College of Teacher Education

Second Semester, A.Y. 2020-2021

MODULE 4
Product-Oriented Performance-Based Assessment

Introduction

This module entitled ‘Product-Oriented Performance-Based Assessment’ would discuss the creation
of a holistic and analytic rubric for product-oriented activities.

Date and Time Allotment

Feb. 1 (3 hours)

I. Objectives

At the end of the end of this module, students should be able to:
1. Define product-oriented competencies.
2. Differentiate process-oriented performance from product-oriented performance.
3. Set simple and complex process-oriented learning competencies for a given task.
4. Design their own holistic and analytic rubric for process-oriented performances

II. Lecture

Defining and Assessing Process-Oriented Tasks

Recalling our previous lesson on performance-based assessment, we know that there are two
components to the assessment: process-oriented, which was already discussed in Module 3, and product-
oriented, which is our topic for this module.
Product-oriented PBA is defined by Hena (2015) as “a kind of assessment wherein the assessor
views and scores the final product made and not on the actual performance of making that product.” As one
can observe, product-oriented PBA is a complement of process-oriented PBA wherein the former merely
focuses on the product or final output made by the learners which discounts the processes, strategies,
techniques, or competencies shown by the learners in the creation of the output. However, product-oriented
PBA asserts the notion that the output shows a concrete reflection of the actual skills of the learners. In this
regard, we restrict the definition of project as “a tangible creation by a student that could take the form of a
poster, drawing, invention, etc.” (Hurst, 2021). These project is usually used by teachers to show evidence
of student learning.
Rubrics serve as one of the main assessment tools used to assess product-oriented tasks as they
show the level in which a student has satisfied the criteria used to determine a satisfactory product. Navarro
and Santos (2013) stated that teachers could link products and outputs to a level of “expertise” shown by the
product. These levels are usually manifested in three hierarchical stages: beginner or novice, skilled, and
expert. These levels are anchored with the higher-order thinking skills in the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Cognitive Learning as products represent the highest level in the taxonomy which is Creating. Further, the
way in which the products are created results from the complex learner skills and the combination of such.
Note that these levels could represent the scores that we used in the previous module (i.e., 1 for Novice, 2
for skilled, and 3 for expert).
Navarro and Santos (2013) have also presented a different way to state product-oriented
competencies which involves a definition of a proper output. One way of setting levels was given below (as
retrieved from Navarro and Santos, 2013):
Level 1: Does the finished product or project illustrate the minimum expected parts
or functions? (Beginner)

Level 2: Does the finished product or project contain additional parts and functions
on top of the minimum requirements which tend to enhance the final output?
(Skilled)

Level 3: Does the finished product contain the basic minimum parts and functions,
have additional features on top of the minimum, and is aesthetically pleasing?
(Expert)
 Specific examples following this framework are also given by the pair in order to show how certain
performance tasks could be divided and categorized in each level. They are listed below:
Task: Create a representation of a cubic prism made out of cardboard in an
elementary geometry class.
Learning Competencies: The final product submitted by the students must:
1. possess the correct dimensions (5cm x 5cm x 5cm, etc.) – (minimum
requirements)
2. be sturdy, made of durable cardboard and properly fastened together. (skilled
specifications)
3. be pleasing to the observers, preferably colored for aesthetic purposes – (expert
level)

Task: Show the events of the EDSA Revolution as well as the people involved
through a scrapbook.
Learning Competencies: The scrapbook presented by the students must:
1. contain pictures, newspaper clippings, and other illustrations for the main
characters of EDSA I People Power namely: Corazon Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos,
Juan Ponce Enrile, Ferdinand E. Marcos, Cardinal Sin. – (minimum
specifications)
2. contain remarks and captions for the illustrations made by the student himself
for the roles played by the characters of EDSA I People Power – (skilled level)
3. be presentable, complete, informative, and pleasing to the reader of the scrap
book – (expert level)

Know that the framework given by Navarro and Santos (2013) could also be utilized for minor tasks
such as the one given below:
Task: Encode a particular document.
Learning competencies: The final typing outputs of the students must:
1. possess no more than five (5) errors in spelling – (minimum specifications)
2. possess no more than five errors in spelling while observing proper format based
on the document to be typewritten – (skilled level)
3. possess no more than five errors in spelling, has the proper format, and is
readable and presentable – (expert level)

Navarro and Santos (2013) asserted that product-oriented performance-based learning

competencies are inherently evidence-based due to the fact that an actual tangible product is to be supplied
by the end of the assessment which could be used to serve as concrete evidences on the achievement, skill,
and competencies of the learners.
In pursuit of designing tasks for project-oriented assessment, Trach (2018) has written several
examples of the types of tasks under the said assessment. They are as follows:
1. Design a Society
Whether you choose to develop a moon colony, a new school, or a Medieval
monastery, a project that asks students to design a social living situation presents
a complex problem and nearly endless ways to solve it. There are also plenty of
opportunities for cross-curricular learning, depending on the aspects of the
society you choose as an area of focus.
2. Solve a Local Problem
Younger learners can tackle a problem as simple as making the school library
easier to use for kindergartners, while older learners can work on an issue in the
community at large. This type of project lends itself well to social studies and
science classes, particularly when it comes to ecological issues.
3. Publish Something
Working together to create a newsletter, party chapbook or collection of essays
is a great way to allow students to have their voices heard. This project works
in any subject and can be continued throughout the year if you choose to make
several editions of a magazine or newsletter.
4. Place-based Projects
Building a project around a significant location in the community is also a good
jumping-off point for a project-based assessment. Place-based learning has the
 added benefit of getting students out into nature or other parts of the
community to make connections and enrich the area for everyone.
5. Get Technical
Adding technology to project-based learning provides additional motivation
and increases engagement for many students. Consider designing an app,
making a documentary to publish on YouTube, or designing a new social media
platform that addresses a specific problem or issue relevant to your teaching.

Given the number of available variations to the examples of Trach (2018), modern teachers could
create a diverse set of project-oriented tasks which could further be expounded by integrating technology
tools in the mix.

Task Designing for Product-Oriented PBA

Designing a task for product-oriented PBA requires a precise construction of assessment tools based
on the competencies and objectives set by the evaluator. In this regard, Navarro and Santos (2013) has
included 4 concepts that are associated with designing a particular task for project-oriented PBA. They are
as follows:
a. Complexity. The level of complexity of the project needs to be within the range of
the students. Projects that are too simple tend to be uninteresting for the students
while projects that are too complicated will most likely frustrate them.
b. Appeal. The project or activity must be appealing to the students. It should be
interesting enough so students are encouraged to pursue the task to completion. It
should lead to self-discovery of information by the students.
c. Creativity. The project needs to encourage students to exercise creativity and
divergent thinking. Given the same set of materials and project inputs, how does
one best present the project? It should lead the students into exploring the various
possible ways of presenting the final output.
d. Goal-Based. Finally, the teacher must bear in mind that the project is produced in
order to attain a learning objective. Thus, projects are assigned to students not just
for the sake of producing something but for the purpose of reinforcing learning.
Navarro and Santos (2013) have described a possible example of a product-based competency by
using the Japanese art of paper folding. This art could be used to teach certain topics in plane
geometry and is engaging enough due to its tangibility and accessibility. A teacher may task learners
to create as many shapes as they can without cutting the paper. This task may be simple, but further
analyzation shows us that learners will be forced to carefully plan each and every movement possible
for the paper to show a variety of shapes.

Making a Rubrics for Process-Oriented PBA

Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes developed by teachers and other equally-capable
evaluators as a guide in analyzing the products or skills resulting from the effort of their learners (Brookhart,
1999, cited from Navarro and Santos, 2013). Rubrics are versatile in terms of the academic fields that it could
assess and relies entirely on the set criteria by the developers. It is usually used in evaluating different
activities such as essays, scrapbooks, presentation, etc. Navarro and Santos (2013) assert that a rubric or
any other pre-defined scheme as evaluation tool, the subjectivity of the evaluation is decreased in favor of
objectivity.
As we said in the previous paragraph, the effectivity of the rubric relies on the criteria set by the
evaluator. Criteria are basically qualities, descriptions, or statements that identify if a product or performance
has passed the threshold for acceptance. Navarro and Santos (2013) stated that the most often used criteria
for product-oriented tasks are:
• Quality
• Creativity
• Comprehensiveness
• Accuracy
• Aesthetics
After selecting the criteria, the developer moves to creating sub-statements (similar to descriptors in
the previous module) that would divide the criteria into more specific levels of competency and, in turn,
improve objectivity. For instance, if we have to score a timeline for the events in the Aquino administration,
the criterion of “Accuracy” may have the following sub-statements:
• Provides sources for the events stated in the timeline.
 • Shows cause-and-effect for most, if not all, of the interconnected event.
• Numerical data were shown in a relevant and non-invasive manner.
The reader may recall that there are two types of rubric: analytic and holistic rubric. An example of a
holistic rubric is made by Navarro and Santos (2013) for evaluation written essays.

Table 1. Example of Scoring Holistic Rubric

Major Criterion: Meets expectations for a first Draft of a Professional Report
Sub-statements:
Exceptional
• The document can be easily followed. A combination of the following is apparent in the document:
1. Effective transitions are used throughout.
2. A professional format was used.
3. The graphics are descriptive and clearly support the document’s purpose.
• The document is clear and concise and appropriate grammar is used throughout.
Adequate
• The document can be easily followed. A combination of the following is apparent in the document:
1. Basic transitions are used.
2. A structured format is used
3. Some supporting graphics are provided, but are not clearly explained.
• The document contains minimal distractions that appear in a combination of the following forms:
1. Flow in thought
2. Graphical presentations
3. Grammar / mechanics
Needs Improvement
• Organization of document is difficult to follow due to a combination of the following:
1. Inadequate transitions
2. Rambling format
3. Insufficient or irrelevant information
4. Ambiguous graphics
• The document contains numerous distractions that appear in a combination of the following forms:
1. Flow in thought
2. Graphical presentations
3. Grammar / mechanics
Inadequate
• There appears to be no organization in the document’s content.
• Sentences are difficult to read and understand.

Note that each category in Table 1 shows a characteristic of the supposed product. Doing so
increases the “inter-rater reliability” of the scores of a given outcome. Inter-rater reliability refers to the
likelihood of two or more different raters classifying an individual outcome in a single category or level
(Navarro and Santos, 2013).
In relation to making sub-statements or descriptors, Brookhart (1999, cited from Navarro and Santos,
2013) has stated that developers should make use of quantitative and observable statements instead of
statements that are prone to subjective judgement. For example, it is better to use the statement “Sentences
in the essay followed the subject-verb agreement” rather than “Sentences in the essay are good”. The
creation of descriptors could also be made easy by starting describing the extremes (the best and worst)
scenarios first and deciding what qualities should be considered as the “middle”.
While rubrics serve as a powerful tool in PBA, teachers must not discount other types of tools such
as checklists; a tool which is simply used to state if a given outcome has shown a given condition or not.
Checklists are better used if a teacher only aims to determine if his/her conditions for a given project is shown
by a particular output. On the other hand, a rubric, in addition to the determination of preliminary conditions,
also describe the extent in which a condition or criterion is met. As Navarro and Santos (2013) stated, the
selection of assessment tool is based on the purpose of the assessment. If an evaluator simply needs to see
if an output is capable of a given criteria, then a checklist is easier. However, if an evaluator wants to closely
examine the capabilities of an output and the extent in which the criteria is satisfied, then it is advantageous
to use a rubric.
 Furthermore, using a rubric allows a feedback system for the learners which allows them to
determine which parts of a given output and, in turn, skills would need improvement (Navarro and Santos,
2013).

Student Benefits from Using Project-based Assessment

Trach (2018) listed several key benefits of using project-oriented assessment which are:
1. Authenticity
The best projects are authentic in that they provide real-life experiences and
opportunities to apply learning to areas that affect students’ communities.
Increasing engagement with the world around them prepares students to be
good citizens in addition to making them college- and career-ready. Colleges
and employers require students who can do more than just memorize subject-
area information.
2. Motivation
The best designed project-based assessments give students voice and choice;
that is, students can select the work that is most meaningful to them. This
increases engagement and motivation to do well and opens the door for deeper,
richer learning that will stick with students for life. They also have the
opportunity to share their work and develop strong communication skills in
addition to standard subject-area knowledge.
3. Metacognition
Well-designed project-based assessments provide significant feedback to
students about their progress along the way. Instead of waiting for the results
of a single test, they can make their own goals and benchmarks to track their
learning. This requires designing clear, detailed rubrics that students can use to
measure their progress as they work. Informal check-ins will also help students
sharpen their thinking and build confidence as they work.
4. Collaboration
Projects are the perfect opportunity for students to work together toward a
common goal. Small group work is linked to better retention of information
and career-readiness thanks to the "soft skills" involved in working with others
regularly. Structured collaboration is key, so grades should be clearly divided
between group goals and individual progress to provide an accurate measure of
learning.
5. Creativity
Because project-based learning often involves problem-solving, students develop
creativity and critical thinking skills that serve them well in college and careers.
Group projects in particular can boost this effect—studies have found that
when students focus on overcoming conflict together instead of avoiding it,
their academic and career-ready skills experience a boost. Finding innovative
ways to approach a problem is great practice for applying skills in any future
endeavor.

What is evident from Trach’s article is that project-oriented tasks allow for a full utilization of the
students’ skills as well as their reflective learning capabilities and their perceived function in their future
society. From this, we could say that project-oriented tasks highly imitate the workplace it terms of demands
from the members as well as its adequacy in developing an individual further.

III. Activity
For your activity, I will upload a set of Google Forms in our Google Classroom for you to answer.
This form has to be answered INDIVIDUALLY.

IV. Assessment
You will do your assessment in groups of 4. Your task is to make a sample analytic and holistic rubric
based on two process-oriented competencies/tasks found in your selected curriculum guide. Select two
topics and for each you will make one analytic and one holistic rubric; totaling to four rubrics. Note that you
cannot choose similar tasks (for example, if one task is to create an essay, then the other task should NOT
be to create an essay or similar compositions).
The performance levels (descriptors) should be at least 3 per criteria and there should be at least 4
criteria per rubric.
 Encode your work in a single document and upload it in our Google Classroom. Do not forget to put
your name and the name of your groupmates, course, section, and date on the upper part of the document.
Only one member of the group has to upload their work. Put your name and your group mates name on the
private comment (description box) when you upload the file.

V. Other References
• Navarro, Rosita L. and De Guzman-Santos, Rosita (2013) Authentic Assessment of Student
Learning Outcomes 2 (2nd Edition). Lorimar Publishing, Inc. Quezon City, Manila
• Jazmin-Hena, Lilia (2015) Classroom Assessment 2. Great Books Trading. Quezon City,
Manila
• Hurst, Melissa (2021) Performance Assessments: Product vs. Process. Published at
study.com, retrieved on February 2021.
• Trach, Elizabeth (2018). How Students Benefit from Project-Based Assessments (With
Examples). Published at Schoology.com. Retrieved on February 2021.

Prepared by:

ALLEN CHRISTIAN V. TORRES, MSEd

Instructor, CTE

Checked by:

GLORIA C. NEMEDEZ, MAEd

Program Head, CTE

Approved by:

EVELYN ABALOS-TOMBOC, DBA

President, University of Eastern Pangasinan