92-pages-GUIDELINES-FOR-SECONDARY-SCHOOLS-All-Streams-and-Sections

PERFORMANCE BASED ASSESSMENT
The standards-based approach to the teaching of English suggested in these guidelines requires performancebased
assessment. This reflects the views that surmise that:
• teaching needs to drive testing rather than the reverse;
• testing should be compatible with teaching ( Teach as you test and Test as you teach). The standards
areas: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities are assessed through
this type of assessment.
Performance-based assessment: Definitions
Performance-based assessment has been defined in the literature as:
1. a measure of assessment based on authentic tasks 47 ; such tasks that necessitate that learners demonstrate what
they can do with English.
2. the representation of a set of strategies for the application of competency (content knowledge and skills)
through the performance of tasks that are meaningful and engaging to learners.
3. a measure of how learners activate their knowledge and skills to solve problems.
Performance-based assessment: Nature
The distinguishing features of this type of assessment are as follows:
• It makes use of performance-based tasks.
• It measures the learners’ auxiliary and terminal performances 48 during and at the end of Level Four.
• It requires that learners demonstrate specific competencies and apply them in simulated real-life
situations to specific standards.
• It is criterion-referenced; that is, scores on criterion-referenced tests provide information on what testees
know and can do with English. It does not determine who is best. It helps learners do their best, though.
• It involves regular and continuous assessment 49 . Therefore, it can occur whenever the teacher needs
information about the adequacy of the learner’s present learning for subsequent teaching.
• It is more valid than conventional assessment in that it is (i) authentic; it replicates situations that the
testees may encounter in real life. The testees must complete tasks using methods similar to those used
in the “real world.” and (ii) relevant; the testees must demonstrate the ability to successfully complete
realistic real-world tasks.
47 We adhere to the view that argues that it is hard to imagine an authentic task that is not performance-based.
48 Auxiliary performances are behaviors which must be acquired through a set of units/modules. Terminal performances
refer to the end products of the teaching/learning process.
49 Continuous assessment is mainly applied for motivational, diagnosis, intrinsic/extrinsic feedback purposes.
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التوجيهات التربوية وبرامج تدريس مادة اللغة الإنجليزية س ت ث ت 2007