OUTCOMES-BASED LEARNING AND OUTCOMES-BASED ASSESSMENT

Ofelia T. Posecion, Ph.D.

SUMMARY

Outcomes-Based Education is the process of identifying, gathering and interpreting

information about learner’s achievement by employing different techniques, tools and methods,
on an on-going basis.
Outcomes-based assessment provides different features that might be of great help to
teachers in measuring how far learners learn the lessons. It emphasizes the assessment of student
outputs or end products as oppose to lecturer inputs. Its main focus is on the application of
knowledge and the demonstration of the required skills and values within specific contents. Out
comes-based assessment is criterion-referenced. It is an assessment in which judgments are made
about learners by measuring their work against set criteria that are independent of the work of
other learners. Its another feature focuses on using frequent and varied assessment techniques to
guide students towards achieving the outcomes set for a course. Outcomes-based assessment
makes use of both formative and summative assessment. It also includes integrated assessment.
This assessment makes use of a range of formative and summative assessment methods. It
incorporates foundation as well as practical and reflective competence while attempting to bring
the overall purpose of the qualification under scrutiny. Lastly, outcomes-based assessment is
concerned with issues of reliability and fairness and assessment practices that are valid.
According to Killen (2000), the assessment criteria to be utilized by teachers of academic
institutions should conform to these principles:
 The assessment procedures should be valid.
 It should be reliable. They should give consistent results.
 It should not be influenced by any irrelevant factors such as the learner’s cultural
background.
 It should reflect the knowledge and skills that are most important for learners to
learn.
 It should tell educators and individual learners to the limit of their understanding
and ability to apply their knowledge.
 It should be comprehensive and explicit.
 It should support every learner’s opportunity to learn things that are important.
 It should allow learner’s individuality to be demonstrated.
OBE demands from teachers to focus on the key elements of curriculum. Teachers must
have to ensure that every learning activity, inside and outside of the classroom, maps back to the
key elements. Teachers should also provide opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency
in a variety of modalities. Collaborating up and down grade/year levels to build coherence of
vocabulary and expectations are very much needed. Teachers should also revise and revisit
learning targets in the context of the DepEd, TESDA, CHED or PRC standards and other
developments.

It is very important to take note the framework of an assessment. Before doing the
assessment, one should know what to assess; purpose of assessment; who will do the assessment;
the method to be used; action that is taken and the nature of the action; and what feedback to be
given to the students.
According to Kraiger, et. al. (1993), there are three types of learning outcomes. These are
cognitive, skill-based and affective. Each type includes particular categories and foci of
measurement as reflected in this matrix.

Three Types of Outcomes Categories and Foci of Measurement

Cognitive Verbal Knowledge
Knowledge Organization
Cognitive Strategies
Skill-based Compilation Measures
Automaticity Measures
Metacognitive (Affective) Motivational Measures
Attitudinal Measures
Propositional and factual
Concepts and relationships
Regulation of resources and
allocation of resources
Proceduralization and
composition
Ability to perform without
conscious monitoring and
with additional tasks
Attitude about earning and
self-efficacy
Perception of ability to learn
and goal setting

There are different activities to assess learning outcomes. These are the following:
 Authentic Assessment – it fits real life learning experiences like recording
evidence of the learning process, applications in products and performances,
perception of visual and audio relationships and others that involve real-life
learning experiences.
 Performance Assessment – a observation of the process of creating an answer or
product that demonstrates a student’s knowledge and/or skills
 Portfolio Assessment – it is a document that indicates learner’s achievements and
progress overtime
 Ill-defined or Ill-structured problem – not highly structured and cannot be
resolved with a high degree of certainty
 Critique – a panel of experts is asked to critique a work and it must be based on
the specific goals formulated for the project.
 Course-Embedded Assessment – programs may be assessed through assignments
embedded in required courses
 Critical Incident – students can be asked to describe an incident, either real or
imagined that illustrates or illuminates key concepts or principles
 Case Study – an examination of a specific phenomenon such as a program, an
event, a person, a process, an institution or a social group
 Focus Group – an informal, small group discussion designated to obtain in depth
qualitative information.
 Journals or Learning Logs – tools for increasing student writing and motivation
for writing and for assessing student’s writing skills
 Writing Assignments – a measure of students’ mastery of course content and
attainment of program or major goals
 Oral Presentations/Oral Exam – a direct measure for student’s communication
skills and their attainment of general education goals
 Interview – a one-on-one private, and involve fewer questions than an oral exam
 Commercial Tests – used to assess student’s perception of their attainment of
general education goals