Assessment Tools in the Affective Domain

The assessment tools in the affective domain are those that are used to assess attitudes, interests, motivations, and self-efficacy. We consider a few of the standard assessment tools in the affective domain.

1. Self-Report. This 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 student to write his/her thoughts on a subject matter, like, "Why I like or dislike Mathematics". The teacher ensures that the students write something which would demonstrate the various levels of the taxonomy (from receiving up to characterization)
2. Rating Scale. This is a set of categories designed to elicit information about a quantitative attribute in social science. Common 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. The basic feature of any rating scale is that it consists of a number of categories. These are usually assigned integers. According to Nitko (2001), rating scales can be used for teaching purposes and assessment.
1. rating scales help students understand the learning target/outcomes and to focus students' attention on performance.
2. completed rating scale gives specified feedback to students as far as their strengths and weaknesses with respect to the targets to which they are measured
3. students not only learn the standards but also may internalize the set of standards
4. ratings help to show each students' growth and progress

Example: RAting Scale (Attitude towards Mathematics)

Directions: Put the score on the column for each of the statement as it applies to you. Use 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest possible score.

Indicators	Score
1. I am happy during Math class
2. I get tired doing board work and drills
3. I enjoy solving word problems

Types of Rating Scales

The most common type of rating scales is numerical rating scales and a descriptive graphic rating scale. The numerical rating scale translate the judgment of quality or degree into numbers. To increase the objectivity and consistency of results from numerical rating scales, a short verbal description of the quality level of each number may be provided.

Example: 

Directions: Indicate the degree to which the student contributes to team activity by encircling the appropriate number. The numbers represent the following values: 4 - constantly appropriate and effective; 3 - generally appropriate and effective; 2 - needs improvement, may do other unrelated tasks; and 1 - unsatisfactory, disruptive and do other tasks not related to the activity.

• To what extent does the student participate in team meetings and discussions?  1  2  3  4

Descriptive Graphic Rating Scales. A better format for the rating is this descriptive graphic rating scale that replaces the ambiguous single word with short behavioral descriptions of the various points along the scale. Describing the points of the scale by behavior descriptions leads to increased consistency of ratings across raters and students.

Example:

Directions: Make your ratings on each of the following by placing X anywhere along the horizontal line under each item. In the space for comments(s), include anything that helps clarify your rating.

1. To what extent does the student participate in team meetings and discussions?

Common Rating Scale Errors

The table below contains the common rating scale errors that teachers and students must be familiar with in order to avoid committing such kind of errors during the assessment.

3. Semantic Differential Scales - 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. An example is shown below:

4. Likert Scale - is a simple and widely used self-report method in assessing affect. It requires that individuals tick on a box to report whether they "strongly agree", "agree", "undecided", "disagree", or "strongly disagree", in response to a large number of items concerning attitude object or stimulus. An example is shown below:

Constructing the Likert Scale Instrument

1. Write a series of statements expressing positive and negative opinions toward attitude objects.
2. Select the best statements (at least 10), with a balance of positive and negative opinions and edit as necessary.
3. List the statements combining the positive and negative and put the letters of the five-point scale to the left of each statement for easy marking
4. Add the directions, indicating how to mark the answer and include a key at the top of the page if letters are used for each statement.
5. Some prefer to drop the undecided category so that respondents will be forced to indicate agreement or disagreement

5. Checklists - are the most common and perhaps the easiest instrument to construct in the affective domain. A checklist consists of simple items that the student or teacher marks as "absent" or "present". Here are steps in constructing 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 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.
• Example of a checklist is shown below:

Checklists for Teachers

By: Sandra F. Rief (1997)

Getting students' attention

c   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

c   Try "'playfulness," silliness, a bit of theatrics (props and storytelling) to get attention and peak interest.

c   Use storytelling. Students of all ages love to hear stories, especially personal stories. It is very effective in getting attention.

c   Add a bit of mystery. Bring in an object relevant to the upcoming lesson in a box, bag, or pillowcase. This is a wonderful way to generate predictions and can lead to excellent discussions or writing activities.

c   Signal students auditorily: ring a bell, use a beeper or timer, play a bar of music on the piano or guitar, etc.

c   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.

c   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.

c   Frame the visual material you want students to be focused on with your hands or with a colored box around it.

c   If using an overhead, place an object (e.g., little toy car or plastic figure) to be projected on the screen to get attention.

c   Clearly signal: "Everybody…Ready…"

c   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 keywords, phrases, steps to computation problems, spelling patterns, etc.

c   Model excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming lesson.

c   Use eye contact. Students should be facing you when you are speaking, especially while instructions are being given. If students are seated in clusters, have those students not directly facing you turn their chairs and bodies around to face you when signaled to do so.

What is MOTIVATION?

According to Geen (1995), motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity, and persistence of human behavior. In education, it can be defined as the extent to which students are involved in trying to learn (McMillan, 2007). There are many theories that explain human motivation. The need theory is one of these theories. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of human needs theory is the most widely discussed theory of motivation. 

Motivation is of particular interest to educational psychologists because of the crucial role it plays in student learning. However, the specific kind of motivation that is studied in the specialized setting of education differs qualitatively from the more general forms of motivation studied by psychologists in other fields. Motivation in education can have several effects on how students learn and their behavior towards subject matter (Omrod, 2003). It can:

• direct behavior toward particular goals
• lead to increased effort and energy
• increase initiation of, and persistence in, activities
• enhance cognitive processing
• determine what consequences are reinforcing
• lead to improved performance

Students are not always internally motivated, they sometimes need situated motivation, which is found in environmental conditions that the teacher creates. There are two kinds of motivation. These are:

• Intrinsic motivation - which occurs when people are internally motivated to do something because it either brings them pleasure, they think it is important, or they feel that what they are learning is morally significant.
• Extrinsic motivation - comes into play when a student is compelled to do something or act a certain way because of factors external to him or her (like money or good grades).

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.

Motivation Targets

Like attitudes, motivation is too ambiguous to use the general definitions 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)

In assessing motivation, it is important to consider why students are learning, and the reasons students' give for their actions. Students who are motivated 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, an inclination to generate solutions to difficulties and generate more positive credits to success and failure.