PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT IN VOCATIONAL

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Geoff Hayton and Zita M Wagner
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This paper describes performance assessment and some of its important attributes in the
vocational education and training setting. It is asserted that the widespread introduction of
competency-based education and assessment in recent years has reinforced the use of
performance assessment. Some examples of performance assessment in vocational education
and training are examined to illustrate some of the important attributes of performance
assessment. The paper then discusses some of the key issues concerning performance
assessment, including validity, reliability, costs and consequences of assessment. It is argued
that performance assessment is a very useful tool in vocational education and training, and
may not need to satisfy all the reliability criteria of paper and pencil tests.

Introduction
In recent years the use of performance assessment has increased steadily
in vocational education and training and other sectors in education
systems across the world (Broadfoot 1995). Increasingly educators are
called upon to promote the learning of skills, knowledge and attitudes
that cannot be tested by the traditional paper and pencil assessment
techniques. Performance assessments are expected to deliver a wide
range of benefits to the learner such as higher motivation, deeper and
more meaningful learning, better connection between assessment and
learning and more valid assessment.
There has been much debate in the United Kingdom and the United
States concerning the use of performance assessment for elementary
school students and particularly the use of performance assessments for
accountability purposes to make comparisons across schools and
regions. The proponents of performance assessment (Wiggins 1989;
Frederickson & Collins 1989; Linn & Baker 1996) have mounted a
sustained attack on the traditional measurement model of assessment
and especially on standardised norm-referenced testing using multiple
choice items. The opponents of performance assessment have questioned
its validity (Messick 1994) and outlined its psychometric problems
(Shavelson et al. 1993).

Performance assessment In vocational education and training

69

Performance assessments have a long history of use in the vocational

education and training sector and in vocational courses in higher
education. This paper will seek to define the characteristics of
performance assessment in the vocational education and training setting,
with reference to some examples, and examine some of the key issues
concerning performance assessment.

What is performance assessment?

The term performance assessment covers a wide range of approaches to
assessment. It is easier to say what it is not than to define what it is and
indeed much of the debate in north America focusses on performance
assessment as an alternative to standardised testing using multiple
choice items. Hence the use of the terms 'alternative' and 'performance'
assessment interchangeably. Other terms used for performance
assessment include 'performance based', 'authentic' and 'direct'
assessment.
Performance assessment is a technique or method of assessment which
seeks to assess a wide range of outcomes such as skills, attitudes and
knowledge in a multi-dimensional way (Green 1995). While there is no
agreed specific defining characteristic, a key characteristic of
performance assessment is the requirement that students be assessed on
performance of a practical activity which is the criterion activity (e.g.
performance of a job task at the workplace), or which is a simulation of
the criterion activity. An extended definition has been provided by Linn
(1993, p.9). He states that the term performance assessment:

... refers to assessment tasks that require students to perform an activity (e.g.
laboratory experiment in science) or construct a response. Extended periods of
time, ranging from several minutes to several weeks, may be needed to
perform a task. Often the tasks are simulations of, or representations of,
criterion activities valued in their own right. Evaluations of performance
depend heavily on professional judgement.
(Linn 1993, p.9)

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

In vocational education and training the set activity is usually the

criterion of competent performance on the job, or a task which is to be
performed off the job, the task being a close representation of the
criterion activity. Examples of the latter include constructing a wall
frame, writing out an airline ticket, and detecting faults in a computer.
The distinction needs to be made between performance assessment and
competency-based assessment. Competency-based assessment is the.
assessment of evidence to determine a person's current abilities against a
given set of competency standards (Rutherford 1995). Competencybased assessment then is a system in which a number of assessment
techniques can be used, of which performance assessment is just one
technique (Hager et al. 1995). However, performance assessment is likely
to be used in a competency-based system because both the system and
the technique have a focus on criterion activities or outcomes.
Performance assessment is an assessment technique which can be used
in a wide range of contexts such as in a workplace competency scheme,
in a vocational education and training, school or university curriculum
or indeed to select the world champion in formula one motor racing or
the winner of the Archibald portrait painting prize.

Attributes of performance assessment

We have identified six attributes of performance assessment in
vocational education and training which are seen as important in the
literature on performance assessment. These include:
.:. the assessment activity reflects the criterion activity or realistic
workplace activity
.:. assessment is multi-dimensional, encompassing more than knowledge
.:. assessment can be of a product or a process or both
.:. assessment spans a continuum from simple to complex activities
.:. assessment is open ended
.:. scoring requires human judgement

Performance assessment in vocational education and training

71

As already indicated in the definition of performance assessment, the

first two attributes may be regarded as essential. Each of the six
attributes now will be briefly described.

Realistic workplace activity

The criterion for a vocational education and training program is usually
competent performance on the job, as a whole or in some part of the job.
So performance assessment usually should be based on actual job
performance at the workplace, as a whole, or in particular aspects or
tasks that comprise the job. The performance assessment can occur in the
workplace or off-the-job and can be a simulation or a 'real' activity (Linn
1992).

Assessment is multi-dimensional
Performance assessments are practical assessment methods which assess
a wider range of outcomes than knowledge alone.

Performance assessments require students to demonstrate skills by actually

performing. They involve doing rather than just knowing about . ..
(Linn & Gronlund 1995, p.241)
Most 'real' workplace activities will call for the application of
knowledge, skills and attitudes rather than just abstract knowledge
alone. For example, a child care worker interviewing a parent about a
child's progress will use the knowledge of child development, the skills
of interviewing and the attitudes and values of concern, information
giving and following a job through to the end. In this way performance
assessment seeks to capture much more than a paper and pencil test for
knowledge:

Product or process
Performance assessments can involve the assessment of a product (e.g. a
business plan, a soup or a stained microscope slide) or the observation of

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

a process (e.g. a presentation, the use of a fire extinguisher, operating a

fork lift) (Messick 1994, p.14; Fitzpatrick & Morrison 1971; Linn &
Gronlund 1995). In some settings it will be more appropriate to assess
the produCt rather than the process. For example, in the domains of .
painting and creative writing there may be very many acceptable
processes to achieve a product, so that it is more feasible to assess the
product rather than the process. In other domains such as auto
mechanics both process and product warrant sc~tiny. Another example
of assessment involving both process and product is observation of th~
taking of a clinical history from a patient, where both the process (the'
interaction) and the product (the written history) can be assessed.
In other domains such as acting and dancing the process and the product '
are essentially the same thing. A product from a performance assessment
may well be just a piece of paper with writing.on it-for example, a
business plan-but it, and the processes leading up to its completion,
need to reflect realistic workplace activity.

Simple to complex
Within the area of performance-based assessment there is'a continuum of
complexity ranging from the performance of a small, simple skill sample
(turning on an oven) through to a complex multi-dimensional activity
(planning, preparing and serving a three-course meal for a function).
Linn and Gronlund (1995) use the terms restricted performance to refer to
assessment of specific skills and extended performance to refer to the
integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes in the asse,ssment of more
complex learning outcomes.

Openendedness
Another attribute of performance assessment is its openendedness
(Baker et al. 1993). The assessments are not fixed-choice and a stu~ent
may respond to a task in a number of ways, some of which may be
unexpected by the assessor. This is more likely to occur as the
complexity of the set task increases.

Performance assessment in vocational education and training

73

Human judgement
Another feature of performance assessments is that they are usually
rated by human scorers using predetermined criteria (Green 1995). Some
degree of assessor expertise is therefore required. The assessors can score
the performance holistically or globally, based on an overall impression,
or analytically, using a list of criteria (Athanasou 1997). The development
of rating sheets or assessment guidelines and the training of assessors to
do the scoring have become aspects of assessment that are of great
importance.

Examples of performance assessment

Performance assessment is not new. Mehrens (1992) cites the biblical
example of the Gilead guards who challenged the fugitives from
Ephraim:

Are you a member of the tribe of Ephraim? they asked. If the man replied that
he was not, then they demanded, 'Say Shibboleth'. But if he could not
pronounce the 'sh' and said Sibboleth instead of Shibboleth he was dragged
away and killed. As a result 42000 people of Ephraim died there at that time.
(Judges 12: 5-6).
Performance assessments have also been used in the military for at least
50 years and in industry for 70 years (Bond 1995). Performance
assessments have a long history in being employed in examinations for
professional certification such as medicine (van der Vleuten &. Swanson
1990) law and architecture. Projects, portfolios, extended problems,
presentations and others have long been used in school, vocational and
higher education.

Example from vocational education: Tourism

Certificate course
In the Tourism Certificate course in New South Wales, students are
studying to be travel agents. In the subject International Airfares and

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

Ticketing 1 the assessment task requires students to write out an airline

ticket to suit the requirements of a specific customer. This is a simulation
of a specific workplace activity common to all travel agents around the
world. The assessment activity is 'open book' and requires students to
use the various air tariffs, airline information and other industry
manuals, maps and guides. This is an important aspect of the assessment
activity since a travel agent at the workplace would normally complete
the activity having all these guides at hand.
The assessor bases the assessment on the accuracy and completeness of
the written-out .ticket using a marking guide in the form of a correctly
filled out ticket and the assessor also has instructions on how to mark
incorrect or missing sections. This is a performance assessment based
mainly on the product although assessors can follow the students'
progress through the task as various sections of the ticket are filled in
and can therefore assess the process too. This assessment is a complex
performance assessmenf and displays in a holistic way the
achievement of four main learning outcomes in International Airfares
and Ticketing 1 listed below:
.:. interpret airline guides and manuals
.:. construct airfares and air itineraries
.:. provide accurate quotations and advice on air fares
.
.:. accurately issue documents
This performance assessment fulfils the first two essential attributes
namely reflecting a realistic' workplace activity and it is multidimensional. It is also a complex activity of a combined product/process
and assessor judgement is required to' score the activity. The only
attribute it does not appear to have from the list of six is openendedness.
Assessors on the subject International Airfares and Ticketing 1 inform
the authors that there is only one way to fill in the ticket correctly.

Example from the workplace: Printing machining

An example in a workplace training program of performance assessment
is provided by the Printing Machining Trade Recognition Scheme in
NeW South Wales. People seeking recognition as a trade skilled worker

Performance assessment in vocational education and training

75

in printing machining must seek assessment and certification from the

relevant government agency-the New South Wales Department of
Training and Education Coordination (DTEC). The normal path to
certification is a three-year training and employment apprenticeship
involving a three-year part-time course in printing machining at a
technical and further education (TAFE) college and formal and informal
on-the-job training.
People not in this path (e.g. people who were trained overseas) may seek
trade skilled recognition through DTEC. This recognition scheme is
based on an assessment schedule which contains units of competency
and associated elements of competency drawn from the national
competency standards for the printing machining occupation. The
assessment is conducted by an industry training adviser from DTEC. For
each element of competency on the schedule the adviser seeks evidence
of competency. Depending on the individual case, for each element the
evidence may be completion of a college course, observation by the
person's workplace supervisor or workplace trainer, observation by the
adviser, or other documentary evidence. The particular type of evidence
used to assess each element of competency is noted on the assessment
schedule.
The observations by the supervisor, workplace trainer or DTEC advisor
are clearly assessments which are performance based, and in the case of
printing machining are mostly process rather than product assessments.
The activities assessed are nearly always actual workplace tasks which
are multi-dimensional, requiring the application of knowledge, skills
and attitudes. Typical assessment activities involve the setting up of a
particular type of printing machine in the workplace to produce printed
product according to the written requirements of a customer. This
requires several steps which may be performed in various ways. The
task is both complex and open-ended, and requires holistic judgement
by the assessor observing the process. In some cases the performance
assessment is supplemented by oral questioning to assess the person's
underpinning knowledge.

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

Issues concerning performance assessment

The literature identifies several issues of quality and usefulness
associated with performance assessment. Most of these issues also
apply to other types of assessment. The key issues concerning
performance assessment include:
.:.
.:.
.:.
.:.
.:.

validity
consequences of assessment
use of resources
reliability
holistic assessment

Each of these are discussed below.

Validi1y
Some argue that in comparison with traditional assessment approaches,
performance assessment provides more valid information. Performance
assessments appear to have good face validity (Mehrens 1992) in being
acceptable to industry and the community. This face validity assists in
the acceptance of performance assessment to the various stakeholder
groups but it is not sufficient on its own and cannot take the place of
overall test validity. Overall test validity may be defined as the 'degree to
which a certain inference from a test is appropriate and meaningful'
(Athanasou 1997, p.160).
Two related aspects of validity are authenticity and directness. It is
claimed that compared to' other approaches to assessment, performance
assessment has the central advantages of authenticity and directness
(Frederickson & Collins 1989). Authenticity in assessment means that all
or nearly all of the criterion construct (usually a vocational education
and training goal expressed as a job performance at the workplace) is
captured by the assessment task. Directness in assessment means that
none or few skills outside the criterion construct are captured by the
assessment task. Performance assessment is often thought to be more
reflective of workplace requirements because of its authenticity and

Performance assessment in vocational education and training

77

directness, by assessing in a way as close as possible to a real world

situation (Linn & Burton 1994).
There may be problems with validity related to limited sampling and
lack of generalisability from the sample to the wider domain (Mehrens
1992). Because performance assessments take more time, assessors can
present only one or two performance assessments to students so the
sampling is less dense. There is therefore limited sampling from a
domain and the difficulty then of generalising from the performance to
the whole domain. Linn (1993) suggests that the number of tasks should
be increased to improve coverage of the domain. This may be overcome
partly by choosing a task which is very typical of the subject area being
assessed (e.g. completing a typical billing transaction at a hotel desk).
The other option is to choose a complex or advanced task where the
assessor can infer from successful completion of the performance that
the student can perform a range of less complex activities. Task choice
needs to be carefully considered as it is potentially a major source of
measurement error (Guion 1995).
Messick (1994) suggests that performance assessment needs to meet
more validity criteria, particularly those related to construct validity,
than traditional assessment. Messick specifies that the assessment should
not be too narrow or too broad and should be based on the construct that
the performance represents. Linn and Baker (1996) also propose more
extensive validity criteria for performance assessment including
consequences (how does assessment affect learning), efficiency and economy
(is it too costly to implement), generalisability (how generalisable is the
performance), and fairness (do all students, including minority groups,
have the opportunities to learn). In addition, Frederickson and Collins
(1989) propose transparency (to what extent are the criteria for judgement
clear to the learners).

Consequences of assessment
Authenticity and directness in performance assessment lead to positive
consequences for teaching and learning (Linn 1993; Torrance 1995;
Wiggins 1989; Frederickson & Collins 1989). For vocational education

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

and training, assessment which is authentic to the performance required

at the workplace is expected to provide the student with a meaningful
educational experience that facilitates learning and skill development
(Messick 1994). Students are more likely to be motivated to learn and
have their learning reinforced when they perform assessments which are
grounded in realistic workplace activities (Linn 1992). Performance
assessments cover a richer array of student knowledge and skill than is
possible with simple skill tests, and provide realistic contexts for the
production of student work by having the tasks and processes parallel
those at the workplace (Arter & Spande11992). Performance assessments
are more closely linked to curriculum frameworks, particularly those
that are competency-based.
Additionally, performance assessments are claimed to be less
stigmatising, more adaptable to individual student needs, more useful
for employers, parents and others and more reflective of the quality of
student understanding (Meisels et a1. 1995). They are also claimed to be
less biased and more fair to disadvantaged groups because they do not
test abilities, such as speed and recall of decontextualised information
which are not connected to the experiences of students (Bond 1995).
However, the interpretation of performance test scores is more
demanding than traditional modes of assessment and teachers who
make decisions about student progress must understand what is being
assessed and also the procedures used to rate students and the standards
required (Brennan & Johnson 1995).

Use of resources
There may be problems with either keeping the questions secure or
developing new questions for further use (Mehrens 1992). If exactly the
same performance is required semester after semester students can
memorise the response to higher order questions just as they can to more
basic questions. This may present no problems for some performances
(e.g. baking a croissant) but any performance tasks that involve a larger
meta-cognitive component cannot be so readily reused: This may be at
odds with notions of transparency of assessment. In these cases there

Performance assessment In vocational education and training

79

may be higher developmental costs than anticipated and there may also
be difficulties making comparisons of cohorts of students/trainees
across years if this is required.
Time required and therefore the cost of performance assessment is high.
There are also consumables and equipment costs. Assessors may need
extra training to develop the skills of observation and recording for
performance assessments. Performance assessments generally yield less
information per hour than traditional assessment such as short answer
supply or multiple choice tests (Green 1995).
Wolf (1995) cautions that in the United Kingdom there has been an
enormous increase in the volume of assessment (and the amount of class
time devoted to it). This may be due in part to the atomistic approach
adopted to assessment and the fragmentation of the curriculum. Also
noted by Wolf is the observation that when the volume of assessment
becomes large, formative assessment disappears.

Reliability
Problems with reliability centre on sampling issues, subjectivity of the
assessors and to what extent we can generalise from the performance to
the larger domain. Because performance assessments take more time
than traditional assessments and use more assessor time, there are
generally fewer tasks. This lesser quaJ.ltity of information collected from
performance assessment usually will lower reliability (due to the
sampling problem discussed above). For acceptable levels of score
reliability there should be more than one task, and preferably several
tasks. Brennan and Johnson (1995) found that the number of tasks has a
strong effect on reliability. However, having several tasks in the
performance assessment may be costly in time and resources if each task
is time consuming. This may be justified if the assessment is critical, such
as for high cost/high risk situations such as the licensing of a doctor
(Linn 1993). A second justification for the use of multiple tasks is that the
task performance itself is a beneficial part of instruction. When the
assessment tasks are valued learning activities in their own right, the
result is a better integration of instruction and assessment. According to

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Educatfon Research

Gonczi (1996) problems with reliability may be partly overcome by

focussing the assessment on constructs with multiple assessments to
serve as vehicles for assessing the construct.
Inter-assessor reliability for complex multi-dimensional assessment is
low (Bond 1995). Since greater assessor expertise is required in this
situation there is the need for more training of the assessors to develop
the skills of observation and recording required for performance
assessment. Having more than one assessor improves reliability and
generalisability. High levels of reliability across assessors can also be
achieved by using well defined scoring. sheets and monitoring of
assessors (Shavelson et al. 1992).
Problems with reliability mean that it may be difficult to compare
performances of students or workplace trainees across workplaces,
colleges or regions. The extent to which this may be needed or desired is
unknown but resources are unlikely to be available to improve reliability
so that these types of comparisons can be made. On the other hand if
assessments are used as part of ongoing learning and teaching a much
lower level of reliability will suffice.
.

Holistic assessment
Performance assessments are able to assess complex thinking in a more
holistic way relating learning outcomes in the cognitive, psychomotor
and affective domains. An important feature of performance assessment
is its trait of testing for complex competencies rather than their
component skills which have been decomposed from the complex
competency. According to Resnick and Resnick (1991) testing for the
decomposed skills fails to recognise that:

... complicated skills and competencies owe their complexity not just to the
number of components they engage but also to interactions among the
components and heuristics for calling upon them.
(Resnick & Resnick 1991, p.42)

Performance assessment in vocational education and training

81

While this point is not in dispute in the literature, the implications for
teaching and assessment practice are in dispute. Messick (1994) suggests
that in many settings it would be most effective to teach and assess both
the complex skill and its component skills. He asks: 'Might not
assessment of component skills help one to understand the nature of the
complex skill and the sources of its complexity, providing a functional
basis for improving methods of teaching?' (p.20). However, focussing on
component skills will not be sound if it means that effective teaching and
practice of the complex skill are foregone. In the process of decomposing
the complex skill into its components, something could be left out. The
implication is that performance assessment of the complex skill as a
functioning whole guarantees that nothing important will be left out
(Messick 1994, p.20).

Conclusion
In this paper we have described performance assessment and some of its
important attributes in the vocational education and training setting.
Although performance assessments have a long history of use in the
vocational education and training sector and in vocational courses in
higher education, the widespread introduction of competency-based
education and assessment in recent years has reinforced the use of
performance assessment. Some examples of performance assessment in
vocational education and training were examined. We then discussed
some of the key issues concerning performance assessment.
Performance assessment is very useful in most vocational education and
training settings, having the key characteristics of authenticity and
directness. Programs that may be flexibly delivered off the job and/or on
the job may rely heavily on performance assessment because of its easy
application in both settings and ease of use by most teachers and
trainers. This does not mean that paper and pencil or oral tests of
knowledge should not be used to supplement performance tests.
The assessment tasks chosen need to be carefully selected to ensure
satisfactory validity, and other strategies (such as increasing the number
of tasks assessed) may be required to ensure adequate reliability.

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Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Research

However, performance tests in vocational education and training are

usually designed for different purposes compared with knowledge tests
in non-vocational courses, so reliability and other measurement criteria
.
are not necessarily applicable.
While much has been written on the theory and practice of performance
assessment, very little empirical research on these issues has been
identified so far, and no Australian research in the field of vocational
education and training has been identified. Baker et al. (1993) report the
relatively low incidence of empirical data on performance assessment,
estimating that less than 5 per cent of the liter~ture cited empirical data.
Most of these empirical studies are investigations of reliability of scoring
procedures. Before full-scale quantitative research of these issues is
feasible, conceptual and methodological issues need clarification. It is
suggested that appropriate case study research clarify these issues to
provide a basis for later full-scale quantitative research, and to provide
tentative answers to key issues, particularly on the consequences of
assessment. Since performance assessments promise benefits for
teaching and learning it is important to collect evidence of these positive
consequences (Messick 1994). Positive and negative consequences of
assessment, whether intended or unintended, need to be investigated.

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