CPE106.

ASSESSMENT in LEARNING 2

MODULE 3. Assessment in the Affective Learning Domains

LESSON 1: Affective Learning Competencies

Overview.
Affect describes a number of non-cognitive variables such as a person’s attitude, interests
and values. Student affect is important and teachers can help their students acquire positive
attitudes. It is important to assess affect because of three reasons: 1.) These variables are
excellent predictors of students’ future behaviour; 2.) To remind teachers themselves that there is
more to being a successful teacher than helping students obtain high scores on achievement tests;
and 3.) Information regarding students’ affect can help teachers teach more effectively on a day-
to-day basis. To be discussed in this lesson are the importance of affective targets, affective traits
and learning targets, and the affective domain of the taxonomy of educational objectives.
Module Intended Learning Outcome. At the end of this module you are expected to be able to
develop instruments for assessing affective learning.
Lesson Intended Learning Outcomes. At the end of this lesson, you are expected to be able to
craft affective learning outcomes for the different levels in the affective domain.
ENGAGE.
Unlike the cognitive domain which emphasizes measurements of reasoning and the mental faculties
of the student, the affective domain describes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling tone, an
emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. It is, admittedly, a far more difficult domain to
objectively analyse and assess since affective objectives vary from simple attention to selected
phenomena of complex but internally consistent qualities of character and conscience. Nevertheless,
much of the educative process needs to deal with assessment and measurement of students’ abilities in
this domain. For instance, it is often heard that certain people are “schooled” but not “educated”. This
cliché, simply refers to the fact that much of the processes in education today are aimed at developing the
cognitive aspects of development and very little or no time is spent on the development of the affective
domain.

1. Importance of Affective Targets

Researches have established the clear link between affect and cognitive learning (Omrod,2004).
Students are more proficient in problem solving if they enjoy what they do. Students who are in good
mood and emotionally involved are more likely to pay attention to information, remember it meaningfully
and apply it. Too much anxiety obstructs learning, and greater motivation is necessary for maximum
performance. A more positive environment fosters good student engagement and learning than in a
classroom with negative climate (Fraser, 1994).
Though the linkage of affect and learning of students has been well established, there remains
very little systematic assessment of affect that is applied in classroom instruction. Motivation and
involvement of students in learning activities are affected by student’s attitude toward learning, respect
for others, and concern for others. Though these factors are known to teachers, yet most teachers do not
utilize any kind of formal affective assessment. Possible reasons are:
1. School routines are organized based on subject areas;
2. Assessment of affective targets is fraught with difficulties. (McMillan,2007)
3. Many potential sources of error in measuring affective traits often result in low reliability.
4. Some affective traits are easily influenced by momentary or temporary moods.
Though the reasons above are discouraging instances for teachers to utilize any formal affective
assessment, these should not hinder the assessment of students’ affect. More so because positive affective
traits and skills are essential for:
a. Effective Learning
b. Being an involved and productive member of our society

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 c. Preparing for occupational and vocational satisfaction and productivity (Ex. Work habits,
willingness to learn, interpersonal skills)
d. Maximizing the motivation to learn at present and in the future
e. Preventing students from dropping out of school

2. Affective Traits and Learning Targets

The word affective refers to a variety of traits and dispositions that are different from knowledge,
reasoning, and skills (Hohn,1995). It means the emotions or feelings that one has toward someone or
something. Nevertheless, attitudes, values, self concept, citizenship, and other traits are usually
considered to be non cognitive, include more than emotions or feelings. Most kinds of student affect
involve both emotion and cognitive beliefs.
Shown below are the different affective traits and its corresponding description (McMillan, 2007):

TRAIT DESCRIPTION
Attitudes Predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to specified
situations, concepts, objects, institutions, or persons
Interest Personal preference for certain kinds of activities
Values Importance, worth, or usefulness of modes or conduct and end states of
existence
Opinions Beliefs about specific occurrences and situations
Preferences Desire to select one object over another
Motivation Desire and willingness to be engaged in behavior including intensity of
involvement
Academic Self Self perception of competence in school and learning
Concept
Self Esteem Attitudes toward oneself; degree of self respect,worthiness, or
desirability of self concept
Emotional Growth, change, and awareness of emotions and ability to regulate
development emotional expression
Locus of control Self perception of whether success and failure is controlled by the
student or by external influences
Social Relationships Nature of interpersonal interactions and functioning in group setting
Altruism Willingness and propensity to help others
Moral development Attainment of ethical principles that guide decision making and
behavior
Classroom Nature of feeling tones and interpersonal relationship in a class
development

The following are some of the affective targets or outcomes

A. Attitude targets.
Attitudes are defined as mental predispositions to act that are expressed by evaluating a particular
entity with some degree of favour or disfavour. Individuals generally have attitudes that focus on objects,
people or institutions. Attitudes are also attached to mental categories. Mental orientations towards
concepts are generally referred to as values.
In a learning institution, attitude is contingent on subjects, teachers, other students, homework,
and other objects or persons. Most often, one can identify the positive or negative attitudes that a person
intends to foster or at least keep track of because these attitudes are related to current and future
behaviour.
Some of these attitudes are listed in the table below:

A Positive Attitude Toward A Negative Attitude Toward

Learning Cheating
Math, Science, English, & other subjects Drug use
Assignments Bullying
Classroom rules Cutting classes
Teachers Dropping out

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 Psychologists found out that attitudes has four components:
1. An affective component (Affect) of positive or negative feelings. It consists of the
emotion or feeling associated with an object or a person (good or bad feelings,
enjoyment, likes, comfort, anxiety, etc). It refers to our feeling with respect to the focal
object such as fear, liking, or anger. For instance, the colour “blue” evokes different
feelings for different individuals: some like the colour blue but others do not. Some
associate the colour blue with “loneliness” while others associate it with “calm and
peace”.
2. A cognitive component (Cognitions) describing worth or value. It is an evaluative
belief (such as thinking something as valuable, useful, worthless, etc. In school,
students can think history is useless and science valuable. These are our beliefs,
theories, expectancies, cause-and-effect beliefs, and perceptions relative to the focal
object. This concept is not the same as “feelings” but just a statement of beliefs and
expectations which vary from one individual to another.
3. A behavioural component (Behavioural Intentions) indicating a willingness or
desire to engage in particular actions. It is actually responding in a positive way. -
Behavioural intentions are our goals, aspirations, and our expected responses to the
attitude object.
4. An evaluative component (Evaluations) consisting of the imputation of some degree
of goodness or badness to an attitude object. Evaluations are often considered the
central component of attitudes. When we speak of a positive or negative attitude
toward an object, we are referring to the evaluative component. Evaluations are a
function of cognitive, affect and behavioural intentions of the object. It is most often
the evaluation that is stored in memory, often without the corresponding cognitions
and affect that were responsible for its formation (Scholl, 2002).

A strong and stable attitude is manifested when all four components are consistent. Which means
that if a student likes science, he thinks that it is valuable, and reads science related materials at home, it
translates that the student has a very strong positive attitude. On the other hand, it is likely that for many
students, these components will contradict one another. For example, Juana may not like English very
much but thinks that English is important. The question is “What would her attitude be, in general sense,
toward English? That would depend on what components of the attitude is being measured. If it is only
affective component then the attitude would be negative; but if it is the cognitive component, it would
translate to a positive attitude.
This four focal conceptualization has significant implications for identifying attitude targets.
Does the assessment need to focus on feelings, thoughts, or behaviour? If the learning target for example
is “students will have a positive attitude toward school” then the assessment needs to include all the four
components since the general nature of target would need to be consistent with the assessment. But, if the
target is “students will like coming to school”, then it would suffice that the assessment focus only on the
affective component.
In the affective domain, and in particular, when we consider learning competencies, we also
consider the following focal concepts (FC):
Why study attitudes? Obviously, attitudes can influence the way we act and think in the social
communities we belong. They can function as frameworks and references in forming conclusions and
interpreting or acting for or against an individual, a concept or an idea. For instance, think about your
attitudes toward “drinking alcoholic beverages” or “gambling” or “going to an all-night bar hopping
spree, every night”. Or, perhaps, think about your attitude toward “mathematics and mathematical
equations”. Do these attitudes shape the way you think and correspondingly act? What is your response?
How is your response informed by each of these attitudes?
Several studies in the past, for instance, concluded that poor performance in school mathematics
cannot be strictly attributable to differential mental abilities but to the students’ attitudes toward the
subject. When mathematics classes are recited, students with negative attitude towards mathematics tend
to pay less attention and occupy their minds with something else. Thus, attitudes may influence
behaviour. People will behave in ways consistent with their attitudes.
B. Value targets.

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 Values refer to end states of existence or to modes of conduct that are desirable or sought. End
states of existence refer to conditions and aspects of oneself and the kind of world that a person wants
such as safe life, world peace, freedom, happiness, social acceptance, and wisdom. Modes of conduct are
manifested in what a person believes is appropriate and needed in everyday existence such as being
honest, cheerful, ambitious, loving, responsible, and helpful. Each of these values can be placed into
categories consistent with the different areas of persons’ lives. Hence, the aspects of moral, political,
social, aesthetic, economic, technological, and religious values.
McMillan (2007) suggested that in setting up value targets, it is necessary to stick to non
controversial and those that are clearly related to academic learning and school and department of
education goals. Some values that are commendable and non controversial are described in the table
below:

Value Simple value target

Honesty Students should demonstrate honesty in their dealing with others.
Integrity Students should firmly observe their own code of values.
Justice Students should support the view that all citizens
Freedom Students should believe that democratic countries must provide the maximum
level of freedom to their citizens.

C. Motivation targets
Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behaviour, especially human
behaviour as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g.,
food, water, shelter) or an object, goal, state of being, or ideal that is desirable, which may or may not be
viewed as “positive,” such as seeking a state of being in which pain is absent. The motivation for a
behaviour may also be attributed to less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality. According to Gr
een (1995), motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behaviour.
There are many theories that explain human motivation. The need theory is one of these theories.
Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs theory is the most widely discussed theory of motivation.
The theory can be summarized as follows:
 Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behaviour; only unsatisfied
needs can influence behaviour, satisfied needs cannot.
 Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to the
complex.
 The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at least
minimally satisfied.
 The further the progress up the hierarchy, the more individuality, humanness and
psychological health a person will show.
The needs, listed from basic (lowest, earliest) to most complex (highest, latest) are as follows:

 Physiological: food, clothing, shelter

 Safety and security: home and family
 Social: being in a community
 Self-esteem: self-understanding, self-acceptance
 Self-actualization: recognition, achievement
Herzberg’s two factor theory is another need theory of motivation. Frederick Herzberg’s two
factor theory, concludes that certain factors in the workplace result in job satisfaction, while others do not,
but if absent lead to dissatisfaction. He distinguished between:

 Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive

satisfaction, and
 Hygiene factors; (e.g. status, job security, salary and fringe benefits) which do not motivate
if present, but if absent will result in demotivation.
The name hygiene factors is used because, like hygiene, the presence will make you
healthier, but absence can cause health deterioration. The theory is sometimes called the “Motivator-
Hygiene Theory”. From a practical point of view (vs academic) Herzberg’s two factor theory was proven
more powerful than Maslow’s since its concepts are simpler to understand. Steve Bicknell did

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considerable research into employees Engagement Data. In particular, the analysis of verbatim comments
from over 50 companies it was found that there was a common theme between low hygiene – high
motivator and low Employee Engagement. Employees consistently recorded low scores against
management/leadership – Employees were optimistic about success but happy to complain about
leadership since their hygiene factors had not been addressed. Message – sort the hygiene, then drive
the motivation.
Finally, created by Clayton Alderfer, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was expanded, leading to his
ERG theory (existence, relatedness and growth). Physiological and safety, the lower order needs, are
placed in the existence category while love and self-esteem needs in the relatedness category. The growth
category contained the self-actualization and self-esteem needs.
Motivation is of particular interest to educational psychologist because of the crucial role it plays in
student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the specialized setting of
education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of motivations studied by psychologists in
other fields. Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and their behaviour
towards subject matter (Ormrod, 2003). Motivation can:
1. direct behaviour toward particular goals.
2. lead to increased effort and energy
3. increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities.
4. enhance cognitive processing.
5. determine what consequences are reinforcing.
6. lead to improved performance.
Because students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated motivation,
which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates. There are two kinds of motivation:

 Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally motivated to do something

because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or they feel that what
they are learning is morally significant.
 Extrinsic motivation comes into play when a student is compelled to do something or
act a certain way because of factors external to him or her (like money or good grades).

D. Academic self concept targets

Extensive literature on self concept and self esteem are available for references. Most educators
refer to these characteristics when dealing with students who have problems with school and learning
(e.g. “Juan has a low self concept”, “Juana has a low opinion of herself”). It is accepted that these beliefs
are important even when controversy over whether self concept and self esteem proceed or result from
academic learning. Some level of positive self efficacy is needed for achievement (McMillan, 2007). It is
likely that the said aspect of self concept is formed, at least in part, when children experience meaningful
success with moderate effort.
In setting targets, it is helpful to remember that self concept and self esteem are multidimensional.
(Marsh & Craven, 1997). There is bodily self, an athletic self, a mathematical self, a social self, and
others. Each person has a self description in each area, that forms one’s self concept or self image.
Moreover, individuals have a sense of self regard, self affirmation, and self worth in each area (self
esteem). Hence a student can have a self concept that he is tall and thin, but feel very comfortable with it
and accept the description. On the contrary, there can be another student who has the same self concept
but feel inferior or inadequate, thus, have a low self esteem.
In assessing the academic self concept we must avoid the universal self concept, and the self
esteem targets including self description and an evaluation of that description. General self concept
measured through attitudes and motivations is not beneficial since general self concept are from areas not
directly related to academic learning. Through specifying academic self concept or self concept in
academic ability, a more valid indication of what students think of themselves as learners will be known.
Targets that are specific to subject areas will yield to a more useful information. In addition, it is also
helpful to know where students draw the line between descriptions of themselves and if they like those
descriptions. For cases of more serious mental or emotional problems, a general measure may be needed,
however, it is best to leave those kind of assessments for such cases to school psychologist or counsellor.

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 E. Social relationship targets
A complex set of interaction skills, including identification of and appropriate responses to social
indications, defines social relationships. The table below contains examples of the nature of social
relationships that can be used as targets:

Peer relations Friendship

Cooperation Collaboration
Taking a stand Conflict resolution
Functioning in groups Assertiveness
Prosocial behavior* Empathy
*Behaviours intended to help others

The examples in the table are mostly relevant in basic education. These are needed skills in their
academic achievement and these traits enhance their interpersonal abilities to be successful in school and
in the workplace in the future.
Examples of social relationship and corresponding target:

Social Relationship Target Concern Example

Peer relationship Showing interest in others Students will share their
Listening to peers ideas in a small group
Sharing to a group discussion
Contributing to group activities
Cooperative skills Sharing Students will demonstrate
Listening that they are able to
Volunteering ideas and suggestions negotiate with others and
Supporting and accepting other’s ideas compromise
Taking turns
Criticizing constructively

Collaborative skills needed to work in small groups may include four components namely: basic
interaction, getting along, coaching, and fulfilling particular roles.

3. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

The taxonomy in the affective domain consists a large number of objectives in the literature
expressed as interest, attitudes, appreciations, values, and emotional sets or biases. (Kratwohl et al,
1964). The descriptions of each step in the taxonomy culled from Kratwohl’s Taxonomy of Affective
Domain (1964) are given as follows:
Receiving is being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or
phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to listen
(for), to respond to.
Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena
involved by actively responding to them, Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to
volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.
Valuing is willing to be perceived by others as attaching importance to certain ideas, materials,
or phenomena. Examples are: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, to
support, to debate.
Organizing is relating the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious and
internally consistent philosophy. Examples are” to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to
examine.
Characterizing by value or value set is to act consistently in accordance with the values he or she has
internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value, to avoid, to resist, to
manage, to resolve.
If we are desirous to apply the continuum of Krathwohl et. al. to our teaching, then we are
encouraging students to not just receive information at the bottom of the affective hierarchy. Instead, as

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teachers, we would like them to respond to what they learn, to value it, to organize it and maybe even to
characterize themselves as environmentalist, geology majors or earth scientists. Notice that in these
science subjects, for instance, it is important also to mention and perhaps study the biographies of great
scientists since these serve as inspiration for them to emulate the way that great scientists have led simple
lives and devoted their talents to the cause of science.
Affective topics in educational literature include attitudes, motivation, communication styles,
classroom management styles, learning styles, use of technology in the classroom and nonverbal
communication, interests, predisposition and self-efficacy. As teachers, we need to be careful about our
own actions that may negatively impact on students’ attitudes which go straight into the affective domain.
For instance, facial expressions that reveal sarcasm, body movements that betray, distrust, and dislike,
should all be avoided.
The affective domain is the least studied and most often overlooked domain in educational literature
despite the fact that almost every researcher or author begins with a premise on the importance of the
affective domain in the teaching-learning process. The reason, perhaps, is the fact that the affective
domain is the most nebulous and the hardest to evaluate among the Blooms’ three domains. Traditional
assessment procedures, for instance, concentrate on the cognitive aspects of learning and as teachers,
majority of us typically focus our efforts on the development of tests and instrument for measuring
cognitive learning. However, it is important to realize that by tapping the potentials of the affective
domain in enhancing learning, we increase the likelihood of real and authentic learning among our
students. Similarly, students may experience affective roadblocks to learning that can neither be
recognized nor solved when using a purely cognitive approach.

4. Affective Learning Competencies

We have reproduced the taxonomy of educational objectives in the affective domain as adopted
from Krathwohl. Each level of the affective domain is given a description and an example of an
appropriate objective or learning competency is provided. Notice that it is far more difficult to state an
objective in the affective domain because they often refer to feelings and internal processes of the mind
and body that cannot be tested and measured using traditional methods.
Table 1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

Level Definition Example

Receiving Being aware of or attending to something in Individual would read a book passage about civil
the environment rights.
Responding Showing some new behaviors as a result of Individual would answer questions about the
experience book, read another book by the same author,
another book about civil rights, etc.
Valuing Showing some definite involvement or The individual might demonstrate this by
commitment voluntarily attending a lecture on civil rights.
Organizing Integrating a new value into one’s general set The individual might arrange a civil rights rally.
of values, giving it some ranking among
one’s general priorities.
Characterizing Acting consistently with the new value The individual is firmly committed to the value,
perhaps becoming a civil rights leader.

Likewise, we provide some examples of verbs or behavioural terms that can be used to express
learning competencies or objectives in the affective domain. We cannot stress enough the importance of
using behavioural terms in specifying our learning competencies. Behavioural terms tend to simplify the
assessment and measurement methodologies that are suggested in this textbook. Behavioural objectives
focus on observable behaviours which can then be easily translated in quantitative terms.
Table 2. Behavioural Verbs Appropriate for the affective Domain

Receiving Responding Valuing Organization Characterization

. accept . complete . accept . codify . internalize
. attend . comply . defend . discriminate . verify
. develop . cooperate . devote . display
. recognize . discuss . pursue . order
. examine . seek . organize
. obey . systematize
. respond . weigh