Affective Assessment

       As noted by W. James Popham, “Affective assessment is a measurement of a student’s attitudes, interests, and/or values” (Popham, 2013, p. 513). In this case this assessment is non-cognitive, because it does not necessarily measure progress in a specific topic such as knowing, the thought processes, thinking skills or the application of knowledge, but it does measure those initially listed by Popham.  Affective assessment also does tell us (the teachers) about the student’s attitudes about the relevance and importance of the content they are to learn and also about their beliefs concerning their own ability to learn.  It is believed that the desire and motivation to learn are key to getting a positive education, but if none of those exist, then there is no learning. We do not measure motivation as an academic achievement. However, we do measure it as affective characteristics.  If the student does not simply want to learn, then they will not learn. As noted again by Popham, “The reason such affective variables as students’ attitudes, interests and values are important to us is that those variables typically influence future behavior.  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.  The affective status of students lets us see how students are predisposed to behave subsequently” (Popham, 2013, p. 253).

           Although it is important that we cognitively assess our students, it is also important that they are affectively assessed so that we can help them mold, assess and determine their future behavior, perhaps about having specific views, opinions and behaviors about specific careers they have in mind. Motivation and desire to learn also help motivate them to learn more about themselves as individuals. Here Popham explains that it is important that they learn the cognitive domains such as: knowing, thought processes, thinking skills and the application of knowledge. However, he believes that before having those cognitive  domains, teachers  should motivate students to think positively towards their attitudes, value, beliefs and dispositions of learning, and that is clearly stated when he says,  “affective variables are often more significant than cognitive variables”. (Popham, 2013, p. 250)

Future Use in my Own Classroom

        Some instruments that I could potentially use for affective assessment are self-check lists, attitude scales about specific topics or feelings or things they would like to learn. I would also use adjective checklists so that they are able to express in written form about their attitudes. By using these instruments, it will be easy for me to determine whether these students need an additional boost, or whether they need to think about the smaller things as bigger things.

Tying  to Standards

One way that this type of assessment ties into the standards addressed is that there are instruments that can be used to measure this assessment, such as self- checklists and attitude scales. There are methods to motivate our students by at least giving them words of encouragement. Other methods consist of specific goal they want to achieve in the future, and then at the end we can evaluate if they have met their goals, so that they are able to see self-progress, and therefore be motivated to continue to aim high and be successful for the future.

 Resources

Popham, W. James. (2013). Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know. 7th Edition, Pearson Publishing, Boston. (Chapter 10)