Chapter 6

ASSESSMENT The affective domain is part of a system that was published in 1965
for identifying, understanding and addressing how people learn. In
IN THE the Bloom's taxonomy published in 1965, three domains were
identified: cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. In this

AFFECTIVE Chapter, we shall be concerned with the second of these domains

which is the affective domain.

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 a feeling tone,
an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. I! is, admittedly, 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.
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. The development Of the psychomotor domain
is also an important consideration in education. However, due to space and time limitations, this
book shall not cover the appropriate measurement and evaluation techniques in the psychomotor
domain. The interested reader, however, is referred to the list of references given at the end of this
chapter for more information.

We shall first discuss the taxonomy developed in the affective domain as a starting point of our
discussions on measurement and evaluation in this particular educational domain of interest.

1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

2. Affective Learning Competencies
3. Development of Assessment Tools

1. The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

The taxonomy in the affective domain contains a large of objectives in the literature
expressed as interests, attitudes appreciations, values, and emotional sets or biases. (Krathwohl 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 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 include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, to
support, to debate.
Organization 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.
Characterization 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 teachers, we would like them to respond to what they learn, to value it, to organize it
and maybe even to characterize themselves as environmentalists, 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.
We are also interested in students' attitudes toward science, scientists, and science and specific
science topics. We want to find teaching methods that encourage students and draw them in.
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-effcacy 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 Bloom's
three domains. Traditional assessment procedures, for instance, concentrate on the cognitive
aspects of learning and as teacher’s majority of us typically focus our efforts on the development
of tests and instruments 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.
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 behavior

• Objectives are the foundation upon which you can build lessons and assessments that you
can prove meet your overall course or lesson goals.
• 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 restrict Spontaneity or constraint 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, and so learning can be objectively measured. Different
archers have different styles, so do different teachers. Thus, you can shoot your arrows
(objectives) in many ways. The important thing is that they reach your target (goals) and
score that bullseye!
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. We also mention in passing that we assess and measure the affective
domain in schools but such measurements will not be used to grade students on this domain
 Level Definition Example
Receiving Being aware of or Individual would
attending to something read a book passage
in the environment civil rights.
Responding Showing some new Individual would answer
behaviors as a result questions
of experience about the book, read another
book by the same author,
another book about civil
rights, etc.
Valuing Showing some definite The individual might
involvement or demonstrate this by
commitment voluntarily
attending a lecture on civil
rights.
Organization Integrating a new The individual might arrange
value into one's general set of a civil right rally.
values, giving it some ranking
among one's general priorities
Characterization by Value Acting consistently with the The individual is firmly
new value committed to the value,
perhaps becoming a value

Figure 1 - The Taxonomy in the Affective Domain

Likewise, We provide some examples of verbs or behavioral terms that can be used to
express learning competencies or objectives in the affective domain. We cannot stress enough the
importance of using behavioral terms in specifying our learning competencies. Behavioral terms
tend to simplify the assessment and measurement methodologies that are suggested in this
textbook. Behavioral objectives focus on observable behaviors which can then be easily translated
in quantitative terms.
Receiving Responding Valuing Organization Characterization
accept • complete • • codify • internalize
attend accept • discriminate • verify
• comply
develop defend
recognize
• cooperate • • display
• discuss devote • order
pursue
• examine seek • organize
• obey • systematize
respond weigh
Figure 2 - Behavioral Verbs Appropriate for the Affective Domain
 In the affective domain, and in particular, when we consider learning competencies, we
also consider the following focal
concepts:
Attitudes. 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:
A. Cognitions- Cognitions 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 the next.
B. Affect- The affective COmponent refers to our feeling with respect to the focal
Object such as fear, liking, or anger. For instance, the color "blue" evokes different feelings for
different individuals: some like the color blue but others do not. Some associate the color blue with
"loneliness" while others associate it with "calm and peace".
C. Behavioral Intentions- Behavioral intentions are our goals aspirations, and our
expected responses to the attitude object.
D. Evaluation- Evaluations are often considered the central component of attitudes.
Evaluations consist of the imputation of some degree of goodness or badness to an attitude object.
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 behavioral 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 (Robert Scholl, University of Rhode
Island, 2002).
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 for forming
conclusions and interpreting or acting for or against an individual; individuals, a concept or an
idea. For instance, think about your attitudes toward "drinking alcoholic beverages" or "gambling"
or "going on an all-night bar hopping spree every night". Or, perhaps, 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 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 behavior. People will behave in ways consistent with their attitudes•
Motivation. Motivation is a reason or set or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior,
especially human behavior 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 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. 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:

o Human beings have wants and desires which influence their behavior; only
unsatisfied needs can influence behavior, satisfied needs cannot.
o Since needs are many, they are arranged in order of importance, from the basic to
the complex.
o The person advances to the next level of needs only after the lower level need is at
least minimally satisfied.
o 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:
o Physiological: food, clothing, shelter
o Safety and security: home and family
o Social: being in a community
o Self esteem: self-understanding, self acceptance
o Self actualization: recognition, achievement
Hezberg’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:
o Motivators; (e.g. challenging work, recognition, responsibility) which give positive
satisfaction, and
o 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 are used because, like hygiene, the presence will make you healthier byt
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 considerable research into Employee
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 psychologists 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 motivation studied by
psychologiSts in other fields. Motivation in education can have several effects on how students
learn and their

behavior towards subject matter (Ormrod, 2003). It 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.

Because students are not always internally motivated, they ometimes need situated
motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates. There are two
kinds of motivation:
o Intrinsic motivation occurs when people are internally 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.
o 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).

Finally, the last concept relates to self-efficacy. 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. Unlike
efficacy, which is the power to produce an effect (in essence, competence), self-efficacy is the
belief (whether or not accurate) that one has the power to produce that effect.

It is important here to understand the distinction between self-teem and self-efficacy. Self-
esteem relates to a person's sense of self-worth, whereas self-efficacy relates to a person's
perception of their ability to reach a goal. For example, say a person is a terrible rock climber.
He/she would likely have a poor self-efficacy in regard to rock climbing, but this wouldn't need to
affect his/her self-esteem; most people don't invest much of their self-esteem in this activity.

Research on learning has indicated that in. certain circumstances, having less self-efficacy for
a subject may be helpful, while more negative attitudes towards how quickly/well one will learn,
can actually prove of benefit. One study uses the foreign language classroom to examine students'
beliefs about learning, perceptions goal attainment, and motivation to continue language study.
(Christine Galbreath Jernigan, What do Students Expect to Learn? The Role of Learner
Expectancies, Beliefs, and Attributions for Success and Failure in Student Motivation.) Survey
and Interview results indicated students’ attribution for success and failure and heir expectations
for certain subjects’ learning ability played a role in the relationship between goal attainment and
volition. It appears that over-efficaciousness negatively affected student motivation. For other
students who felt they were “bad languages,” their negative beliefs increased their motivation to
study.

3. Development of Assessment Tools

Assessment tools in the affcctivc domain, in particular, those which are used to assess
attitudes, motivations, and selfefficacy, have been developed. There arc certain good practices in
developing these instruments. We consider a few of the standard assessment tools in the affective
domain.

Self-Report. Self report is the most common measurement tool in the affective domain. It
essentially requires an individual to provide an account of his/her attitude or feelings toward a
concept or idea or people. Self reports are also sometimes called "written reflections". In using this
measurement tool, the teacher requires the students to wHte his/her thoughts on a subject matter,
like, "Why I Like or Dislike Mathematics". The teacher ensures that the students vvTite something
which would demonstrate the various levels of the taxonomy, e.g. lowest level of receiving up to
characterization.

Rating Scales. A rating scale is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a
quantitative attribute in social science. Common examples are the Likert scale and 1-10 rating
scales 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 an SD scale is:

Good Bad

Usually, the position marked 0 is labeled “neutral,” the 1 positions are labeled “slightly,” the 2
positions “quite,” and the 3 positions "extremely." In the illustration above, for instance, a "3"
close to good. would mean an "extremely good" reaction while a "3" close to bad would be an
"extremely bad" reaction. The scale actually measures two things: directionality of a reaction (e.g.,
good versus bad) and also intensity (slight through extreme). Usually, a person is presented with
some concept of interest without any other explanatory remarks
e.g., Math teacher, and asked to rate it on a number of such scales. Ratings are combined in various
ways to describe and analyze the person's feelings. A number of basic considerations are involved
in SD methodology:
o 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.
 o Ratings on 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.
o 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.
Using a few pure scales of this sort, one can obtain, with considerable economy, reliable
measures of a person's overall response to something. Typically, a concept is rated on
several pure scales associated with a single dimension, and the results are averaged to
provide a single factor score for each dimension. Measurements of a concept on the EPA
dimensions are referred to as the concept's profile.
o EPA measurements are appropriate when one is interested in affective responses. The EPA
system is notable for being a multi-variate approach to affective measurement. It is also a
generalized approach, applicable to any concept or stimulus, and thus it permits
comparisons of affective reactions on widely disparate things. EPA ratings have been
obtained for hundreds of word concepts, for stories and poems, for social roles and
stereotypes, for colors, sounds, shapes, and for persons.
o The SD has been used as a measure of attitude in a wide variety of projects. Osgood, et
al., (1957) report exploratory studies in which the SD was used to assess attitude change
as a result of mass media programs and as a result of messages structured in different ways.
Their chapter on attitude balance or congruity theory also presents significant applications
of the SD to attitude measurement. The SD has been used by other investigators to study
attitude formation (e.g., Barclay arid Thumin, 1963), attitudes toward organizations (e.g.,
Rodefeld, 1967), attitudes toward jobs and occupations (e.g., Triandis, 1959; Beardslee
and O'Dowd, 1961; Gusfield and Schwartz, 1963), and attitudes toward minorities (e.g.,
Prothro and Keehn, 1957; Williams, 1964; 1966). The results in these, and many other
studies, support the validity of the SD as a technique for attitude measurement.

Thurstone and Likert Scales

Thurstone is considered the father of attitude measurement. He addresses the issue on how
favorable an individual is with regard to a given issue. He developed an attitude continuum to
determine the position of favorability on the issue.\

In 1932, Likert developed the method of summated rating or (Likert’s Scale), which is still
widely used. The Likert scale required that individuals tick on a box to report whether they
“strongly agree”, “agree”, are “undecided”, or “disagree”, or “strongly disagree”, in response to a
large number of items concerning an attitude object or stimulus. Likert scales are derived as
follows: First, you pick individual items to include. You choose individual items that you know
correlate highly with the total score across items. Second, you choose how to scale each item. For
example, you construct labels for choose how to scale each item. For example, you construct labels
for each value (e.g., disagree strongly = 1, disagree slightly -2, etc.) Third, you ask your target
audience to mark each item. Fourth, you derive a target's score by adding the values identified on
each item.
Below is an example of the use of a Likert Scale:
 Statement: I do not like to solve algebraic equations.
Response options:
* 1. Strongly Disagree
* 2. Disagree
* 3. Agree
* 4. Strongly Agree

It is common to treat the numbers obtained from a rating scale directly as measurements
by calculating averages, or any arithmetic operations. Doing so is not however justified. In terms
of the levels of measurement proposed by S.S. Stevens, are ordinal categorizations. This means,
for example, that to agree strongly with the above statement implies a least favorable of algebraic
equations than does to agree with the statement. the numbers are not interval-level measurements
in which means that equal differences do not represent between the degree to which one values
algebraic example, the difference between strong agreement and not necessarily the same as the
difference between agreement. Strictly, even demonstrating that categories requires empirical
evidence based on patterns of responses 1978).

In 1944, Guttman suggested that attitude should be multidimensional scales, as opposed to

unidimensional such as those developed by Thurstone and Likert. Guttman pointed out that there
should be a multidimensional view of the attitude construct. He developed the Scalogram Analysis,
Cumulative Scaling, or as usually called, Guttman scaling. The major characteristic of this scale
is that the response to One item helps predict the responses to other items. For instance, if the
individual responds negatively to the item "I like oranges", he is not likely to respond positively
to the item "Oranges are great for breakfast".

Checklists

The most common and perhaps the easiest affective domain to construct is the checklist. A
checklist 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 wisht to observe relative to the concept
being measured. if the concept is "interpersonal relation", then you might want to identify
those indicators or attributes which constitute an evidence of good interpersonal relation.
• Arrange these attributes as a “shopping” list of characteristics.
• Ask the students to mark those attributes or characteristics which are present and to leave
blank those.
ACITIVITY

Group yourselves into 10 and tell us what do you think the given topic thru a video in a
minimum of 5 minutes and be as creative as you can be. DEADLINE: November 9, 2020, 12:00
NOON.

Part 1 of the Video

1. Enumerate the different levels in the Taxonomy of the Affective Domain. Discuss each of
these levels.
2. What is an “attitude” and why is student of attitude important? How will understanding of
attitudes and predisposition enhance teaching?
3. What is “motivation”? Discuss the need theories on motivation: Maslow, Herzberg and
ERG theories.
4. Why are the “needs” as presented by Maslow arranged in hierarchy? What is meant by
hierarchy of needs?
5. The phrase: “ Motivation-Hygiene” is often used to describe Herzberg’s two-factor theory.
What are hygiene factors? Why are they important in the educative process?
6. What is “self-efficacy”? How does this concept figure in the educational measurement
field? Why is the concept important to teachers?
7. Give on example of learning competency objective in the affective domain for each of the
levels in the taxonomy of Kratwohl et.al. Assume that you are teaching a subject in your
filed of specialization.
8. Describe the potential of tapping the affective domain in enhancing the learning students.

Part 2 of the Video

1. What is the self-report? What should such a self-report essentially contain? How should a
teacher instruct the students in writing self-reports?
2. What is a rating scale? Enumerate the various types of rating scales and explain how these
rating scales are formulated?
3. What is the difference between a Thurstone scale and a Likert Scale? In what does Guttman
scaling improve on both types of scales?