FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

Which assessment type allows students to demonstrate higher-level thinking skills?

1. Criterion-Referenced Assessment

2. Diagnostic Assessment

3. Performance-Based Assessment

4. Standardized Assessment

The correct answer is: Performance-Based Assessment

Performance-based assessment is designed to evaluate students through the demonstration of skills and application of knowledge in realistic scenarios. This type of assessment requires students to engage in tasks that mirror real-world challenges, thereby encouraging them to think critically, solve problems, and apply their understanding in meaningful ways. Through performance-based assessments, students can showcase not just their recall of information but also their ability to analyze situations, synthesize information, and create solutions. This aligns with higher-level thinking skills as described in Bloom's Taxonomy, where students must evaluate, analyze, and create rather than just remember or understand content. Other assessment types, such as criterion-referenced assessments, diagnostic assessments, and standardized assessments, tend to focus more on measuring specific learning objectives, diagnosing learning issues, or comparing students' performance against a norm, respectively. While these assessments play important roles in the educational landscape, they do not typically engage students in the application of their knowledge in the dynamic ways that performance-based assessments do.