In a simple sense, the
affective domain is the emotional impression made upon you by content,
interactions or strategies in the classroom (Popham, 2009). It is what students
feel about school learning and the content they learn (Hall, 2011). It
is lovely to have beautiful lessons, sharp resources and
great teaching ability but if students are not emotionally invested the
learning will be flat. Affective domain is closely related to motivation and
therefore is a vital part in learning (Hall 2011). Teachers need to be
cognizant of how students feel about content in order to teach it in the most
efficient way. Making content relevant is important to increase
student curiosity and involvement.
The literature we read is pretty
uniform in its input on affective assessment, saying it is underused but it is a
mistake to do so. The authors see it as a vital tool to gauge student’s
feelings and background knowledge on a topic (Demetriou & Wilson, 2009)
(Hall 2011). Data from affective assessment can provide direction to the
teacher in how to approach a unit. If student feeling is positive and
comprehensive, it may be possible to teach the content in a much different fashion
to one where students express a lack of confidence.
Now it should be noted that
I am quite the nerd, and I enjoy being assessed in novel ways such as this. I
only remember these assessments from Career Guidance classes so I would likely
have benefitted from and enjoyed more of them, but I may be in the minority in
that! I think they are beneficial in many ways. If we can work out students attitudes
towards how we do our jobs, and can use that knowledge to prepare how we work, we should use that tool. We can
also use these assessments to show our students that they are growing and
progressing. The students also may feel listened to, and feel like they can
have some input in an anonymous way. And we want our students to take ownership
of their work and future. It all seems positive to me. Sure, they require time
to prepare and administer, and there is a chance of dishonesty but I feel these
are far outweighed by the positives.
This afternoon I was supervising a club where
the students are not rising to the challenge as we had hoped. I found myself
mentally writing an affective assessment to try and generate a discussion about
how to move the club forward. I think it would be beneficial. In the science
classroom I could give affective assessments as often as before and after every
unit. Armed with the results I could tailor my approach to maximize engagement
and learning. The post assessments could be reflective, and give further data as
to the effectiveness of the strategies used. I think a couple of years of these
assessments would allow me to have a well-tuned approach to each topic and be beneficial
to my professional development.
Thanks
References
Demetriou,
H., & Wilson, E. (2009). Synthesizing Affect and Cognition in Teaching and
Learning. Social Psychology Of Education: An International Journal, 12(2),
213-232.
Hall, R. A. (2011).
Affective assessment: The missing piece of the educational reform puzzle. Delta
Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators, 77(2),
7.
Popham, W. J. (2009).
Assessing Student Affect. Educational Leadership, 66(8), 85-86.
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