ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING II

Textbook and Reviewer

by

Yonardo A Gabuyo
Gary C. Dy

2013

Rex Bookstore
MODULE 3

Assessing Affective Learning Outcomes

Key Terms

Affective domain questionnaire method

Affective traits constructed-response format
Valuing selected-response format
Organization rating scale
Characterization by a value Likert scale
Teacher observation Semantic differential scale
Unstructured observation checklist
structured observation peer rating
anecdotal record guess who-approach
student self-report sociometric approach
interview method

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter the students should be able to:
1. Define the different concepts related to assessing affective learning outcomes;
2. Determine different levels of affective domains;
3. Differentiate the three methods of assessing affective learning outcomes;
4. Formulate objectives in the affective domain; and
5. Develop different assessment tools in assessing afective learning outcomes.

Introduction
An Assessment of learning I, the ways of constructing objectives and how to
assess cognitive domain are discussed. Cognitive domain calls for outcomes of mental
activity such as memorizing, reading, problem solving, analyzing, synthesizing, and
drawing conclusions. In this chapter, we shall discuss hoe to assess afective domain.
Affective domain covers behaviors with regards to attitudes, beliefs and feelings.
Networks of attitudes, beliefs and feelings from the student’s values. Values are
perceptions or ideas of worth, while beliefs are perceptions of fact. It also emphasize on
feelings, emotions, and degrees of acceptance or rejection.

Affective Traits and Learning Outcomes

According to Hohn (1995) as cited by Mcmillan (2001), the term affective refers
to a wide variety of traits and dispossitions that are different from knowledge, reasoning,
and skills. The term “affect” is general in nature; it is better for teachers to use specific
behavior when developingg learning target. In Mathematics education, some scholars
define affect as motivataion, dispositions, beliefs, and attitudes (Chouinard & Roy, 2008;
Shin, Lee & Kin, 2009; Gresalfi, 2009; Davis, 2007; Else-Quest, Hyde & Hejmadi, 2008;
Frenzel,2003). Anderson and Bourke (2000) pointed out that motivation and affect may
be redundant in the sense that motivation implicit in all apects of affect.

Affective Traits
The table below is summary of affective traits where most student’s affec
involves both emotional and cognitive beliefs. This was adapted from Mcmillan (2001).
Affective Domain of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Affective Domain decribes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling, tone,
emotion, or degree of acceptance or rejection. Affective objectives vary from simple
attention to selected phenomena to complex, but internally with consistent qualities of
character and conscience. We found a large number of such objectives in the literature
expressed as interests, attitudes, appreciations, values and emotional sets or biases
(Krathwohl, 1964 cited by esmane, 2011).

Levels of Affective Domain

The affective taxonomy has 5 levels of affective targets namely: receiving,
responding, valuing, organization, and characterization by value set.
Level 1: Receiving (Attention). It is concerned with getting, holding and directing
student’s attention. This can be assessed through interest inventories and can be rated
using the Likert scale. Attention concerns the student’s willingness to attend to a
classroom activity and being directed by the teacher.
Student’s attention is illustrated when listening attentively to the discussion of the
teacher, participating to all classroom activities, and being aware of the importance of
learning and classroom proceedings.
Example: Listening to the ideas of others with respect
Verbs appropriate for objectives written at the receiving level are: ask, choose,
describe, follow, give, hold, identify,locate, name, point to, select, sit, erect, reply, use.

Level 2: Responding (Interest). It is concerned with the active participation of the

learners by showing interest on what they are doing. This can be assessed through
observation in terms of FSRN (frequently, sometimes, rarely, never).
Interest can be shown by completing the assigned work, active participation of
students in class discussion, volunteering for tasks, showing interest in the subject,
enjoying helping others, and willingness to answer questions.
Example: Participating in class discussions actively
Verbs appropriate for objectives written at the responding are: answer, assist,
aid, comply, conform, discuss, greet, help, label, perform, practice, present read, recite,
report, select, tell and write.

Level 3: Valuing (Preference/Appreciation). Refers to the willingness to be perceived

by the others as valuing certain ideas, materials, phenomenon, or behavior.
 Preference or appreciation can be shown on the general reaction to a series of
questions that the teacher gets from the students. Students may express strong
opinions unders discussion, demonstrate a problem-solving attitude, shown concern for
the welfare of others and demonstrate commitment to social improvement. This can be
assessed using the Likert scale such as SA – Strongly Agree, A- Agree, U – Undecided,
D – Disagree, SD – Strongly Disagree.
Examples ;(1) Demonstrating belief in the democratic process and (2) showing the
ability to solve problems
Verbs appropriate for objectives written at the valuing level are: complete,
demonstrate, differentiate, explain, follow, form, initiate, invite, join, justify, propose,
read, report, select, share, study and work.
Level 4: Organization (Philosophy of life). It is concerned with the development of
philosophy of life by bringing out the values of the students together to form a
value system that will determine relationship among and resolve conflicts. This can be
assessed by determining whether the learner has developed a concept of value or
belief.
Philosophy of life can be shown by accepting responsibility for his behaviour,
understanding and accepting own strengths and weaknesses, and formulating a life
plan in harmony with his abilities, interest, and beliefs.
Examples: (1) Explaining the role of systematic planning in solving problems; and (2)
prioritizing time effectively to meet the needs of the organization, family, and self.
Verbs appropriate for objectives written at the organizing level are: adhere, alter,
arrange, combine, compare, complete, defend, explain, formulate, generalize, identify,
integrate, modify, order, organize, prepare, relate, and synthesize.
Level 5: Characterization by a Value (Lifestyle). It is considered with how the
students act consistency with values internalized.
Lifestyle can be illustrated by demonstrating self-reliance in working
independently, cooperating in group activities, punctuality and self-discipline, and
demonstrating a lifestyle by consistency of his daily actions.
Example: (1) Showing self – reliance when working independently and (2) valuing
people for what they are, not how they look like.
Verbs appropriate for objectives written at the characterizing level are: act,
discriminate, display, influence, listen, modify, perform, practice, propose, qualify,
question, revise, serve, solve, and verify.
Methods of assessing affective Learning Outcomes
Affective Learning Outcomes
There are three different methods f assessing affective learning outcomes:
teacher observation, student self-report, and peer rating. Since affective traits are not
directly observable, it is best to infer from the students’ behaviour or what they say,
about themselves or others. There are several psychological measures to assess
affective traits, but they are seldom used in the classroom. Hence, teachers rely only on
their observation and students self-report.
According to Mcmillan (2001), there are three considerations when assessing
affect. These are emotion and feelings, use of different approaches, and the result.
Emoting and feelings are not stable attitudes of young children and during early
adolescence because most of them are unpredictable. To obtain a valid and desirable
students’ emotion or feeling, the teacher is suggested to conduct different assessments
over a considerable amount of time. In this case, he can obtain the dominant or
prevalent effect of the students. If you consider only a single assessment, there is high
probability that what assess is not an entire sign of the trait. Hence, it is better to
measure repeatedly over several periods of time.
When assessing affective traits, it is advisable to use several approaches as
much as possible. Do not rely on a single approach because it has a limitation. As an
example, when utilizing student self-report, the student can hide his feeling and he can
fake his answers and this can greatly affect the result. In this case, you can verify the
result using teacher observation. If the result is not consider with the observation of the
teacher, then the result is invalid. However, if the result is consistent with the
observation of the teacher, stronger and valid result can be inferred from it. Dobbins,
Jing-Lih, and Werbel (1993), and Cassaday (2001) found out that low-performing
students tend to over report of performance that are socially desirable.
The last consideration is the result. Do you need an individual result or group
result? Decide whether you need an individual student result or group result. The
purpose is related and significant to the methods used in assessing affective traits. For
example, if the purpose of assessing the affective trait of students for reporting
performance to parents, consider individual result. Several methods of collecting
information are needed over a period of time, and records are kept to verify teacher’s
observation. On the other hand, use group result when purpose of assessment is for
improvement of classroom instruction.
1. Teacher Observation
Observation technique was already introduced in the Assessment of Learning. I
as a tool of assessing student’s’ performance during instruction or during formative
assessment. In this selection, the emphasis of teacher observation is to make a
systematic record on the observation about the presence of affective outcomes.
a. Steps in Using Teacher’s Observation
(1) Determine in advance the specific behaviour related to the targets.
(2) Develop a list of positive and negative behaviors.
(3) Decide the type of observation you want to use.

b. Two Methods of Teacher Observation

There are two methods of assessing affective learning outcomes using the
teacher observation: there are unstructured observation and structured
observation.
Unstructured observation is also known as open-ended observation.
Hence, the teacher does not use any rating scale, or checklist to record
observations; it allows the teacher more freedom to record what information is to
be observed and how it is recorded. Recording observation can be done through
note taking, mental note taking, or diary keeping.
The teacher should have determined in advance the affective traits to be
observed. However, it is also important to note that the teacher should also
consider other actions that may as well reflect on affective traits. Therefore, there
should be at least guideline and characteristics of the affective traits to be
assessed.
In this type of observation, the teacher monitors his students in a natural
classroom setting, taking notes of the observations about the classroom
environment and the behaviors and characteristics of the students being
assessed. He must use simple descriptions, such as always asks questions,
keeps standing and going around; or talking with seatmate. Even so, he must
avoid making conclusions about what he observes using terms such as lonely,
happy, and motivated, etc. using unstructured observation allows him to quickly
determine affective traits and utilize them to make adjustment the instructional
processes.
Anecdotal record can be utilized by the teacher when using unstructured
observation type. Anecdotal record is a description of student’s behaviour or a
report of observed behavioural incidents. The following is an example anecdotal
record.

Name of Student: John Emil R. Palma

 Year and Section Teacher Date/Time Anecdote
IV- Gold Mr. Renz A. 9:00- 10:00 a.m When Renz came to
Gabuyo class this morning, he
seemed very tired and
slouching in his seat.
He did not take part in
class discussion and
showed no interest in
what was discussed.
This is very unusual of
him because he often
participates and
monopolizes the class
discussion.

Structured Observation is another way of assessing the affective traits of

students. This type of observation is somewhat different from unstructured observation
because more time is needed for the preparation of the materials and the process of
recording the observation.
Structured observation usually involves the utilization of checklist, rating scale,
and sometimes the use of rubrics. With the behaviours listed, it allows the observer to
focus on the more important affect to be assessed. He only has to mark the behaviour
to indicate the times it has been shown. The behaviours can be listed indifferent
formats: through the checklist or through the rating scale. Using the checklist, the
teacher indicates a behaviour by making yes or no; observed or not observed; presence
or absence, etc. with the use of rating scale, terms such as always, often, sometimes,
seldom, and never are utilized.
In structured observation, recording is more systematic because the teacher will
attend only on the predetermined aspects of affective traits. In this case, a more reliable
and valid information among different observes is easier to obtain.

2. Student Self-report
The second method of assessing affective learning outcomes is through the use
of student self-report. Student Self-report is a method of assessing affective learning
outcomes that allows students to express their feelings or attitudes towards a given
specific classroom activity. It limits he response of the students to what they can only do
and say. The teacher must motivate them to respond properly and serious, because
they might take the activities for granted, or else the information gathered is not reliable.
 There are two methods of assessing affective learning outcomes using the
students self-report: the interview method and the questionnaire and survey methods.
Interview method allows the teacher to probe and clarify information in order to avoid
ambiguity, through the students cannot be unanimous with their information ad is time
consuming to conduct. In this method, the first thing the teacher does is to establish
trust among students for them to reveal their true feelings and beliefs regarding a
certain fact, activity, or situation. This can be done using individual or group interviews,
round table discussions, or casual conversations.

The second type is through the use of questionnaire or survey methods. There are
two type of format of assessing affective learning outcomes using these methods: the
constructed-response format and the selected-response format.
a. Constructed-response format is done using a completion item or an essay item. In
the completion item, the teacher asks the students about their feelings to respond to a
simple statement by writing a word or phrase to complete the said statement. Examples
of statements about completion type are as follows:
1. I think Science is ________________________.
2. What I like most about my friend is _____________________________.
3. The topic I like most in Assessment of Learning is _________________.
4. Mathematics is _________________________.
5. When I have enough money I like to _____________________________.
6. I am happy when ________________________.
7. I am interested in History subject because ________________________.
8. I want to sit beside him because ________________________________.
9. I do not like to be in her group because __________________________.
10. What I like least about our teacher is ____________________________.

Another type of constructed-response is the essay item. In the essay item, the
teacher let their students organize their ideas to be written in paragraph form regarding
certain topic: examples is essay topics with specific instructions are as follows:
1. Write a paragraph you like most about your teacher in Assessment of
Learning. Cite your reasons and the experiences that you like most with the
teacher.
 Describe yourself as a student. Are you one of the top performing students? If so,
how do you maintain your high grades? If not, what will you do to become a top
student?
b. Selected- response Format
There are three types f selected –response format presented in this section.
These are rating scale, semantic differential, and checklist. They are usually used to
assess attitudes beliefs, and interest of the participants.
(1) Rating scale
Rating scale is a set of categories designed to gather information on
quantitative attributes in social science. In this case, Likert scale or 1-10 rating scales
is the most widely used to assess attitude. Students are required to rate their degree of
agreement with certain statements. Their response will show both the directions (favor
or not favor) and the strength or intensity of their attitude. The rating scale requires the
students to mark whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree
about their attitude toward something. Statements are used in the Likert scale are either
positive or negative.
Below is the list of options about Mathematics. Rate each item by putting a check
on the box that corresponds to your answer.
Strongly Strongly
Opinions Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Disagree
(SA) (A) (N) (D) (SD)

5 4 3 2 1
1. Mathematics is a boring
and dull subject.
2. I enjoy studying
Mathematics at school.
3. Mathematics is an
important subject for any
future career.
4. Mathematics is a difficult
subject for me.
5. I am confident that I will
get a high grade in
Mathematics.
6. Mathematics does not
scare me at all.
7. Mathematics is very
interesting subject.
8. I am happier in
Mathematics than my other
 subjects.
9. I believe I am good at
solving Mathematical
problems.
10. I am always confused in
my Mathematics subjects.

(2) Semantic Differential Scale

Semantic differential scale is another type of selected-response format in
which a pair of adjectives are used to provide connections with feelings, belief, and
opinions that can be measured by degrees of agreement that show opposite directions
and intensity. The teacher let the students check in between each pair of adjectives that
describes the positive or the negative aspects of a given trait.
When developing semantic differential scales consider the following.
(a) Bipolar objectives are simple and economical means of obtaining data about
students’ reactions.
(b) Ratings on bipolar adjective scale tend to be correlated and the three basic
dimensions of response account for the most of the covariation in ratings.

(c) Some adjective scales are almost pure measures of evaluation. Examples of
adjectives used in terms of their dimensions: difficulty (easy-difficult, potency
(powerful-powerless), and activity (slow-fast).

Example of Semantic Differential Scales:

Mathematics Test

Easy __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Difficult

3 2 1 0 1 2 3

Basketball Player

Weak __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Strong

3 2 1 0 1 2 3

Presentation

Dislike __ __ __ __ __ __ __ Like
 3 2 1 0 1 2 3

(3) Checklist

Checklist is the easiest tool to develop compared to rating scale and semantic
differential scale. It consists attribute that describes the affective traits.

Steps in Constructing a Checklist

According to McMillan (2001), there are three steps in developing a checklist.

(a) Enumerate all attributes and characteristics you wish to observe relative to
the concept being assessed.

(b) Arrange these attributes as a “shopping” list of characteristics.

(c) Ask students to mark attributes or characteristics which are present and to
leave blank to those which are not.

Sample Checklist for Structured Observation in a Classroom

Observation Yes No

1. Students will attend classes on time.

2. Students will submit assignments on time.

3. Students will actively participate in classroom

discussion.

4. Students will follow instruction during examination.

5. Students will ask questions during classroom

discussion.

3. Peer Rating

Peer rating is the least method to be used in assessing affective learning

outcomes. In this method, the students are asked to assess or judge their classmates’
behaviour. It can be used to assess interpersonal traits. Frequency nomination or
sociogram is used to analyse its results. There are two approaches of obtaining peer
rating: the guess-who approach and the sociometric approach. In the guess-who
approach, students are asked to write the name/s of their classmate/s who is described
in the form.

Guess – Who Form

Directions: Write the name/s of your classmate/s who is described I the following
questions. Your answer must remain confidential. No other students shall see
your answer. Student/s can be named more than once in each category.

1. Who is the most willing to work with other? _______________

2. Which student is concerned more about others? ___________

3. Who asks much help about his/her assignment? ___________

4. Which student is willing to cooperate with others? __________

On the other hand, sociometric approach is used to assess social structure of the
class and interaction patterns among the students (McMillan, 2001). Using this
approach, it allows the teacher to learn about the social acceptance and the liking
patterns of the students. The results can be utilized in identifying small groups of
students, cliques, popular students, and social isolates.