Chapter 4: The Assessment Model

Fundamental to STEAM education is quality assessment in that it promotes student learning and confirms students’ conceptual understanding, learning progress, and achievement throughout the teaching-learning discourse. It is a dynamic and cyclical process wherein teachers learn about their students, as they also learn with their students, that may provide greater positive impact on students’ learning. This chapter presents the details and features of the Philippine STEAM Assessment model developed through an exploration study, observing a three-tiered analysis of interview transcriptions, observation notes, and existing documents from sampled HEIs (SUC levels 1 and 2, LUCs and non-autonomous private schools) all over the country. 
 
Furthermore, a two-tiered validation process by experts, administrators, and practitioners was done to establish the suitability and appropriacy of the model for STEAM education and its alignment to the dimensions of the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK), domains and strands of the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST), and the Policies, Standards, and Goals (PSG) set by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Two models were derived from the validation process, the Validated and the Emerging Models of STEAM assessment. The Validated Model represents the exact and observed assessment practices that transpired in the collected data. The Emerging Model was created to incorporate the suggestions of the validators, many of whom come from SUC levels 3 and 4 and autonomous private schools. 
 
In both models, the first three variables: Enablers, Drivers, and Processes of STEAM assessment encapsulates the fourth, that defines the target STEAM outcomes: Critical Thinker (21st Century Skills in the Emerging Model), Productive Citizen, and Innovative STEAM Professional or Learner. The models represent the framework that ensures the quality of assessment in STEAM education. It may guide the different educational stakeholders in grasping the many aspects of assessment in STEAM. It also offers a series of TPACK aligned indicators that would guide different institutions in developing, implementing, evaluating, and internalizing policies and guidelines that ensure quality assessment. Lastly, it defines the attributes of teaching competencies, insofar as it establishes the requirements for advancement in each career stage (Beginner, Proficient, Highly Proficient, Distinguished) of a STEAM educator.