Using Technology to Enhance Performance Assessment in your Classroom

In a Ghanaian classroom, there are a plethora of assessment strategies employed by teachers to measure learning outcomes or determine if the Content Standard or Objectives of a lesson are being met. The National Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum Framework (NPECF) also prescribes some types of assessments teachers can use during their lessons. In this article, we would discuss some assessment strategies and how we can enhance Performance Assessment with Technology in our classrooms.

Assessment in the Ghanaian School.

The National Pre-Tertiary Curriculum Framework (2018 p.30) defines Assessment in education generally as a process for obtaining and interpreting information that is used for  making decisions about learners, curricula, programmes and educational policy. The NPECF further explains that the number of decisions made about learners’ competence are informed  by information derived from assessment data. Therefore, assessing a learner’s competence,

entails collecting information from the learner regarding their progress towards attaining the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes, or behaviours, which is useful in deciding the degree to which the learner has achieved the performance standards. The types of Assessment prescribed by the National Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum Framework  and The National  Pre-Tertiary Learning Assessment Framework (NPLAF) include;

Diagnostic assessment, Formative assessment and Summative assessment. These frameworks also encouraged assessment strategies like Assessment of Learning (AoL), Assessment for Learning (AfL) and Assessment as learning (AaL).

The frameworks sort to ensure a holistic development of the learner and this can be done in an informal way through a structured observation of each learner’s progress in learning and practice situations while they are investigating things, interpreting phenomena and data, applying knowledge, communicating, making value judgments, and in their participation in general. (NPTECF, 2018 p.39). In view of this, Authentic Assessment or Performance-based Assessment is explicitly encouraged.

Performance-based Assessment

Performance assessment measures the learners’ ability to apply skills and knowledge learned from a particular strand or unit of study. It is about flipping students’ learning from “do you know it?” to “can you use it?” and demands the ability to contextualize.

An approach to educational assessment that requires students to directly demonstrate what they know and are able to do through open-ended tasks such as constructing an answer, producing a project, or performing an activity. This demonstration can include generating a short written response, writing an analytical essay, conducting a science investigation, creating a curated portfolio of work, or developing an original research paper.

It is an approach to educational assessment that requires students to directly demonstrate what they know and are able to do through open-ended tasks such as constructing an answer, producing a project, or performing an activity. This demonstration can include generating a short written response, writing an analytical essay, conducting a science investigation, creating a curated portfolio of work, or developing an original research paper. (Maier et al., 2020)

A variety of tasks that require learners to generate rather than choose a response. Authentic assessment is a method that emphasises learning and thinking, especially higher order thinking such as problem-solving strategies rather than just lower order thinking. In doing such assessment, the child/student uses all his/her cognitive, aesthetic, physical and social potential. (NPTECF, 2018 p.40). This form of assessment aligns with the higher order of thinking according to the revised blooms taxonomy i.e. analyzing, evaluating and creating.

Traditional performance-based Assessment in a Ghanaian School.

In a traditional Ghanaian classroom, teachers or facilitators use various forms of activities to measure the higher order thinking of their learners. Some of these activities include;

1. Projects and Portfolios: Teachers guide their learners to put together a collection of work that demonstrates growth and achievement over time. These projects may include artifacts, an essay to reflect a learner’s depth of knowledge on a topic, interventions to problems amongst others. In a Ghanaian school, these activities are normally called craft.
2. Presentations and Demonstrations: Learners put together oral or practical displays of knowledge and skills.They use illustrations on cards to explain concepts. For instance, in the course of assessing a lesson taught on ‘Water Cycle’, the teacher guides learners to put together a presentation using illustrations on a manila card. In another instance, a teacher could also guide students to demonstrate an experiment to show the presence of fact on some food substances.
3. Role-Playing and Simulations: To assess what learners can do with the knowledge they acquired during a lesson, role-plays and simulations come in very handy. These are activities that mimic real-world scenarios to assess decision-making and problem-solving. For example in a literature lesson, learners could role-play various characters to help the teacher assess the extent to which learners understood the text.

Using Technology to enhance and transform Performance Assessment.

Obviously technology’s role in education is to transform and enhance teaching and learning.

Dr Oluwakemi identified Technology-enhanced assessments as cited in (Lynch, 2018) offer several benefits, such as increased efficiency, reduced cost, and more accurate and timely feedback being provided to both teachers and students that can enable more personalized learning experiences and facilitate collaboration and communication among teachers and students.

In the case of this article, our focus is on how technology can improve how we conduct performance assessment in our classrooms. Leveraging technology’s power to do a lot of things that are practically inconceivable in the classroom, it is important to use technology when conducting performance assessments. Below, we would explore some technologies that can be used to enhance performance assessments.

1. E-Portfolios

Google Sites (Free), Seesaw, Mahara and Wakelet allows students to compile and showcase their projects, reflections, and progress over time.

2. Gamification & Simulation Tools

CoSpaces, Minecraft Education, Roblox Education, Scratch, Pictoblox, TinkerCad amongst others are used by students to demonstrate learning through interactive 3D environments. PhET Simulations, Labster, Gizmos  and other virtual labs and simulations for STEM subjects.

3. Video & Audio-Based Presentations.

PowerPoint, Flip (formerly Flipgrid), Screencastify, Camtasia, Audacity, CapCut, ClipChamp  can be used to create and submit video/audio responses for presentations, reflections, or language assessments.

4. Infographics

Canva, Visme, Piktochart, and Adobe Express offer thousands of templates, icons, and fonts for easy creating infographics.

In all, technology has the power to redefine performance assessment in your classroom by making assessments more engaging, efficient, and meaningful. As outlined in the National Pre-Tertiary Education Curriculum Framework, Performance-Based Assessments should go beyond recalling facts to assessing learners’ ability to apply knowledge in real-world scenarios. By integrating e-portfolios, gamification, audio-visual presentations, simulations, and infographics, teachers can create more authentic and student-centered assessments that align with higher-order thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Embracing technology-enhanced assessments not only improves feedback but also prepares students for the digital future by fostering creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. As educators, leveraging these tools will ensure that assessment goes beyond measurement but it becomes a tool for deep learning and skill mastery.

References:

NaCCA. (2019). National pre-tertiary education curriculum framework. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. https://nacca.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/National-Pre-tertiary-Education-Curriculum-Framework-final.pdf

NaCCA. (2020) National Pre-Tertiary Learning Assessment Framework.  National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k_w1hEXt48we_Y5VV7bxpFHbBMhFHvZx/view?usp=sharing

Maier, A., Adams, J., Burns, D., Kaul, M., Saunders, M., & Thompson, C. (2020). Using performance assessments to support student learning: How district initiatives can make a difference (research brief). Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute

https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/media/462/download?inline&file=CPAC_Performance_Assessments_Student_Learning_2_REPORT.pdf

UNESCO MGIEP. (n.d.). Digital technologies for assessments. UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. https://mgiep.unesco.org/article/digital-technologies-for-assessments