Guidelines for observing learners
Guidelines for portfolio assessments, including the advantages, issues, examples and templates.
Advantages
Issues
Examples
Templates
What is observing?
Watching or observing a learner demonstrate a practical task or doing a normal workplace activity.
Evidence is normally recorded using a checklist or a log book or by using rating scales.
Advantages
- Provides direct evidence of demonstrated performance
- Offers indirect evidence of knowledge / understanding
- Can focus on products and processes
- Can focus on total job, work sample or skill sample
- Can be used for workplace assessment (in the learner's normal workplace) or assessment of practical work based tasks
- Can be done as part of normal work in the workplace
- Helps to set up the idea of ‘on going’ assessment
Issues
- There may not be opportunities to demonstrate competence across a full range of tasks
- Time needs to be put aside for conducting workplace assessments
- Time consuming and expensive if conducted by external assessors
- Assessor / learner relationship needs to be clearly defined, especially in the workplace
- Quality and consistency of assessments needs to be checked
- Need to infer the ability to perform in other situations.
Examples
Checklists
Checklists in performance assessments are especially useful as a way of making standard observations about a person's performance
Advantages:
- The standardised format of a checklist removes some of the subjectivity or haphazardness in judgements
- Can be used where a process has to be assessed and where skills can be divided into a series of steps
- Can be structured to assess the total job, a work sample or a skill sample
- The learner can be observed at critical points in the task; continuously, as they are working or on the final product / outcome.
Rating scales
Rating scales are useful for making standard observations about the quality of a learner's performance or a product.
Advantages
- Useful where the quality of performance is being rated
- Descriptive statements along a scale can be used
- Nominal scores may accompany the descriptions and may be used for overall ratings
- Comparisons can be made between different assessor ratings if required
Issues
- Constructing rating scales has some technical traps
- Adding rating scores to create an overall score can be unreliable and misleading
Examples
1. Descriptive rating
To what extent does the service station attendant address customer needs?
| must be asked to attend to customers. Rarely offers assistance to customers | meets customers expressed needs and enquires about additional needs | diagnoses customer needs and sells benefits of products / services |
2. Number ratings
Does the learner follow manufacturers' specifications when servicing brakes?
| 1. Never | 2. Rarely | 3. Usually | 4. Often | 5. Always |
Hints
- Use oral questions to support the evidence gathered via observation of the learner's performance
- Record information on a checklist or write comments to help with the assessment decision
- Provide feedback to the learner on their performance
- Records may be completed after the assessment if recording information makes the learner uncomfortable
- 3 - 5 levels of description are sufficient when allocating rating scales
Templates
Download the observation and demonstration template (Word – 52.5 Kb)
Print this page