An Overview of Assessing Affective Outcomes of Classroom Learning for Teachers

The main goal of the teaching-learning process is learning. Learning is should be facilitated and assessed. Learning doesn’t only refer to substantive or content knowledge because learning can be in many forms. It can be a knowledge learned, a skill acquired or an attitude patterned. Within the school, a learner also learners to interact with other people and from his experiences he learn, acquire or pattern his attitudes, beliefs, preferences, morals, ethics, feelings, etc.. Since affects are also products of the teaching-learning process, they should also be assessed.

FIVE LEVELS OF AFFECTIVE DOMAIN OF LEARNING

Receiving – Being aware or  attending to something in the environment
Responding – Showing new behaviors as a result of learning/experiences
Valuing – Showing some definite involvement or commitment
Organizing – Integrating new values into one’s general set of values and giving ranks or prioritizing them
Characterization – Acting consistently with the new rule

ASSESSMENT OF AFFECTIVE OUTCOMES

Only a few approaches to the assessment of affective outcomes have been translated into classroom use. It is helpful for a teacher to know different approaches to assess whether students are learning affectively.

APPROACHES TO THE ASSESSMENT OF AFFECTIVE OUTCOMES

Robinson & shaver (1993) mentioned ways to assess attitudes and dynamic outcomes. They are as follows:

Money. A student who spends money on books has, more likely, an inclination to reading and it can be deduced that he loves what he does. People spend most of their money in things which they consider important.

Time. Time is gold. Gold in important. If some spends his time on something, it shows his love or interest in what he does.

Verbal Expressions. A person who speaks of the Bible is obviously affectively inclined to the Words of God.

Fund of Information. One who knows a lot about the solar system has more likely spends time and money to know such information. This shows his affective inclination to the field which interests him.

Speed of Decision or Reaction Time. A person who makes quick decision between attending ballet recitals or seminars shows his preference, beliefs and attitudes. If he chooses to attend the seminar, it means that he has strong belied or conviction that seminars are more important.

Written Expression or Personal Documents. Writing reflects who a person is. Emily Dickinson’s poems are always about bravery towards death. It only shows her attitude.
Sociometric Measures. Though a lot of contentions can be said against this, it still prevails that who your friends are is who you are.

Activity Level Methods. An activity that arouses one’s interest and in which he exerts a lot of energy is more likely the activity that he prefers.

Observations. Observing how a person conducts himself is the best way to assess his affects.

Specific Performances and Behaviors. A person’s behavior toward something is his attitude, belief, preference, etc. A person who hurts animals may be an animal-hater or just a violent person.

Memory Measures. Our memory absorbs the best when it is stimulated to do so. Recalling something easily reflects affects.

Simulations. Games, role playing and other activities that represent outside interaction are good conditions from which one’s affects can be observed.

THERE ARE WAYS to gather affective data. In this part of the lecture, we will have the following, one by one:

1.      Self-report
2.     Attitude scale (Forced-Choice Selection Method, Summated Ratings or Likert Scale, The Semantic Differential Technique)
3.     The Free Response and Opinionnaire Method
4.     Simple Projective Techniques
5.     Self-expression Techniques
6.     Checklist

WRITING ITEMS FOR SELF-REPORT AFFECTIVE MEASURES

These are guidelines and criteria to be considered to develop or edit activities that measure affective outcomes (Payne, 2003). Payne cited several things to avoid:

1.       Avoid statements referring to the past. Instead, refer to the present.

2.      Avoid statements that are factual or are capable of being interpreted as factual.

3.      Avoid statements that can be interpreted in more than one way.

4.      Avoid statements that are irrelevant to the psychological object under consideration.

5.      Avoid statements that are likely to be endorsed by everyone or by no one.

6.      Avoid reflecting the entire range of affectivity.

7.      Avoid using complex, ambiguous or indirect language.

8.      Avoid statements that are too long (more than 20 words).

9.      Avoid statements that contain more than one complete thought.

10.  Avoid statements that contain universals: “only,” “just,” “merely,” “none” and others of familiar nature.

11.   Avoid statements that are formed with compound or complex sentences.

12.   Avoid using highfalutin words or words difficult to understand.

13.   Avoid double negatives.


STEPS IN CONSTRUCTING AN ATTITUDE SCALE

Berdie et al. (1996) described an effective method to construct an attitude scale. There are steps and they are as follows:

Collect a pool of statements.  If you plan to have an attitude scale for cheating, let your students write three or four statements towards cheating.

Select the best statements. Using a criteria cull 30 items from a pool of 50 or 60 statements.

Administer the inventory. This is not a test; there is no right and wrong answer. All the sentences in the list represent ideas that some people hold about cheating on tests. Students can make use of the plus (+) sign or the minus (-) sign to indicate whether they agree or disagree, respectively. If students are uncertain, they can indicate this using a question (?) mark. Students can intensify their responses by encircling the symbol they incurred. For example, and encircled plus (+) sign symbolized that the student strongly agrees with the statement. Of course, these indications can be modified.

Score the inventory. Values can be assigned to responses. Refer to the given example below.

Symbol
Points given
Encircled +
5
+
4
-
3
Encircled -
2
?
0
                       
If the maximum possible score is 150, this will indicate a favorable attitude. The minimum can be 30 score and the indifference can be 90.


ATTITUDE SCALING:
FORCED-CHOICE SELECTION METHODS
This method requires/forces respondents to select among choices that differ in content. This is instead of choosing the degree of favorableness or intensity. The respondent is to choose the statement that best describes him. The format is the same with that of a multiple-choice examination and can be a description of a situation.

The forced-choice selection method: minimizes the subjectivity of the exam; reduces fakability; produces a better distribution; is quick, efficient and objective; and produces scores that are easily analyzed.


ATTITUDE SCALING:
SUMMATED RATING OR LIKERT SCALES
In this method, respondents are to choose among numbers (1, 2,3, 4 and 5) or letter (A, B, C, D and E) which are assigned with response categories (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree or strongly disagree). Numerical weights are best used for easiness of computation.


ATTITUDE SCALING:
SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL TECHNIQUE
This method makes use of bipolar adjective scales. It is designed to measure attitudes, feelings and opinions by degree from very favorable to highly unfavorable. Refer to the examples below:

Fast                 ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ -____                     Slow
Good               ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ -____                     Bad
Quite               ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ -____                     Active
Strong             ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ -____                     Weak

There are steps in developing a semantic differential scale. There are enumerated as follows:
1.       Identify the concepts to be rated.
2.      Choose appropriate bipolar scales.
3.      Design a response sheet.
4.      Write instructions.


FREE RESPONSE AND OPINIONNAIRE METHOD

This method brings out every relevant response and ensures that all necessary questions are asked. The students are free to respond the way they deem proper.

The following criteria are to be considered in preparing an opinionnaire (Gable, 1996):

1.       Brevity

2.      Inclusion of items of interest and face appeal to the respondents

3.      Provision for depth responses

4.      Wording should neither be suggestive nor unstimulating.

5.      Phrasing of questions should allay suspicion about hidden purposes and should not embarrass/threaten respondents.

6.      Phrasing of question should not be too narrow. It should allow respondents a reasonable latitude.

There are two types of opinionnaires – the close/pre-categorized type and the open/free-response type. A pre-categorized type is very closely related to the forced-response technique in that it requires a respondent to choose between or among categorized responses. The former, on the other hand, gives absolute freedom for any type of response.

There are general cautions to be considered when preparing an opinionnaire:

1.       Spell out objectives, purposes and specifications for the instrument.

2.      Try to limit the length of the questionnaire to ten questions.

3.      Make sure that the students understand the purpose of the questionnaire.

4.      Use a sequence of questions.

5.      Motivate the students to answer thoughtfully.

6.      Control the questionnaire’s administration.

7.      Urge the students to express their own thoughts.

8.      Be sure that directions are clear, definite and complete.

9.      Urge student to ask clarifying questions.

10.  Pilot-test the questions that are not clear to them.


SIMPLE PROJECTILE TECHNIQUES

SPT or (simple projectile technique) can be done using word associationunfinished sentences or unfinished stories. Word association is done by presenting a word and letting the student respond using the first word that comes out from his mind. Unfinished sentences are done by letting the student fill out missing parts of a sentence. Unfinished story is done  by asking students to tell how a story should end.

SELF-EXPRESSION TECHNIQUES

SET give the student the opportunity to express their ideas and opinions about themselves and others. Johari’s Window and other modified forms are the best examples of this.

CHECKLISTS



This is the simplest way to gather affective data. Students are only required to tick items that are either desirable/favorable or undesirable/unfavorable for them.

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