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Assessing performance


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Performance, in the broadest terms, makes up part of many subjects and degree courses including:• music, dance and theatre in Arts


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• skills in Science or Engineering


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• moots and re-enactments in Law


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• role play and case studies in Business and Marketing


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• clinical skills in Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Sciences


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• critique in Architecture or design


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• oral presentations in almost all subjects.


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Assessing some of these types of performance are discussed in other sections of this resource and some disciplines have developed specific ways to assess performance [such as Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) in the medical / dental sciences].


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The focus of this section is on the difficult task of assessing live performance typically within music, dance and theatre; the performing arts.


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We say difficult as creative / artistic performance, almost be definition, means that no two performances will be alike and whilst we can have criteria that help give us some objectivity we know that judges frequently disagree. 


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Just thinking about gymnastic competitions for example, even at national and international level, we often see multiple judges disagree about the marks they award; similarly for diving, dancing, and ice-skating. 


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Objectivity, often equated to fairness, is very difficult, especially when a performance steps outside the ‘expected’ framework; and we would hope that some of the ‘best’ students will do just this.


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Complexity is added when students work collaboratively in order to meet the assessment brief and so achieve the intended learning outcomes.


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As we discussed in the section on oral presentations, do we give a group mark or attempt, by some combination of staff and peer marking, gain some measure of individual contribution? 


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Pickford and Brown (2006, p.93) summarise this neatly:'When casting students for a performance, inevitably the biggest roles will be given to the most able students who then have maximum opportunity to shine by comparison with their peers (who are then faced with the challenge of making a walk-on part memorable).'


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Our role as educators is to ensure that assessment design is inclusive and equitable to allow all students to be able to perform to their best ability.