Affective

Assessment
KENT E. ESCOBIN, MAED
WVSU-HCC
•The heart of education
is the education of the
heart.
~The Dalai Lama~
 •How do you feel doing
Mathematics?

•What do you like in Mathematics?

 • What is Affective
Assessment?

• Why assess affective

domain?
 Affective Learning

• The affective domain (from the latin affectus,

meaning “feelings”) includes a host of constructs
such a attitudes, values, beliefs, opinions, interests
and motivation. They are the non-cognitive outcomes
of learning that are not easily seen or explicitly
demonstrated.
• The type of assessment in this domain is not aimed to
determine what the students have learned. Rather, it
looks into how students feel while they are learning,
how their learning experiences have influenced their
• Self-awareness of feelings,
emotions, and attitudes can
make students reflect on
how they are in the process
of learning. This type of
metacognition has proven
to enhance learning and
contribute to success in the
academic tasks.
What is the taxonomy of affective
domain in learning?

• In the affective domain of learning,

Krathwohl et al. (1964) developed a
taxonomy of affective qualities that
can serve as guide in doing
affective assessment.
• To receive: In this level of affective
behaviour, the learner demonstrates an
awareness in an activity that is
happening such that he/she gives
attention to that activity. This level
involves willingness to receive the
stimulus.
• To respond: In this case, the learner reacts
to a given stimulus or information that has
been received. If a learner participates in a
class discussion, and not merely listening,
then the learner is in this level of behaviour.
This behaviour may be compliance to a
given task, voluntary engagement, or doing
an activity with interest.
• To value: This is the level where the learner
demonstrates commitment to the object,
knowledge or activity. Here, the learner has
internalized a set of specific values such that
these values are manifested through overt
behaviours. For example, picking up litters outside
the classroom without teacher’s presence or
saving money for a book, or putting off lights after
class on own volition are “valuing” behaviours.
• To organize: This is the level where the
learner has internalized and integrated his or
her feelings, emotions, beliefs, opinions, etc.,
resulting to actions where new values and
traits emerged. In this level, the learner is
able to discern independently the right from
wrong, and he/she is able to make a decision
on what is more valuable based on his or her
own judgment.
• To characterize: in this level of affective
trait, the learner demonstrates his or her
beliefs and attitudes not only in a single
event or situation but in multiple events,
showing consistency of the behaviour that
establishes an image or character of the
learner. The behaviour extends beyond the
school setting and becomes part of his or her
lifestyle.
THE AFFECTIVE VARIABLES IN
LEARNING
• Attitudes
• This is the most talked about affective factor in a
student’s learning. We always talk about attitude
toward something.
• This means we are referring to a person’s reaction
whether negative or positive, favourable or
unfavourable toward an object, activity, person, or
environment.
• In teaching, this will be concerned with the attitude
toward learning, subject, teachers, classmates,
 Values and Beliefs
• Values are characteristics or traits that a person holds in high
importance. These include principles that one considers to be right,
and consequently which guides the person’s future actions and
decisions. In a school setting, values that are included in the
curriculum are honesty, patience, perseverance, respect for others,
cleanliness and orderliness, care for environment, etc.
• Beliefs, on the other hand, refer to our convictions or opinions we
hold to be true even without evidence. While beliefs are
traditionally associated with religion, they have been talked about
in the field of education.
• Beliefs emanate from multiple sources, from what one hears, sees,
reads, and experiences. Values are developed from beliefs, and
Interest

• Interest is a psychological state that draws

a person’s attention to an object, idea, or
event. In a classroom setting, it is what the
students are “into” or the learner’s
disposition about a topic, such as reading,
science, mathematics, history, etc. it is
interest that drives the learner to be
attentive to the topic of discussion or
engage in any academic activity.
Motivation

• Brown (1987) defines motivation as an inner

drive, impulse, emotion, or desire that
moves one to a particular action. It arouses
and sustains behaviour.it can lead to an
increased effort and energy to pursue a
goal. If a learner is highly motivated, he/she
is willing to give his or her time and effort to
reach a goal. More so, Motivation can either
be intrinsic or extrinsic.
Self-confidence

• This refers to how a person feels about

his or her abilities to accomplish a task
or a goal. Empirical studies show that
self-confidence is associated with
academic success.
What assessment tools are used to
measure affective learning?

• Measurement of affective traits is more

challenging compared to measuring
cognitive and psychomotor dimension
of learning.
Self-report Questionnaires

• As the name implies, self-report or self-

inventory is a type of assessment where the
respondent is asked to answer a question
about himself/herself, his/her behaviour,
emotions, feelings, or views.it serves many
purposes to include diagnosis of student’s
mental and emotional state.
 A. Likert Scale

• This measuring tool, invented by Rensis Likert, is a

series of questions or items that requires the
respondent to select on a scale a rating reflecting the
level of agreement or disagreement on items that are
related to a particular topic, experience, or issue. The
responses, both in descriptive and numeric form,
range from one extreme to another, such as “strongly
agree” to “strongly disagree”, where 5 is the
numerical value of the extreme positive feeling and 1
for the extreme negative.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the
following views about Mathematics? Check the
appropriate box,
Strongly Agree Slightly Disagree Strongly
Agree (4) Agree (2) Disagree
(3) (1)
(5)
1. Mathematics is the study
of formulas, rules, and
procedures.
2. In Mathematics, you can
discover new things that
can be exciting.
3. Mathematics is as exact
subject that requires
precision and accuracy.
4. Mathematics is logic and
 Writing Statements for Rating Scale
for Self-Report
• Statements should refer to the present
conditions rather than past or future situations.
• The statement should be relevant to the
psychological construct being measured.
• Avoid factual statement since the nature of
what is assessed are affective traits.
• Statements should elicit a response that lends
itself to one interpretation.
• Statements should be clear and simple sentences
using precise and direct language.
• Considering that responses in the instrument reflect
gradation, statements should no longer contain
always, nearly, only, never, and just. These words are
ambiguous.
• Use vocabulary appropriate for the level of
understanding of the respondents.
• Avoid double negative sentences.
Steps in Construction of the
Rating Scale
• Select the affective trait you want to assess which
you find relevant to teaching-learning situation.
• Construct items that are clear, definite, and focused
on the trait you want to measure.
• Pilot test the inventory and revise the parts that
appear to be unclear.
• Administer the self-report inventory to your target
respondents.
• Analyse the results.
B. Semantic Differential

• This is a widely used scale that employs

ratings of concepts with contrasting
adjectives placed at opposite ends of the
number scale. For example, the concept of
“Problem Solving” can be assessed using the
following semantic differential scale.
 Problem Solving
Difficult ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Easy
1 2 3 4 5
Interesting ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Boring
1 2 3 4 5
Useful ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Useless 1 2 3 4 5

Realistic ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Unrealistic
1 2 3 4 5
 Checklist
• A checklist is a form of self-report that asks persons to
indicate whether they demonstrate a set of qualities or
behaviours. In particular, for affective assessment, it is a
tool for identifying the presence or absence of a feeling,
attitude, or behaviour. The behaviours that are checked will
reflect what values and beliefs learners hold.
• For example, attitude toward environment may be
measured by giving students a checklist that enumerates
different actions related to environment awareness and
commitment in one column and space in another column
where students will put a check or a cross, indicating
whether those actions are being done or not.
An Example of a Self-Report
Behaviour Checklist
 Interview

• This is an oral assessment of student learning that is

conducted through spoken words and casual
conversation. This assessment tool allows the teacher
to collect and explore more in-depth information about
the trait being assessed that cannot be captured by
written instrument nor even be observed.
• The assessment data are not just answerable by YES
or NO or other predetermined responses.
• Interviews may be structured or unstructured.
For interview to be an effective assessment tool, the following are
general steps in developing and conducting an interview:

• Select the assessment objectives.

• List the oral questions in sequence based on the
objectives. However, the sequence is not
absolute, instead, there should be a room for
flexibility. Questions should start from general
questions followed by more specific ones.
• Make a report sheet or any form to record
responses.
• Conduct the interview. Start with statements that will
make the learner be at comfortable level with the
teacher.
• Record the responses, both elicited responses and
responses that were aided by prompts. Record as well
the questions that were not answered, and additional
questions that were given during the probing process.
Record the wait time for the responses. It will also be
worth noting to record the nonverbal behaviour like
body movements during the interview process.
Student Journals

• These are effective tools that can be used in

assessing and monitoring student thinking
and attitudes. Journal writing gives students
guided opportunities to “think aloud”
through writing.it is a special form of
documentation that records personal
experiences and thoughts.
 Observation

• It is an assessment tool that involves looking out for

the presence or absence of behaviours of learners in
a natural setting. Observation allows the teacher to
assess student behaviour in the actual teaching and
learning process unlike other forms of assessment
that requires separate time with the student to
answer the measuring instrument. This method is a
rich source of clues that can be both obtrusive and
unobtrusive measures of attitude, beliefs, disposition,
character, etc.
Thank you!