CHAPTER 5

AFFECTIVE LEARNING
P R E S E NTATI O N

COMPETENCIES
 5.1 ASSESSING AFFECTIVE
LEARNING COMPETENCIES
OVERVIEW
Affect describes a number of non-cognitive variables such
as a person's attitude, interests and values. Student affect is
important and teachers can help their students acquire positive
attitudes. In this chapter, the importance of affective targets,
affective traits and learning targets as well as affective domain of
the taxonomy of educational objectives will be discussed.
Objectives
 Define the affective learning
competencies
 Identify the different Affective Targets
 Craft affective learning outcomes
 Information about learners' experiences with a subject or
an activity is only part of what is needed as input in order to
explain their performance. Attitude is associated with what is
called the individual's affective domain, and affect adds a
significant dimension to assessment. Attitude measures are
part of the broader category of personality measures. The
relevance of affective targets as regards assessment of
learners' and facilitation of learning, are discussed in the
succeeding paragraphs.
1. Importance of Affective
Targets
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. A more
positive environment fosters good student
engagement and learning than in a classroom
with negative climate (Fraser, 1994).
 Though these factors are known to
teachers, yet most teachers do not utilize any
kind of formal affective assessment. Possible
reasons are:
(1)school routines are organized based on
subject areas
(2) assessment of affective targets is fraught
with difficulties.
 Cognitive subject matter targets are agreed
on as desirable for all students. The second
possible reason is that many potential sources of
error in measuring affective traits often result in
low reliability. Motivation is of primary concern.
Students need to take such assessments
seriously to provide accurate results, but still
many may restrain from giving honest answer if
the responses are not treated with anonymity and
confidentiality.
Effective learning
Being an involved and productive member of
our 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
2. Affective Traits and
Learning Targets
The word affective refers to a variety of traits and
dispositions that are different from knowledge, reasoning,
and skills (Hohn, 1995). Technically, this term means the
emotions or feelings that one has toward someone or
something. Nevertheless, attitudes, values, self- concept,
citizenship, and other traits are usually considered to be
non-cognitive, include more than emotions or feelings. Most
kinds of student affect involve both emotion and cognitive
beliefs.
 Shown in the table are the different affective traits and its corresponding
description:
TRAIT DESCRIPTION

Attitudes Predisposition to respond favourably or unfavourably to specified situations,

concepts, objects, institutions, or persons.
Interests Personal preference for certain kinds of activity

Values Importance, worth, or usefulness of modes or conduct and end states of

existence
Opinions Beliefs about specific occurrence and situations

Preferences Desire to select one object over another

Motivation Desire and willingness to be engaged in behaviour including intensity of

involvement
Academic Self- Self perception of competence in school and learning
Concept
Self-Esteem Attitude 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.
Social Nature of interpersonal interactions and functioning in
Relationships group setting
Altruism Willingness and propensity to help others

Moral Attainment of ethical principles that guide decision

Development making and behaviour
Classroom Nature of feeling tones and interpersonal relationship in
Development class
2.1
Attitude Targets
2.2

2.3
Motivation Targets

Classroom
2.1 Attitude
McMillan (1980) defines attitudes as internal states
Targets
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. In a learning institution, attitude is contingent on
subjects, teachers, 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.
 Some of these attitude are listed in the table below:
A Positive Attitude A Negative Attitude
Toward Toward
Learning Cheating
Math, Science, English, and Drug use
other subjects Bullying
Assignments Cutting Classes
Classroom rules Dropping out
Teachers
 In researches conducted by social psychologists, they found
that attitudes consist of three components or contributing factors
(Forsyth, 1999).
• 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 object or a person (good or bad feelings,
enjoyment, likes, comfort, anxiety, etc.). The cognitive component is
an evaluative belief (such as thinking something as valuable, useful,
worthless, etc.). The behavioral component is actually responding in
a positive way. A strong and stable attitude is manifested when all
three components are consistent.
2.2 Value Targets
Generally, values refer either to end states of
existence or to modes of conduct that are desirable or
sought (Rokeach, 1973). 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.
McMillan (2007) suggested that 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.
Some values that are commendable and non-controversial are described in
the table below:
Value Sample Value Target
Honesty Students should learner to value in their dealing
with others
Integrity Students should firmly observe their own code of
values.
Justice Students should support the view that all citizens
should be the 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.
2.3. Motivation Targets
In education, motivation can be defined as the extent to which students
are involved in trying to learn. (McMillan, 2007) This includes the students'
initiation of learning, the intensity of effort exerted, the students' commitment,
and the students' persistence. In other words, 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.
Researches on motivation can be organized according to the
Expectancy X Value Framework (Brophy, 2004; Pintrich & Schunk, 2002). 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. Self-efficacy is
the student's self-perception of his or her capability to perform successfully.
Values are self-perception of the importance of the performance. That is, the
student see the relevance of the activity.
 Like attitudes, motivation is too ambiguous to use the
general definition as an outcome because it is difficult to pinpoint
the source of lack of effort and involvement. McMillan (2007)
suggests that motivation targets should focus on self-efficacy and
value, distinct by academic subject and type of learning (like
knowledge, understanding, reasoning). Below are some 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)
.4 Academic Self-Concept Targets
Extensive literature on self-concept and self-esteem are
available for references. Most educators refer to these characteristics
when dealing with students who have problems with school and
learning (e.g., "Juan has a low self-concept," "Juana has a low
opinion of herself"). It is accepted that these beliefs are important
even when controversy over whether self-concept and self-esteem
proceed or result from academic learning. Some level of positive
self-efficacy is needed for achievement (McMillan, 2007). a student
can have a self- concept that he is tall and thin, but feel very
comfortable with it and accept the description. On the contrary there
can be another student who has the same self-concept but feel
inferior or inadequate, thus, have a low self-esteem.
 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. Moreover, individuals have a
sense of self-regard, self-affirmation, and self-worth in
each area (self-esteem). Hence, a student can have a
self- concept that he is tall and thin, but feel very
comfortable with it and accept the description. On the
contrary there can be another student who has the same
self-concept but feel inferior or inadequate, thus, have a
low self-esteem.
 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.
2.5. Social Relationship Targets
A complex set of interaction skills, including
identification of and appropriate responses to social
indications, defines social relationships. The table below
contains examples of the nature of social relationships
that can be used as targets.
Peer relation Friendship
Cooperation Collaboration
Taking a stand Conflict Resolution
Functioning in groups Assertiveness
Prosocial behaviour Empathy
 The example cited in the table are mostly relevant
in basic education, specifically in the elementary level as
these social traits are needed skills in their academic
achievement. And at the secondary level, social traits
that enhances interpersonal abilities are becoming more
important as the schools work with the business
community to assess the need, specifically those needs
pertaining to skills necessary to be successful in the
work place. Moreover, social interaction is a key element
of knowledge construction, active learning and deep
understanding (Borich &Tombari, 2004)
Presented in the table below are some examples of social relationship areas
and corresponding targets.
Social Relationship Target Concern Example
Peer Relationship Showing interest in others Students will share their
Listening to peers ideas in a small group
Sharing to a group discussion
Contributing to group activities

Cooperative Skills Sharing Students will demonstrate

Listening that they are able to
Volunteering ideas and negotiate with others and
suggestions compromise
Supporting and accepting
others’ ideas
Taking turns
Criticizing constructively
 Collaborative skills needed to work in small groups
may include four components namely:
Basic interactions
Getting along
Coaching
Fulfilling particular roles (Borich & Tombari,2004;Hoy &
Greg, 1994).

A general target regarding improved social

relationships” or “improved collaboration skills” does not
provide specifics to focus in instruction and assessment.
2.6 Classroom Environment Targets
In every classroom there is a unique climate that is felt at every
point in time. Some manifest a comfortable atmosphere, others have
relaxed and productive ambiance. As a result, 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
also by the classroom climate, some shows warm and supportive class
while others register as cold and rejecting. All these situations are what is
known as classroom environment, classroom climate, or classroom culture.
As affective target, learning should seek to establish student
feelings, relationships, and beliefs that promote positive classroom
environment. One of the relevant inputs to improve the classroom
environment is to compare students' perspectives with those of teachers'
perspectives as far as classroom ambiance.
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.
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 expertise
Competition The emphasis on competition between
students
Favoritism Whether each student influences classroom
decisions
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
Communicati The extent to which communication among
on students and with teachers is honest and
authentic
Warmth The extent to which students care about each
other and show concern
 3. 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
described in the affective taxonomy. These levels are
described in the following table.
 Level Description Example
Receiving Concerned with student’s sensitivity Students does
(Attending) to the existence of certain mathematics
phenomena and stimuli, that is, with for grade.
student’s willingness to receive or
to attend to this stimuli.
It is categorized in three
subdivisions that shows the
different levels of attending to
phenomena:
1. Awareness of the phenomena
2. Willingness to receive the
phenomena
3. Controlled or selected attention
phenomena
Responding Concerned with Student gives special
responses that go attention to the discussion
beyond merely of Mathematics lesson to
attending to phenomena be able to answer the
activities.
Valuing Reflects the student’s Student actively and
holding of a particular consistently participates in
importance of value. the discussion and
Students display interestingly answers all
behaviour with sufficient the activities in
consistency in Mathematics.
appropriate situations
that are perceived as
holding this value.
 Organizing Students successively Student integrates
internalize values, they the lessons
encounter situations in which learned in Math
more than one value is relevant. with Science.
This requires the necessity of
organizing their values in a
system such that certain values
exercise greater control.
Characterizing Internalization has taken place Student applies the
by a Value or in individual’s value hierarchy to lessons learned in
Value the extent that he or she can be Mathematics in
Complex characterized as holding a daily activities such
particular value or set of values. buying , cooking,
and others.
 Assessment tools in the affective domain, in particular,
those which are used to assess attitudes, interests, motivations,
and self-efficacy, have been developed. There are certain good
practices that are considered 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 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 write his/her thoughts on a subject matter, like,
"Why I Like or Dislike Mathematics".
 Rating Scales. A rating scale is a set of categories
designed to elicit information about a quantitative attribute
in social science. Com- mon 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. It consist a number of categories
which are usually assigned into 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.
Good____________________________________________ Bad
3 2 1 0 1 2 3

Usually, the position marked 0 is labeled "neutral," the I

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).
• 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.
 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 stud- ies.
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 aver- aged 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.
 EPA measurements are appropriate when one is interested
in affective responses. The EPA system is notable for being a
multi-variate approach to affect 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 in- dividual
persons
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 mes- sages
structured in different ways.
 The SD has been used by other investigators to study
attitude formation (e.g. Barclay arid Thumin, 1963), attitudes
toward organizations (eg, 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 addressed the issue of how favorable an
individual is with regard to a given issue. He developed an attitude
 Below is an example of a Thurstone scale of measurement.
Example (from Thurstone, 1931): 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 in 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 privledges as
whites. (scale value 10.3)
 In 1932, Likert developed the method of summated
ratings (or Likert's scale), which is still widely used. 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.
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 more generally any arithmetic
operations. Doing so is not however justified. In terms of the levels of
measurement proposed by S.S. Stevens, the data are ordinal categorizations.
This means, for example, that to agree strongly with the above statement
implies a least favourable perception of al- gebraic equations than does to
agree with the statement. However, the numbers are not interval-level
measurements in Stevens' schema. which means that equal differences do not
represent equal intervals between the degree to which one values algebraic
equations.
 In 1944, Guttman suggested that attitude should be
measured by multidimensional scales, as opposed to
unidimensional scales 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 scalling. 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 "1 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 instrument in
the affective domain to construct is the checklist. It 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. For
instance, 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 which are not.

Below is an example of a checklist for Teachers

(Observational Guide) with emphasis on the behavior: "Getting
Students' Attention" by Sandra F. Rief (1997). Notice that the
observational guide will probably consist of several other items
like: focusing students' atten- tion, maintaining students' attention,
and keeping students on-task dur- ing seatwork, each of which
requires corresponding series observable behaviors like the
example given for "getting students' attention".
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
story telling) to get attention and peak interest.
• Use storytelling.
• Add a bit of mystery
• Signal students auditorily: ring a bell, use a beeper or timer, play
a bar of 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 (eg., little toy car or
plastic figure) to be projected on the screen to get attention.
• Clearly signal: "Everybody...Ready..."
• Color is very effective in getting attention. Make use of
colored dry-erase pens on white boards, colored overhead
pens for transparencies and overhead projectors, and
colored paper to highlight key words, 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.
THANKYOU
FOR
LISTENING