Unit 5:

Affective Learning
Competencies
Joel M. Durban, Ph.D.
The Bloom’s taxonomy three domains of learning: cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor domains.
Cognitive domain includes mental skills (knowledge.)
Affective domain dwells on growth in feelings or emotional
areas (feelings, emotions, attitude).
Psychomotor domain is concerned with manual or physical
skills.

The three (3) domains of learning are KSA, meaning knowledge,

skills, and attitude.
Importance of Affective Targets
§ Researchers have established the clear link between affect and
cognitive learning.
§ 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.

§Motivation and involvement of students in learning activities

are affected by students’ 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.
§The linkage between affect and learning of students has been
well-established, there is very little systematic assessment of
affect that is applied in classroom instruction.
§Possible reasons why teachers do not utilize any kind of formal
affective assessment:

1. School routines are organized based on subject areas;

2. Assessment of affective targets is fraught with difficulties.
School routines are organized based on subject areas;

§Cognitive subject matter targets are agreed on as desirable for

all students.
§This places affect as a position of importance but still
secondary to cognitive learning.
§It is difficult to determine which affective targets are
appropriate for all students.
§It is NOT easy to define attitudes, values, and interests.
Assessment of affective targets is fraught with difficulties

§The potential sources of error in measuring affective traits

result in low reliability.
§Motivation is of primary concern.
§Students need to take such assessments seriously to provide
accurate results, but still many restrain from giving honest
answer if the responses are not treated with anonymity and
confidentiality.
§It would be easier to fake responses to self-report instruments
if the results are to be used for grading or some other purposes.
§Students may want to please the teachers with positive
responses. Other possible source of error is that some affective
traits are easily influenced by momentary or temporary moods.
§This is true for younger students who may report more
negative affect a bad day or session.
§Teachers’ bias may also contribute significantly on what may be
recorded or perceived.
Positive affective traits and skills are essential
for:
§Effective learning
§Being an involved and productive member of society.
§Preparing for occupational and vocational satisfaction and
productivity (example: work habits, willingness to learn,
interpersonal skills).
§Maximizing the motivation to learn at present and in the
future.
§Preventing students from dropping out of school.
 Soft Skills in Affective Assessment

Soft skills are non-technical skills that refer to how one works in
the workplace, how one interacts with others in the workplace
and how one looks at the problems and solves problems.
 Categories of Soft Skills
ØThe five (5) skills of SEL can be grouped into four (4) categories
that most school leaders, teachers, and parents would agree are
within the responsibility of schools to monitor and develop.
ØThese are:
1. Social skills
2. Self-management skills
3. Academic soft skills
4. Approaches to learning
1. Social skills includes how a student interacts with others
students as observed by teachers and other adults.
2. Self management skills refers to self-regulation, i.e., the
student’s ability to take control over what would otherwise
be automatic reactions by planning, focusing attention,
reframing experiences and using mental tools. Lack of self
management is manifested when a student blurts out
responses which suggests a lack of thoughtfulness.
3. Academic soft skills are both social and cognitive. Ex. The
ability to work independently.
4. Approaches to learning includes student’s engagement in
school, pleasure in learning and anxiety about performance.
Observable behaviors of each soft skill
Soft Skill Observable Behavior
Social Skills Provides peers with positive feedback
Offers help or assistance to peers
Initiates interactions with peers
Participates in discussions with peers
Has sense of humor, shares amusement with peers
Has friends
Can Carry out leadership activities
Engages in appropriate social behavior
Observable behaviors of each soft skill
Soft Skill Observable Behavior
Self- Controls displays of temper when angry
Management Accepts legitimate rules
Skills Compromises with others to avoid conflict
Responds in socially appropriate ways to criticism from
others
Handles teasing and social provocations
Cooperates with others
Maintains attention to tasks
Is respectful to teachers and staffs
Observable behaviors of each soft skill
Soft Skill Observable Behavior
Academic Soft Works independently
Skills Completes assigned tasks
Listens to and carries out teacher directions
Produces work of acceptable quality for ability level
Brings requires materials to school
Arrives at school on time and without undue absences
Asks for assistance as needed, ask questions
Uses appropriate study skills
Observable behaviors of each soft skill
Soft Skill Observable Behavior
Approaches Enjoys school
to Learning Takes on challenging tasks
Has confidence in abilities
Works hard
Is enthusiastic and adventurous
Is involved with extracurricular school activities
Affective Traits & Learning Targets
Affective
§ Refers to a variety of traits and dispositions that are different
knowledge, reasoning, skills.
§ Technically, this term means, the emotions or feelings that one
has toward someone or something.
§ Attitudes, values, self-concept, citizenship, and other traits are
usually considered to be non-cognitive, include more than
emotions or feelings.
§ Most students affect involve both emotion and cognitive
beliefs.
Different affective traits and its corresponding
description:
Traits Description
Attitudes Predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to
specified situations, concepts, objects, institutions, or
persons.
Interests 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
Different affective traits and its corresponding
description:
Traits Description
Motivation Desire and willingness to be engage 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
Locus of Control Self-perception of whether success and failure is
controlled by the student or by external influences
Emotional Growth, change, and awareness of emotions and ability
Development to regulate emotional expression
Different affective traits and its corresponding
description:
Traits Description
Social Nature of interpersonal interactions and
Relationships functioning in group setting
Altruism Willingness and propensity to help others
Moral Attainment of ethical principles that guide
Development decision-making and behavior
Classroom Nature of feeling tones and interpersonal
Development relationship in a class
Attitude Targets
§ Attitude is an internal state that influence what students are
likely to do.
§ The internal state can in some degree determine positive or
negative or favorable or unfavorable reaction toward an
object, situation, person or group of objects, general
environment, or group of persons.

§ It does not refer to behaviors, what a student knows, right or

wrong in a moral or ethical sense, or characteristics such as
race, age or socio-economic status.
§In a learning institution, attitude is contingent on subjects,
teachers, or 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 behavior.
Examples of attitudes:

A Positive Attitude Toward A Negative Attitude

Toward
Learning Cheating
Math, Science, English, and Drug use
other subjects
Assignments Bullying
Classroom rules Cutting classes
Teachers Dropping out
Three Components or Contributing Factors of Attitudes:

1. An affective component of positive or negative feelings

2. A cognitive component describing worth or value
3. A behavioral component indicating a willingness or
desire to engage in particular actions.
§The affective component consists of the emotion or feeling
associated with an objects or person (good or bad feelings,
enjoyment, likes, comfort, anxiety, etc).
§When the teacher describes students as liking math or enjoying
art, the teacher is focusing on the affective component.
§The cognitive component is an evaluative belief( such as
thinking something as valuable, useful, worthless, etc.). In
school, students can think history is useless and science
valuable.
§The behavioral component is actually responding in a positive
way. A strong and stable attitude is manifested when all three
components are consistent.
§Which means that, if a student like science, the student thinks
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. 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 trifocal conceptualization has significant implications for
identifying attitude targets.
§Does the assessment need to focus on feelings, thoughts, or
behavior?
§If the learning target for example is “students will have a
positive attitude toward school” then the assessment needs to
include all the three 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.
Value Targets
§Values refer either 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.
§And modes of conduct are manifested in what a person believe
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 different areas of persons’ lives. Hence, the aspects of
moral, political, social, aesthetic, economic, technological, and
religious values.

§In setting 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.
 Commendable and non-controversial values
Value Sample Value Target
Honesty Students should learn to value honesty in their dealing with
others.
Integrity Students should firmly observe their own code of values
Justice Students should support the view that citizens should be
recipients of equal justice from government law
enforcement agencies.
Freedom Students should believe that democratic countries must
provide the maximum level of freedom to their citizens.
Other non-controversial values:
§Kindness
§Generosity
§Perseverance
§Loyalty
§Respect
§Courage
§Compassion
§Tolerance
Motivation Targets
§Motivation can be defined as the extent to which to which
students are involved in trying to learn.
§This includes the students’ initiation of learning, the intensity of
effort exerted, the students’ commitment, and the students’
persistence.
§Motivation is the determined engagement in learning in order
to gain mastery of knowledge or skills; students take learning
seriously and give importance to opportunities to learn.
 Expectancy X Value Framework

§The model implies that motivation is determined by students’

expectations, their beliefs about whether they are likely to be
successful, and the relevance of the outcome.
§Expectations refers to the self-efficacy of the student.
§Values are self-perception of the importance of the
performance. That is, the students see the relevance of the
activity.
§Motivation is too ambiguous to use in general definition as an
outcome because it is difficult to pinpoint the source of lack of
effort and involvement.
§Motivation targets should focus on self-efficacy and value,
distinct by academic subject and type of learning (like
knowledge, understanding, reasoning).
§Examples of motivation targets:
§ Students will believe that they are capable of learning how to write
simple computer programs using java (self-efficacy).
§ Students will believe that it is important to know how to write
simple computer programs using java (value).
§In assessing motivation, it is important to consider why
students are learning the reasons students’ give for their
actions.
§When students do something or engage themselves in
activities because they find the activities interesting, enjoyable,
or challenging, they are intrinsically motivated.
§While extrinsic motivation is doing something because it leads
to a reward or punishment.
§Students who are motivated by a need to understand and
master the task (mastery orientation) show more positive
behavior and thinking as compared to those who are doing
something for the result or outcome (performance operation).
§Students who are for mastery orientation are more engaged,
have in general, inclination to generate solutions to difficulties,
and generate more positive credits to success and failure
(success attribute to ability and moderate effort; failure to lack
of effort).
Academic Self-Concept Targets
§Self-concept and self-esteem are multidimensional.
§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 form one’s
self-concept or self-image.
§Individuals have a sense of self-regard, self-affirmation, and
self-worth in each area (self-esteem).
§In assessing the academic self-concept, universal self-concept,
and self-esteem targets must be avoided 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 counselor.
Social Relationship Targets
§A complex set of skills, including identification of and
appropriate responses to social indications, defines social
relationships.
§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
Examples of social relationship areas and
corresponding targets:
Social Target Concern Example
Relationship
Peer Showing interest in others Students will share their
Relationshi Sharing to a group ideas in a small group
Contributing to group activities discussion
p
Cooperative Sharing Students will demonstrate
Skills Listening that they are able to
Volunteering ideas and suggestions negotiate with others and
Supporting & accepting others’ ideas compromise
Taking turns
Criticizing constructively
§Collaborative skills needed to work in small groups may include
four components namely:
1. Basic interaction;
2. Getting along;
3. Coaching; and
4. Fulfilling particular roles
§A general target regarding “improved social relationships” or
“improved collaboration skills” does not provide specifics to
focus instruction and assessment.
Classroom Environment Targets
§Every classroom has a unique climate that is felt at every point
in time.
§Some manifest a comfortable atmosphere, others have relaxed
and productive ambiance.
§There are classes that are happy and content while others are
serious and tensed due to the effect of the classroom climate.
§It follows that students behave differently as dictated by the
classroom climate, some shows warm and supportive class
while others register as cold and rejecting. All these situations
are known as classroom environment, classroom climate, or
classroom culture.
As affective targets, learning should seek to establish
student feelings, relationships, and beliefs that promote
positive classroom environment.
 Characteristics Description
Affiliation The extent to which student like and accept each other
Involvement The extent to which students are interested in and
engaged in learning
Task Orientation The extent to which classroom activities are focused
on the completion of academic tasks
Cohesiveness The extent to which students share norms and
expectations
Competition The emphasis on competition between students
Favoritism Whether each student enjoys the same privileges
 Characteristics Description
Influence The extent to which each student influences classroom
decisions
Friction The extent to which students bicker with one another
Formality The emphasis on imposing rules
communication The extent to which communication among students
and with teacher is honest and authentic
Warmth The extent to which students care about each other
and show concern
§One of the relevant inputs to improve classroom environment is to
compare students’ perspectives with those of teachers’ perspectives as
far as classroom ambiance.
§For example, the students perceive that there is a need to establish a
more positive classroom environment while on the other hand, the
teachers see that the classroom environment is more positive.
§The difference on the perceptions of the students and the teachers with
respect to the level of positivity of the classroom environment is a good
source of information to identify what areas to improve in the classroom
environment so as to maximize student learning.
 Affective Domain of the
Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives
§In 1964, David R. Krathwohl, together with his colleagues,
extended Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by
publishing the second taxonomy of objectives, this time giving
emphasis on the affective domain.
§Krathwohl and his collaborators attempted to subdivide the
affective realm into relatively distinct divisions.
§Five different levels of affective objectives were deswcribed in
the affective taxonomy.
 Level Description Example
Receiving Concerned with student’s sensitivity to the Student does
(Attending) existence of certain phenomena and mathematics
stimuli, that is, with student’s willingness to activities for grade.
receive or to attend to this stimuli.
It is categorized in three subdivisions that Examples: To
shows the different levels of attending to differentiate, to
phenomena accept, to listen
1. Awareness of the phenomena (for), to respond to
2. Willingness to receive the phenomena
3. Controlled or selected attention to
phenomena
 Level Description Example
Responding Concerned with responses that Student gives special
go beyond merely attending to attention to the
phenomena. discussion of
Students are sufficiently Mathematics lessons to
motivated that they are not just be able to answer the
“willing to attend” but are activities.
actively attending. Examples: To comply
with, to follow, to
commend, to
volunteer, to spend
leisure time in, to
acclaim
 Level Description Example
Valuing Reflects the student’s holding Student actively and
of a particular importance or consistently participates in
value. the discussion and
Students display behavior interestingly answers all the
with sufficient consistency in activities in Mathematics.
appropriate situations that Examples: to increase
are perceived as holding this measured proficiency in, to
value. relinquish, to subsidize, to
support, to debate
 Level Description Example
Organizing Students successively Student integrates
internalizes values, they the lessons learned
encounter situations in in Math with
which more than one value Science.
is relevant. This requires Example: to discuss,
the necessity of organizing to theorize, to
their value into a system formulate, to
such that certain values balance, to examine
exercise greater control.
 Level Description Example
Characterizing Internalization has taken place Student applies the
by a Value or in an individual’s value hierarchy lessons learned in
Value Complex to the extent that he or she can Mathematics in daily
be characterized as holding a activities such as
particular value or set of values. buying, cooking, and
others.
Example: to revise, to
require, to be rated
high in the value, to
avoid, to resist, to
manage, to resolve.
 Level Definition Example

Receiving Being aware of an attending Individual would read a

to something in the book passage about
environment civil rights

Responding Showing some new behaviors Individual would

as a result of experience answer questions
about the book, read
another book about
civil rights, etc.
 Level Definition Example
Valuing Showing some definite The individual might
involvement or commitment demonstrate this by
voluntarily attending a
lecture on civil rights
Organization Integrating a new value into The individual might
one’s general set of values, arrange a civil rights rally.
giving it some ranking among
one’s general priorities
Characterizatio Acting consistently with the The individual is firmly
n by value new value committed to the value,
perhaps becoming a civil
rights leader.
Examples of behavioral terms that can be used
to state learning competencies in the affective
domains
 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
 Methods of Assessing Learnings in the Affective
Domains
ØChange in attitude, values and habits is the result of effective
teaching-learning in the affective domain.
ØChange in attitude is manifested in our change of beliefs,
feelings, aspirations and attitudes toward something or
someone.
ØThese changes in our beliefs and values in turn have an impact
on our level of motivation and concept of self-efficacy.
The student knows the change that is taking place and can be
observed by a third party who is a witness of the change like the
teacher, parents or classmates.
The most popular method of assessing affective domains is
Observation.
End of Unit 5