC ĐIỂM NHIỆM VỤ ĐÁNH GIÁ XÁC THỰC TRONG DẠY HỌC MÔN TOÁN THEO HƯỚNG PHÁT TRIỂN NĂNG LỰC CHO HỌC SINH TIỂU HỌC

This paper aims to present concepts of authentic assessment (AA) and AA tasks, one of the remarkable points compared with other assessment forms. Through some authors' researches, the article presents characteristics of AA tasks to distinguish other learning tasks, such as AA tasks must have problems posed in the contexts associated with real-life; AA tasks require students to use high-order thinking; AA tasks require students to respond by creating real products or quality performances; AA tasks orient the criteria to assess the students' performance results. In addition, several AA tasks in teaching Mathematics towards developing competencies for primary school students are designed and analyzed to clarify typical features of AA tasks.

Development of Pisa 2015 Based Chemical Literacy Assessment Instrument For High School Students

Development of Pisa 2015 Based Chemical Literacy Assessment Instrument For High School Students

Discipline-specific feedback literacies: A framework for curriculum design

Feedback literacy is an important graduate attribute that supports students’ future work capacities. This study aimed to develop a framework through which discipline-specific feedback literacies, as a set of socially situated skills, can be developed within core curricula. The framework is developed through a content analysis of National Qualifications Frameworks from six countries and UK Subject Benchmark Statements for multiple disciplines, analysis of indicative subject content for a range of disciplines and consultation with subject-matter experts. Whilst most of the benchmark statements incorporate the development of feedback literacy skills related to ‘making judgements’, attributes relating to ‘appreciating feedback’ and ‘taking action based on feedback’ are less prevalent. Skills related to ‘managing the affective challenges of feedback’ are most prevalent in documentation for applied disciplines. The resulting empirically guided curriculum design framework showcases how integrating the development of discipline-specific feedback literacies can be enacted through authentic learning activities and assessment tasks. In terms of implications for practice, the framework represents in concrete terms how discipline-specific feedback literacies can be integrated within higher education curricula. The findings also have implications for policy: by positioning discipline-specific feedback literacies as graduate outcomes, we believe they should be integrated within national qualifications frameworks as crucial skills to be developed through higher education courses. Finally, from a theoretical perspective, we advance conceptions of feedback literacy through a sociocultural approach and propose new directions for research that seek to reconceptualise a singular concept of feedback literacy as multiple feedback literacies that unfold in distinctive ways across disciplines.

Drivers for authenticity: student approaches and responses to an authentic assessment task

Authentic assessment has long been recommended as valuable for engaging and motivating students. However, given the choices available to students in completing authentic tasks, the products of such assessment may vary in authenticity. This study aimed to evaluate the authenticity of students’ assessment products and their perceptions regarding the task. Occupational therapy students created an information sheet for other health professionals about a disease or condition, and were awarded marks for content but not presentation. The students’ products (n = 59) were evaluated for authenticity using a novel rubric developed during this study. Students’ perceptions regarding what made their information sheet real and their approach to creating it were also evaluated. The authenticity of the information sheets was variable, with most having moderate to high authenticity. However, there was no correlation between authenticity and course grade. Students said the presentation and content of their information sheets increased its realism, and that they were influenced by a desire to provide information appropriate for their target audience. Few were deterred by the lack of presentation marks. When given choice over product design, students tend to create products that are authentic. They are strongly influenced by the defined audience, despite the challenge this poses.

Integrating authentic assessment tasks in work integrated learning hospitality internships

ABSTRACT Internship as part of work-integrated learning (WIL) is a critical curriculum component in higher education to better prepare for the future workforce. To assess WIL, educators typically select authentic assessments such as reflective journals and managerial reports to solve existing workplace problems. Despite the academic discourse supporting the use of internships, a paucity of studies has investigated the role of formal assessments embedded into internship subjects. In this paper, we evaluate the perceptions of hospitality and tourism undergraduates towards the effectiveness of assessments as part of their WIL internship programme. Focus group sessions were conducted with internship university students (n = 29) in Australia over a cross-sectional longitudinal period of 3 years. Our thematic analysis revealed three key themes: authenticity of assessment design, challenges with work-study-life balance, and the level of industry involvement in assessment. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in relation to how compulsory assessment tasks can be effectively integrated into WIL internships to positively influence the experiential learning outcomes of students.