Affective Assessment

By: W. James Popham

Assessment in Affective Domain

 Describes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of

acceptance or rejection.
 More difficult domain to objectively analyze and assess since affective objectives vary
from simple attention to selected phenomena to complex
 Internally consistent qualities of character and conscience.

The Affective Domain

 The Affective Taxonomy, which describes objectives that reflects underlying emotions,
feelings, or values rather than cognitive or thought complexity.
 This taxonomy describes a process by which another person’s, groups, or society’s
ideas, beliefs, customs, philosophies, attitudes, and so on are gradually accepted and
internalized by a different person, group, or society.
 This process usually begins with a minimal, partial, or incomplete acceptance of an
alternative point of view and culminates with the complete integration of this point of
view into an individual’s personal belief system.

For example:

An individual who naively believed in early 1985 that the return of Halley’s Comet in 1986
would cause the end of life on Earth may at first have found it difficult even listen to,
receive, or attend to information that indicated that the comet’s return would have no
significant or lasting effect on life on Earth. Instead, the individual may have ignored such
information, attempting instead to convince others of Earth’s impending doom. However,
with the passage of time throughout the year, and with increased media and educational
reports about the event, the individual may have increasingly listened to such information
and even considered, discussed, or responded to explanations regarding Earth’s safety
owing to the comet’s distance from Earth, its lack of mass, the protection afforded by
Earth’s atmosphere, etc. Eventually the individual likely began to value the argument that
the comet would have little or no effect on life on Earth and ceased preaching the demise of
Earth.

Krathwol’s Taxonomy of Affective Domain:

The taxonomy is presented in five stages:

1. Receiving describes the stage of being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain

ideas, material, or phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to
differentiate, to accept, to listen (for), to respond to.
 2. Responding describes the second stage of the taxonomy and refers to a commitment
in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena involved by actively
responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to volunteer,
to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.

3. Valuing means being willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas,

materials, or phenomena. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to
relinquish, to subsidize, to support, to debate.

4. Organization is the fourth stage of Krathwohl’s taxonomy and involves  relating the
new value to those one already holds and bringing it into a harmonious and internally
consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to
examine.

5. Characterization by value or value set means acting consistently in accordance with

the values the individual has internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be
rated high in the value, to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.

Why Assess Affect?

Popham believes that “affective variables are often more significant than cognitive variables”

People can still succeed, if they are hardworking and highly motivated, even if they lack
intellectual skills.

Likewise, people with a low self-esteem may not take on challenges if they don’t believe in
themselves or their abilities.

“The reason we want to promote positive attitudes toward learning is because students who
have positive attitudes toward learning today will be inclined to pursue learning in the future”

What To Assess?

1. Attitudes
2. Interests
3. Values

Attitudes

Popham states there are 4 attitudes:

a. Positive attitude toward learning

b. Positive attitude toward self
c. Positive attitude toward self as a learner
d. Appropriate attitude toward those who differ from us

Interests

Popham states that there are 3 interest targets:

a. Subject-related interests
 b. Interest in reading
c. Interest in emerging technology

*Index cards, corners of interest, beginning and end of year. Useful in various grouping.

Values

Popham states that there are 4 potential value target areas:

a. Honesty
b. Integrity
c. Justice
d. Freedom

How Do You Assess Attitudes In The Classroom?

 Self-report or anonymous inventory

*End of class, unit, or reflections/exit questions

*Reading survey?
*Thumbs up….
*Line up on this side if you like….
The Most Widely Used Survey
by Rensis Likert

Likert Inventory

Likert inventories consist of a series of statements to which students register their agreement or
disagreement;

Don’t make statements too positive or too negative

Likert Statement Examples…

Multifocus Affective Inventory

A multifocus affective inventory is an assessment that attempts to collect information about a

number of students’ dimensions.

How might teachers make use of data from a multifocus affective inventory?
Something To Think About

When should teachers assess their students’ affective status?

Should teachers give a pre and post test for the affect, just like they would do to check
cognitive status?

“Although most teachers recognize that students’ interests, attitudes, and values are important,
few teachers deliberately strive to promote appropriate affect in their students”(Popham 243).

Reasons for the “neglect of affect”:

Too much curriculum to cover;

Too much knowledge and skills that students need to master;

Accountability pressures on teachers on boosting students’ test scores(Popham 245).

Good news, though!

“Even if a teacher uses only one self-report inventory, at the start of a term and at its
conclusion, the presence of this assessment instrument will almost certainly incline the teacher
to think about the degree to which any classroom activities are being directed toward the
promotion of appropriate affective outcomes” (Popham 245).

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.
a. rating scales help students understand the learning target/outcomes and to focus
students' attention on performance.
b. 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
c. students not only learn the standards but also may internalize the set of standards
d. 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
   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 storytelling) to get attention and
peak interest.
   Use storytelling. Students of all ages love to hear stories, especially personal stories. It is
very effective in getting attention.
   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.
   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 (e.g., 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 keywords, 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. 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.