Unit 4: Affective Assessment

Introduction
Schools should care about students’ attitudes toward learning and they should
nurture students’ self-esteem. Affective variables influence student behavior.
Values shape daily conduct. Attitudes toward learning effect progress and
achievement. Motivation contributes to students’ academic success. Most
importantly, student status on affective variables informs and guides instruction.
Then, it is a must for would-be teachers like you to learn affective assessment. This
will guide you in dealing with students diverse in terms of intelligence and
emotional quotient. It is essential for teachers to know how students learn and what
interest them. In this unit, you will be learning different affective assessment tools
which will help you to determine students’ attitude, values, academic self-concept,
locus of control, self-efficacy, interest, academic aspiration, and anxiety.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit, you are expected to:
1. Define affective assessment and related concepts
2. Select appropriately developed, high quality affective assessment tools
3. Use target- and learner-appropriate affective assessment methods and tools
4. Interpret affective assessment data/ results for monitoring and evaluating
learner achievement to improve learner performance and inform
instruction

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Activating Prior Knowledge

Can you still remember the domains of learning by Bloom’s taxonomy,
the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains? This activity will focus
on assessing your previous knowledge on affective domain of the Bloom’s
taxonomy. Accomplish the graphic organizer given below.

Write the definition: Use it in a sentence:

Affective Domain
Write a synonym: Draw a picture:

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Topic 1. Basic Concepts in Affective Assessment

Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
1. Determine the levels of learning and behavior verbs used in
affective domain
2. Define affective assessment
3. Discuss the different affective and disposition targets such as attitude,
values, academic self-concept, locus of control, self-efficacy, interest,
academic aspiration, and anxiety
4. Use the different concepts of affective assessment in dealing with
situations/problems in school

Presentation of Content
In Bloom’s taxonomy published, three domains were identified:
cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.
The affective domain is part of a system that was published in 1965 for
identifying, understanding, and addressing how people learn.
Domains of Learning (Bloom)

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It emphasizes a feeling It emphasizes measurements

tone, an emotion or degree of reasoning and the mental
of acceptance or rejection. faculties of the student.

Levels of Learning in Affective Domain

Behavioral Verbs in Affective Domain

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Definition of Affective Assessment

This is the process of gathering information about the outcomes of education that
involve disposition or personal feelings such as attitudes, sense of academic self-
confidence or interest in something that motivationally predisposes a person to act
or not to act.
It also involves individual’s choice whether he/she likes to finish a task or how
s/he would like to do it.
What does it measure?

Affective/Disposition Targets
Anderson & Bourke (2000) cited by Stiggins (2001)

1. Attitude
It is learned predisposition to respond in a consistent favorable or
unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.

2. School-related Values
Values are beliefs about what should be desired, what is important or
cherished, and what standards of conduct are acceptable.
Values influence or guide behavior, interest, attitudes and satisfactions.
Values are enduring. They tend to remain stable over fairly long periods
of time.
Values are learned and tend to be of high intensity and tend to focus on ideas.
The following are values related to academic success:
Belief in the value of education as a foundation for a productive life
Belief in the benefits of strong effort in school
A strong sense of the need for the ethical behavior at testing time
(no cheating)
The belief that a healthy lifestyle (for ex. No drugs) underpins
academic success
Feeling about the key aspects of their schooling , that predispose
students to behave in academically productive ways

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3. Academic Self-concept
It is a learned vision that results largely from evaluation of self by others
over time. It is the sum of all evaluative judgements one makes about
one’s possibility of success and/or productivity in an academic context.

4. Locus of Control
It is the student’s attributions or belief about the reasons for academic
success or failure.
Internal- the attributions come from within.
“I succeeded because I tried hard.”
External- the attributions come from external contributions or factor.
“I was lucky to receive a grade of 99 .”
“I performed well because I had a good teacher.”

5. Self-efficacy
Its target is a task, a (school) subject, an instructional objective and the
like. The direction is best captured by “I can” versus “I can’t”. A “can’t
do” attitude lies at the heart of a concept known as learned helplessness.
The symptoms include a lack of persistence in the face of failure, negative
affect and negative expectations about the future.

6. Interest
A disposition organized through experience which impels an individual to
seek out particular objects, activities, understandings, skills or goals for
attention or acquisition.

7. Academic Aspirations
The desire to learn more, the intent to seek out and participate
in additional education experiences.

8. Anxiety
It is the experience of (emotional) tension that results from real
or imagined threats to one’s security.

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Topic 2. Affective Assessment Tools

Learning Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
1. Differentiate the different tools, techniques, and formats used in
affective assessment
2. Select appropriately developed, high quality affective assessment tools
3. Use target- and learner-appropriate affective assessment methods and tools
4. Construct an affective assessment tool

Presentation of Content
Tools and Techniques used in Affective Assessment

1. Interest Inventory- measures learners area of interest

2. Personality inventory- measures learner’s traits such as self-concept,

social adjustment, problem solving styles, and other traits.

3. Observation Techniques

3.1.Casual Information Observations- unstructured, unplanned or an

observation without using any instrument

3.2.Observation Guides- structured or with the use of a planned instrument

to record observations

3.3.Clinical Observations- a prolonged process in diagnosing clients in a

controlled clinical setting, which involves the use of sophisticated
techniques and instruments

3.4.Anecdotal Records- a narrative record of observations of a particular

learner behavior during a given situation or event free from
interpretations and conclusions

3.5.Scales- consists of list of characteristics or behaviors to be observed and

an evaluative scale to indicate the degree to which they occur

3.6.Checklist- a set of traits that an observer has to mark if demonstrated by

a particular learner

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4. Self-Reporting Techniques

4.1.Autobiography- enables the learners to describe his/her own life

and experiences

4.2.Self-Expression Essay- seeks to assess the learner’s response to

a particular question or concern usually in a short essay form

4.3.Self-Description- requires the learner to paint a picture

of himself/herself in words

4.4.Self-Awareness Exercises- designed to help learners become

more aware of their feelings, emotions, and values

4.5.Questionnaire- provides an opportunity to easily collect a great deal of

information that may be useful in further understanding the learner client
in identifying problems as well as opinions, attitudes, and values

4.6.Structured Interview- enables the counselor to obtain

specific information and to in-depth behavior or responses

5. Group Assessment Techniques

5.1 Sociometric Technique- provides information on social relationships

such as degrees of acceptance, roles and interactions within groups

5.2 Guess Who Technique- best used with relatively well-established

groups in which members are well acquainted with each other

5.3 Communigram- assesses the frequency of verbal participation of a

learner in a particular group within a given period

5.4 Social Distance Scales- measures the distance of a learner between

other persons and himself/herself that is usually identified through the
reaction to given statements that compare attitudes of acceptance of
rejection of other people

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Formats of Affective Assessment Tools

1. Closed- Item or Forced-choice Instruments- answers are selected from

the given choices

1.1 Checklist- measures students’ preferences, hobbies, attitudes, feelings,

beliefs, interests, etc. by marking a set of possible responses.

1.2 Scales- these measure the extent or degree of one’s response

Types of Scale

1.2.1 Rating Scale- measures the degree or extent of one’s attitudes,

feelings, and perception about ideas, objects and people by
marking a point along 3- or 5- point scale.

1.2.2 Semantic Differential Scale- measures the degree of one’s

attitudes, feelings, and perception about ideas, objects, and
people by marking a point along 5- or 7- or 11- point scale
of contrasting adjectives at each end.

1.2.3 Likert Scale- measures the degree of one’s agreement or

disagreement on positive or negative statements about objects
and people.

1.3 Alternative-Response – measures students’ preferences, hobbies,

attitudes, feelings, beliefs, interests, etc. by choosing between two
possible responses

1.4 Ranking- measures students’ preferences or priorities by ranking a set

of attitudes or objects.

2. Open-Ended Instruments- there are no choices for the answers

2.1.Sentence Completion- measures students’ preferences over a variety

of attitudes and allows students to answer by completing an
unfinished statement which may vary in length

2.2.Survey- measures the values held by an individual by writing one

or many responses to a given question

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2.3.Essay- allows the students to reveal and clarify their preferences,

hobbies, attitudes, feelings, beliefs, interests and the like by
writing their reaction or opinion on a given question

Suggestions in Writing Affective Assessment Items

1. Avoid statements that refer to the past rather than to the present
2. Avoid statements that are factual or capable of being interpreted as factual
3. Avoid statements that may 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 almost everyone or
by almost no one
6. Select statements that are believed to cover the entire range of affective
scale of interests
7. Keep the language of the statements simple, clear and direct
8. Statements should be short, rarely exceeding 20 words
9. Each statement should contain only one complete thought
10. Statements containing universals such as all, always, none, and
never often introduce ambiguity and should be avoided
11. Words such as only, just, merely, and others of similar nature should
be used with care and moderation in writing statements
12. Whenever possible, statements should be in the form of simple sentences
rather than in the form of compound or complex sentences
13. Avoid the use of words that may not be understood by those who are to be
given the completed scale
14. Avoid the use of double negatives

Examples of Affective Assessment Tools

Attitude Scale

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Checklist

Semantic Differential

Likert Scale

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Word Association

Unfinished Sentence

Unfinished Story

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Summary
✓
Affective assessments are systematic measurements of students’ attitudes,
interests, motivation, perception, belief, behavior, opinion and values.
✓
Results from affective assessments can promote learning by guiding
instruction.
✓
Affective/disposition targets: attitude, values, academic self-concept, locus of
control, self-efficacy, interest, academic aspiration, and anxiety
✓
Tools and techniques used in affective assessment: interest inventory,
personality inventory, observation techniques, self-reporting
techniques, and group assessment techniques
✓
Formats of affective assessment tools: closed- item or forced-choice
instruments and open-ended instruments

Reflection
Congratulations! You are done with the fifth unit of this module. Now, go back
to the activities and lessons you have taken in this unit and answer the following
questions. Limit your answers for each question to 5 to 10 sentences only.
1. What is the best thing you learned on this unit?
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2. How relevant is this unit in your future profession?

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3. What do you still want to learn about on this unit?

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References
Adriano, C.T. (2003). Making a perfect fit: objectives and test items. University
of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.

Buendicho, F. C. (2010). Assessment of student learning. Manila, Philippines:

Rex Bookstore.

De Guzman-Santos, R. (2007). Assessment of learning 1. Quezon City: Lorimar

Publishing, Inc.

Gabuyo, Y. A. (2012). Assessment of student learning 1: textbook and reviewer.

Manila, Philippines: Manila, Rex Bookstore.

Garcia, C. (ND). Measuring and evaluating learning outcomes: a textbook in

assessment of learning 1 and 2. Mandaluyong City,Philippines: Books Atbp
Publishing Corporation.