Assessment of Affective Dimensions

Evaluation is often equated and confused with assessment, but the two concepts are different.
Evaluation is defined in education as the formal determination of the quality, effectiveness, or
value of a program, project, process, objective, or curriculum. Assessment, conversely, is defined
as a systematic process for collecting information in the form of quantitative and qualitative data,
usually in measurable terms, about students’ performance. Assessment provides important
information for many different purposes that are important to the educational system, including
guiding instructional decision-making in the classroom, holding schools accountable for
students’ achievement, and monitoring and evaluating educational programs (Coffey, Douglas,
& Stearns, 2008). Moreover, assessment should be an integral part of teaching, not only as a tool
to collect data, but also to influence instruction (Higuchi, 1995; Tej, 1990). Evaluations often
utilize assessment data along with other resources to make decisions about revising, adopting, or
rejecting a course or program. Thus the assessment or evaluation of students’ performance
should ideally cover cognitive (i.e., knowledge/intellectual), affective (e.g., values, attitudes,
interest, and motivation), or social and psychomotor aspects of learning in line with the specific
requirement of the particular lessons. For the purpose of assessing the affective dimension,
Anderson and Anderson (1982) suggest five principles to be considered by teachers/researchers
in which they should know: (1) the purpose of assessment, (2) what will be assessed, (3) what
instruments are available, (4) the quality of the instruments, and (5) how to interpret the
assessment scores.

3.1 The Purpose of Assessment

Anderson and Anderson (1982) identify two major purposes for assessing affective
characteristics. They are (1) to gain a better understanding of students prior to instruction and (2)
to examine the extent to which students have acquired the affective objectives of a course or
curriculum. In the first situation, affective characteristics are means to an end in which the
assessment enables the instruction to be altered for particular students or types of students with
the hope that such alterations will lead to increased learning. In the second situation, affective
characteristics are ends in themselves, that is, specific programs are designed and implemented
in order to help students achieve particular affective objectives. Whether affective characteristics
are important as means to an end or ends in themselves has consequences for the type of
characteristics assessed. If they are viewed as means, those chosen for assessment must relate
one or more of the available alternative classroom settings or teaching styles to the cognitive
objectives of the course or curriculum, or both. If they are viewed as ends in themselves, the
characteristics selected for assessment must conform to the goals and objectives of the course or
curriculum. The chemistry education literature describes instruments that are used to assess six
different affective characteristics, including (1) attitude, (2) interest, (3) motivation, (4) self-
concept, (5) values, and (6) morals. These characteristics will be discussed throughout this
chapter:

1. An attitude instrument is intended to measure students’ attitude toward an object, such as

a chemistry lesson. The attitude can be positive or negative. The measurement results of
students’ attitude can be used, for example, to decide an appropriate teaching strategy
(Oliver-Hoyo & Allen, 2005).
2. An interest instrument is intended to get information about, for example, students’
interest toward hands-on chemistry activities. The interest can be positive or negative.
The information on students’ interest can be used for designing a chemistry lesson
(Palmer, 2009).
3. A motivation instrument is intended to measure, for example, students’ learning
motivation in chemistry. Students’ motivation can be positive or negative. The
information about students’ motivation can be used to design a chemistry instructional
program (Rahayu et al., 2011).
4. A self-concept instrument is intended to measure the strengths and weaknesses of
students, for example, students’ self-concept as a learner of chemistry (Bauer, 2005). The
learner evaluates objectively against the potential that exists within him/her. The
characteristic of the learner’s potency is very important to determine the level of his/her
career. Information on strengths and weaknesses of learners is used to determine which
programs should be pursued.
5. A values instrument is intended to uncover the values of learners. Information obtained in
the form of values can be positive or negative. Values that are positive can be
strengthened, while negative values should be reduced and finally eradicated.
6. A morals instrument aims to uncover the learner’s morals. Information about the
learner’s morals can be obtained through observation of behavior that is displayed and
 self-reports through administering a questionnaire. The results of observations and
questionnaires provide information about the morals of the learners.

3.2 What Will Be Assessed

Affective characteristics refer to human qualities that are primarily emotional in nature, such
as attitudes, interest, motivation, values, self-concepts, and morals. To be considered
accessible, affective characteristics must be (1) emotion-laden qualities, (2) consistent across
a variety of situations, (3) directed toward some object or target, and (4) experienced with a
certain degree of intensity (Anderson & Anderson, 1982). The meaningfulness of assessment
is greatly enhanced if the various components of affective characteristics are defined. First,
the particular object or target should be identified. For example, is the target of attitudes the
school or the teacher? Is the target of interest an inquiry activity or a museum visit? Second,
the degree of intensity of the affective characteristics should be specified. Some feelings are
stronger than others, such as love is stronger than like. Some people may have feelings that
are stronger than others. The endpoints of representing the directionality of the specific
affective characteristics should be determined. Direction of feeling is connected with a
positive or negative orientation of feeling and indicates whether the feeling is good or bad.
For example, like toward lesson is positive, while anxiety is negative. Specifying the target,
intensity, and directionality helps the assessor understand and communicate to others the
affective characteristic to be assessed.