Posted: February 7th, 2024

Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment is a set of methods or techniques for assessing the academic achievement of a student that includes activities requiring the application of acquired knowledge and skills to real-world situations (Merriam-Webster, 2001). It is often seen as an alternative to standardized testing, which may not capture the full range of students’ abilities and competencies. Authentic assessment is based on the idea that students should be able to demonstrate their deep understanding, higher-order thinking, and complex problem solving through the performance of exemplary tasks that replicate real-world challenges and standards of performance (Wiggins, 1989).

Some of the benefits of authentic assessment are:

– It promotes student engagement and motivation by making learning relevant and meaningful to students’ lives and interests.
– It fosters the development of 21st-century skills such as creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and self-regulation.
– It provides feedback to students and teachers on the strengths and weaknesses of students’ learning processes and outcomes, as well as areas for improvement and further learning.
– It supports the inclusion and diversity of students by allowing them to demonstrate their learning in different ways and formats, according to their preferences, needs, and abilities.

Some of the challenges of authentic assessment are:

– It requires careful planning and design to ensure that the tasks are aligned with the learning objectives, criteria, and standards, as well as the real-world contexts and expectations.
– It may be time-consuming and resource-intensive to implement, especially for large classes or courses with multiple assessments.
– It may pose difficulties for grading and scoring, as the tasks may not have clear-cut or objective answers, and may require the use of rubrics or other tools to evaluate students’ performance holistically and consistently.
– It may raise issues of validity and reliability, as the tasks may not cover all the aspects of the curriculum or measure all the intended learning outcomes, and may be influenced by factors such as task difficulty, student background, or rater bias.

To create authentic assessments, some of the steps that can be followed are:

– Identify the learning objectives, outcomes, and standards that you want to assess.
– Analyze the real-world contexts, situations, or problems that are relevant to your discipline or field, and that require the application of the knowledge and skills that you want to assess.
– Design tasks that simulate or mirror those real-world contexts, situations, or problems, and that require students to perform actions or produce products that demonstrate their learning.
– Specify the criteria and indicators that will be used to evaluate students’ performance on the tasks, and create rubrics or other tools that will help you grade or score students’ work.
– Implement the tasks in your course or program, and provide feedback to students on their performance, as well as opportunities for reflection and improvement.

References:

Merriam-Webster. (2001). Authentic assessment. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/authentic%20assessment

Wiggins, G. (1989). A true test: Toward more authentic and equitable assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 70(9), 703–713.

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Study Notes & Homework Samples: Behaviorism »Assertive Discipline