高等学校におけるパフォーマンス評価の実践

抄録

This paper discusses how teachers implement performance-based assessment at Sonobe senior high school. Sonobe senior high school currently has three different kinds of general courses: two basic courses, wherein students learn regular subjects at a comparatively slower pace; one advanced course, where students learn regular subjects at a normal pace in addition to preparation for entrance exams; and a special six-year course, where students are enrolled based on how well they scored in the junior high school entrance exam at the age of twelve. Having excelled in this exam they are selected to this school for six years and study a specialized curriculum. In addition, the school has a special course called the “Global Communication course”, where students learn some special subjects regarding ‘global understanding’. Because of the wide range of academic achievement of the students, it has been important for the teachers to devise instructional methods in order to implement performance-based assessment.

The English department started to implement performance-based assessment when the school was appointed to be one of the “Super English Language High Schools” by the Ministry of Education in 2006. The teachers were committed to develop teaching methods to facilitate effective learning methods especially for slow learners in English. In order to include students with varying levels of ability in the process of learning English as a foreign language, we have developed longitudinal rubrics, called “Sonobe assessment grid’. The rubrics help us assess students’ achievement using the same standard. We also have changed writing-exams which were objective-based assessments into performance-based ones. Performance tasks have come to be utilized in daily classes. We have motived students and built their confidence by administering activities in English classes.

Among the popular performance tasks are the following activities done in English: simple” Self-Introduction in English”, “My favorite picture presentation”, “The person I respect”, “My best place in the school”, “My best memory from school excursion”, etc. Arguably, tasks which require students to describe themselves using sentences whose subject is “I” are preferable. Through these practices several new facts have been revealed. One main revelation is that performance-based assessment is very effective in creating communicative English learning, while students, including slow learners, are continuously encouraged to get involved in learning with effective materials provided. For any given task, teachers and students discussed the assessment criteria as well as how to maximize achievement in a given task.

Since 2013, the school teachers have also started to make efforts to implement performance-based assessment especially in the second grade integrated classes. In these classes, students enjoy studying better in such situation where they choose a topic, make researches, write a report, and have a presentation with a poster. Not being given but deciding what to study by themselves encouraged them to do better achievements. Performancebased learning program can be of great effectiveness if it is done with suitable and understandable materials and methodology. These programs are also expected to help teachers in other departments understand how to better implement performance-based assessment.