Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN

2nd Semester, 2018-2019

Nueva Vizcaya State University
Chapter 4

ASSESSMENT IN THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

Unlike the cognitive domain which emphasizes measurements of reasoning and the
mental faculties of the student, the affective domain describes learning objectives that
emphasize feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. It is,
admittedly, a far more difficult domain to objectively analyze and assess since affective
objectives vary from simple attention to selected phenomena to complex but internally
consistent qualities of character and conscience.

4.1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

The taxonomy in the affective domain contains a large number of objectives in
the literature expressed as interests, attitudes, appreciations, values and emotional sets or
biases. The descriptions of each step in the taxonomy culled from Krathwohl‟s
Taxonomy of Affective Domain 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: to differentiate, to accept, to
listen, to respond.

Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials or phenomena

involved by actively responding to them. Examples: 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 valuing certain ideas, materials, or
phenomena. Examples: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize,
to support, to debate.
Organization is to relate the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious
and internally consistent philosophy. Examples: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to
balance, to examine.
Characterization by value or value set is to act consistently in accordance with the
values he or she has internalized. Examples: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the
value, to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.

4.2. Affective Learning Competencies

Affective desired learning competencies are often stated in the form of instructional
objectives. What then are instructional objectives?
 Instructional objectives are specific, measurable, short-term, observable student
behaviors.
 Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments
that you can prove meet your overall course or lesson goals.

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
 Think of objectives as tools you use to make sure you reach your goals. They
are the arrows you shoot towards your target (goal).
 The purpose of objectives is not to resist spontaneity or constrain the vision of
education in the discipline; but to ensure that learning is focused clearly enough
that both students and teacher know what is going on.

Table 1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

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

Table 2. Behavioral 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

In the affective domain, and in particular, when we consider learning competencies,

we also consider the following focal concepts:
Attitudes - are defined as a mental predisposition to act that is expressed by evaluating
a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. 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. Attitudes are
comprised of four components:

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
A. Cognitions – our beliefs, theories, expectancies, and perceptions relative to the focal
object.

B. Affect – it refers to our feelings with respect to the focal object such as fear, liking or
anger.

C. Behavioral Intentions – are our goals, aspirations, and our expected responses to the
attitude object.

D. Evaluation – are often considered the central component of attitudes. It consists of the
imputation of some degree of goodness or badness to an attitude object.

Why study attitudes? Attitudes can:

 influence the way we act and think in the social communities we belong; attitudes
may influence behavior. People will behave in ways consistent with their attitudes.

 function as frameworks and references for forming conclusions and interpreting or

acting for or against an individual, a concept or an idea.
e.g. think about your attitude towards mathematics and mathematical equations.
Do these attitudes shape the way you think and correspondingly act? What is
your response? How is your response formed by your attitude?

Motivation - is a reason or set of reasons for engaging in a particular behavior. The

reasons may include basic needs (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 behavior may also be attributed to
less-apparent reasons such as altruism or morality. According to Geen (1995), motivation
refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behavior.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs summarized as follows:

 Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behavior; only
unsatisfied needs can influence behavior, 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) as
follows:
 Physiological: food, clothing, shelter
 Safety and security: home and family
 Social: being in a community

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
 Self esteem
 Self actualization

Frederick Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory:

 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.

Clayton Alderfer’s ERG Theory:

Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs was expanded, leading to his ERG theory
(existence, relatedness and growth):
 Physiological and safety (lower order needs) are placed in the existence
category.
 Love and self esteem needs in the relatedness category.
 The growth category contained the self actualization and self esteem needs.

Effects of Motivation on how students learn and their behavior towards subject
matter can:

1. direct behavior 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.

Two kinds of Motivation:

 Intrinsic – 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 – comes into play when a student is compelled to do something or act

a certain way because of factors external to him or her (money or good grades.)

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
Self-Efficacy – is an impression that one is capable of performing in a certain
manner or attaining certain goals. It is a belief that one has the capabilities to execute the
courses of actions required to manage prospective situations. Self-esteem refers to a
person‟s sense of self-worth, whereas self-efficacy relates to a person‟s perception of their
ability to reach a goal.

4.3. Development of Assessment Tools

Assessment tools in the affective domain, in particular, those which are used to assess
attitudes, interests, motivations, and self-efficacy, have been developed. We consider a
few of the standard assessment tools in the affective domain.

Self Report - the most common measurement tool in the affective domain. It essentially
requires an individual to provide an account of his attitude or feelings toward a
concept or idea or people. Self-reports are also sometimes called written
reflections. The teacher ensures that the students write something, which would
demonstrate the various levels of the taxonomy e.g. lowest level of receiving up to
characterization.

Rating Scales - is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a quantitative

attribute. e.g. Likert Scale and 1-10 rating scale for which a person selects the
number which is considered to reflect the perceived quality of a product. The
basic feature of any rating scale is that it consists of a number of categories.
These are usually assigned integers.

Semantic Differential Scales

The Semantic Differential (SD) tries to assess an individual‟s reaction to
specific words, ideas or concepts in terms of ratings on bipolar scales defined with
contrasting adjectives at each end. An example of SD is:
Good ---------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- Bad
3 2 1 0 1 2 3

0 neutral
1 slightly
2 quite
3 extremely

Basic considerations involved in SD methodology:

 Bipolar adjective scales are a simple, economical means for obtaining data on
people‟s reactions. With adaptations, such scales can be used with adults or
children, persons from all walks of life, and persons from any culture.

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
 Ratings of bipolar adjective scales tend to be correlated, and three basic
dimensions of response account for most of the co-variation in ratings. The three
dimensions, which have been labeled Evaluation, Potency, and Activity (EPA),
have been verified and replicated in an impressive variety of studies.
 Some adjective scales are almost pure measures of the EPA dimensions; for
example, good-bad for Evaluation, powerful-powerless for Potency, and fast-slow
for Activity.

Thurstone Scale

Thurstone is considered the father of attitude measurement. He developed an

attitude continuum to determine the position of favorability on the issue. Below is an
example of a Thurstone scale of measurement:
Directions: Put a check mark in the blank if you agree with the item.
_____1. Blacks should be considered the lowest class of human beings. (scale value =
0.9)
_____2. Blacks and whites must be kept apart in all social affairs where they might be
taken as equals. (scale value = 3.2)
_____3. I am not interested on how blacks rate socially. (scale value = 5.4)
_____4. A refusal to accept blacks is not based on any fact of nature, but on a prejudice
which should be overcome. (scale value = 7.9)
_____5. I believe that blacks deserve the same social privileges as whites. (scale value
= 10.3)

Likert Scale

The Likert scale requires that individuals tick on a box to report whether they
„strongly agree‟, „agree‟, are „undecided‟, „disagree‟, or „strongly disagree‟, in response
to a large number of items concerning an attitude object or stimulus. Likert scales are
derived as follows:
1st you choose individual items that you know correlate highly with the total score
across items.
2nd choose how to scale each item. E.g. you construct labels for each scale value
3rd ask your target audience to mark each item.
4th derive a target‟s score by adding the values that target identified on each item.

Below is an example of the use of Likert Scale:

Statement: I do not like to solve algebraic equations.

Response options: 1. Strongly Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Agree 4. Strongly Agree

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
Checklists

A checklists consists of simple items that the student or teacher marks as “absent” or
“present”. Here are the steps in the construction of a checklist:

 Enumerate all the attributes and characteristics you wish to observe relative to the
concept being measured.
 Arrange these attributes as a “shopping” list of characteristics
 Ask the students to mark those attributes or characteristics which are present and to
leave a blank those which are not.
Below is an example of a checklist for Teachers (Observable Guide) with emphasis on
the behavior: “Getting Students‟ Attention” by Sandra F. Rief (1997).

Checklists for Teachers

By: Sandra F. Rief, M.A. E74 (1997)

Getting students’ attention

• Ask an interesting, speculative question, show a picture, tell a little story, or read a
related poem to generate discussion and interest in the upcoming lesson.
• Try “playfulness,” silliness, a bit of theatrics (props and storytelling) to get attention and
peak interest.
• Use storytelling. Students of all ages love to hear stories, especially personal stories. It
is very effective in getting attention.
• Add a bit of mystery. Bring in an object relevant to the upcoming lesson in a box, bag,
or pillowcase. This sis a wonderful way to generate predictions and can lead to
excellent discussions or writing objectives.
• Signal students auditorily: ring a bell, use a beeper or timer, play a bar music on the
piano or guitar, etc.
• Vary your tone of voice: loud, soft, whispering. Try making a louder command
“Listen! Freeze! Ready! Followed by a few seconds of silence before proceeding in a
normal voice to give directions.
• Use visual signals: flash the lights or raise your hand which signals the students to raise
their hands and close their mouths until everyone is silent.
• Frame the visual material you want students to be focused on with your hands or with a
colored box around it.
• If using an overhead, place an object (e.g. little toy car or plastic figure) to be projected
on the screen to get attention.
• Clearly signal: “Everybody….Ready…”

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 Prof Ed 11 (ASL 2); JDN
2nd Semester, 2018-2019
Nueva Vizcaya State University
• Color is very effective in getting attention. Make use of colored dry-erase pens on
white boards, colored overhead paper to highlight keywords, phrases, steps to
computation problems, spelling patterns, etc.
• Model excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming lesson.
• Use eye contact. Students should be facing you when you are speaking, especially
while instructions are being given. If students are seated in clusters, have those students
not directly facing you turn their chairs and bodies around to face you when signaled to
do so.

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