1. Affective Instructional Approach
Dr W. A. M. Alwis
School of Engineering

2. Affective ???
The word “affect” originates from the Latin affectus, meaning “feelings”
Bloom’s taxonomy (1956 document) identified three domains of education.
Cognitive:- focus is on mental actions
Affective:- focus is on attitudes, motivation, biases etc.
Psychomotor:- focus is on physical (bodily) actions
Academic education is focussed mostly on cognitive domain whereas vocational education on psychomotor domain.
What gets mostly overlooked in both is the affective domain.

3. Student centred education
The answer is …
Student centred education
Student centred education does not mean that students will
get to set any of the curriculum;
get to set the examination papers or mark any of them; or
gain control over what happens in any of the classrooms.
All of the above would remain in the control of the teachers, administrators and whoever in-charge, just as in the past.
Student centred education means that each student’s personal history, feelings, biases etc., are attended to as much as possible in the teaching and testing processes.

4. Teaching / Instruction
Teaching / instruction makes sense only when
learners learn the intended knowledge; and
develop at least some understanding of that knowledge.
Knowledge and understanding are bound together but not the same.
Students learn what they process,
but they take the shortest path to complete any assigned task.

5. Things to take note of …
Knowledge is listed in the cognitive domain in Bloom’s taxonomy, as a lower order item in the hierarchy; knowledge is thought of in there as the same as information that can be remembered.
If we take knowledge as what we know, then knowledge would be diverse, most of which is tacit. Knowledge cannot be just information. (Knowledge being limited to cognitive domain looks wrong too).
One shows that one has understanding when one responds sensibly to a happening using the relevant knowledge. Here, we need those ‘higher order thinking skills’ to develop that understanding.
Knowledge exists outside individuals too. Some devices and tools contain knowledge, embedded in them. Situated knowledge (Lave, 1988) is located at situations. They all are vital in the industry.

6. A perspective: Affect interferes with the World 2
(Popper 1972; Bereiter 2002)
Mysteries of human mind lay here
World 2: Each individual’s personal world of thoughts, emotions and expressions.
Personal learning happens here.
World 3: The space of conceptual artefacts
World 1: The physical world containing objects which function in some orderly manner.
Plans, schemes, strategies, jokes, theories, ideas etc. shared among people.
Automate a procedure IP

7. Understanding is closely linked to knowledge
When we say understanding, who understand and what is understood are necessarily meant in there.
This “who” is normally a person but can be an animal too.
This “what” can be any object in World-1 or World-3. It is possible to refer to World-2 also, e.g. when it is implicit understanding.
Understanding refers to an ability or disposition that is ‘enough’ to support intelligent/wise action or behaviour with respect to some issue/aspect of the reference object.
Affective domain interferes here.

8. Complex versus Complicated
There are simple things, complicated things made by putting together many simple things, and complex wholes.
ORGANISED COMPLEXITY 
Complexity arises in collections of autonomous adaptive agents each of which acts on its own behalf while interacting with each other. (Kauffman, 2000)
Such ‘wholes’ thrive on diversity, allow for alternatives, and produce unexpected interesting/creative outcomes, as the participants coevolve.
Order –emergence and self-organisation– arises out of chaos.
Change gives meaning to permanency; recurrence makes novelty possible; constraints do liberate. Ambiguity & uncertainty are regular features.
Education is one of those complex things.

9. Education is a complex whole means …
Once we take education as a case of organised complexity, we see things in there differently, and interpret them in a new light.
Curriculum and pedagogy are not just two separate things, but are simultaneous and distinct, i.e. separate and bound together.
So are subject expertise and teaching ability.
Mind is not a container of knowledge items. Learning is not accumulative; learning is a process of organic change.
Education is capable of (and is meant for) shaping individuals.
Teaching does not cause learning, but teaching can influence learning. What gets learned is a result of how the learner responds to experiences.
Some of these are closely connected to the affective domain.

10. An important observation
Diverse entities participate in education.
Beliefs & expectations of human participants (students, teachers, administrators, stakeholders) manifest in
curriculum documents,
how subject boundaries get drawn,
how students study,
how teachers teach/assess/grade,
how the results get interpreted by the society, economy, industry, etc.
Components in affect

11. “There can be little doubt that affect is the most important yet least understood influence on the way people think and behave in social situations.”
Joseph P. Forgas, Affect and Social Cognition (2001)
Although intuitively we know that our feelings frequently have a profound influence on our thoughts, judgments and interpersonal behaviors, in practice we do not yet fully understand how and why these influences occur. Empirical research by psychologists has, until quite recently, provided only glimpses into the delicate relationship between affect, cognition, and behavior. Most of what is known about the role of affect in social cognition has only been discovered since the beginning of the 1980s.

12. Our thinking has been shaped by history
Modernist thinking (starting from Newton’s time) is based on reasoning. Mind is considered superior to body. Mind is associated with reason whereas body is associated with various kinds of things inclusive of what is looked at suspiciously in many traditional cultures (pleasure, greed etc.)
Classical philosophers viewed affect as a primitive, animalistic mode of responding that is incompatible with reason. (Elser, 1985)
A fundamental assumption in empirical psychology is that feeling, knowing, and willing can be studied in separation. (Hilgard, 1980). This thinking had made us believe that one should be able to suppress whatever negative feelings on the basis of reason.
Interest in affect goes back much further than just a few decades. Classic philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and others devoted considerable attention to the role of affect in human affairs. Forgas (2001) writes that affect was viewed by Plato as a more primitive, animalistic mode of responding that is incompatible with reason. The basic idea that affective reactions “tend to overwhelm or subvert rational mental processes (Elser, 1985) has been echoed in many philosophical, social, and psychological theories throughout the ages. For example, Freud saw emotion as a dangerous influence.
In recent years, largely as a result of advances in social cognition and neuroanatomy, it is recognizes that affect is not necessarily a disruptive influence on social thinking. Affect is often a useful and even essential component of adaptive functioning.
Research on affect remained a relatively neglected field until recently in psychology. One reason for this neglect is probably empirical psychology’s fundamental assumption that different components of the human mind—affect, cognition, and conation—(feeling, knowing, and willing) can be adequately studied in separation from each other rather than in their interactions (Hilgard, 1980). As Hilgard (1980) suggests, it was probably Christian Wolff ( ) who first proposed a distinction between a facultas cognoscivita and a facultas appetiva—knowing and desire. Soon afterward, Moses Mendelssohn ( ) introduced a more elaborate, three fold classification of the fundamental faculties of soul—understanding, feeling, and will. Immanuel Kant, perhaps the most influential philosopher of the 18th century, readily accepted this tripartite division of the human mental faculties and incorporated it into his philosophical system. For Kant, “pure reason corresponds to intellect or cognition, practical reason to will, action or conation, and judgment to feeling pleasure or pain, hence affection” (Hilgard, 1980, p. 109). This philosophical classification of psychology’s subject matter into affect, cognition, and conation has had a major influence on the eventual development of empirical psychology and education.

13. In technology education
Reasons for imbalanced attention to affective domain include:
Archetypal image of science/technology, where reason is separated from feeling, originating from mind-body separation suggested by Descartes in the 17th century.
Long-standing cognitive tradition in teaching practice.
Confusing definitions of available affective constructs.
Underdeveloped affective assessment practices.
Philosophical and psychological roots led educators to consider mental faculties as those having to do with thinking, feeling and doing. Through Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, we strive to engage our students in higher order thinking, application, analysis and synthesis of understandings. We do this through our questions, assignments, and assessments. In the laboratory and fieldwork, we emphasis the psychomotor domain as we ask students to imitate, manipulate, perform with precision and finally to automatize their practices, just as athletes do on the field. In contrast, the affective is less familiar to us as practitioners & educators. A tension of sorts exists between the rational thinking associated with the image of science/technology and affect. Unlike the levels of thinking and doing in the cognitive and psychomotor domains, respectively, the levels of affective described in Krathwohl’s taxonomy are harder to understand; they are less intuitive, less elegant, and perhaps even slippery (receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization by value) and therefore they seem less useful. Compare the levels of Krathwohl’s taxonomy of the affective domain and those of Bloom’s cognitive domain (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). The elegance is apparent. Add to this the many and growing number of constructs associated with the affective domain. When we consider about motivation alone, we have intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, learning goals and performance goals, self-efficacy, anxiety, self-determination, and the list goes on. And, let us not forget the problems with affective assessment. Most affective assessment involves self-report, where instrument reliability and validity are always a concern.

14. Paradigm shift in psychology
Emergence of a cognitive paradigm as the mainstream orientation accepted by most psychologists. Affect was considered a disruptive influence on thinking (Hilgard 1980).
1980s
Research began to link affect and social cognition:
situated cognition (Lave and Wenger 1991)
feeling and thinking (Forgas, 2001).
• By the late 1960s, a cognitive paradigm emerged (replacing a behaviorist one) as the mainstream orientation accepted by most psychologists. Unfortunately, this alternative cognitive framework was also characterized, until about the early 1980s, by an avoided lack of interest in affect. Affective states, if studied at all, were considered only as a disruptive influence on “proper”—that is, cold and affectless—thinking.
• By the early 1980s, the time was ripe for affect to occupy a central stage in psychological theorizing, as research began to show that feelings influence perceptual judgments and that affective states play a critical role in how people remember realistic social information. In social psychology, it was Robert Zajonc (1980) who in an influential article called our attention to the importance of affective influences on social judgment and behavior. Within cognitive psychology, Gordon Bower’s (1981) work on the affective influences on memory gave a major impetus on affective-cognitive research. When considered from a historical perspective, the boom that began in the 1980s in research linking affect and social cognition confirms that these (feeling and thinking) mental faculties cannot be effectively studied in isolation from each other.
• Research evidence suggests that affective states can influence attention, learning, memory and associations. On the other hand, cognitive information-processing strategies can play a crucial role in regulating affective states and influencing the nature and extent of affect influence into social cognition.
• Education research and practice has also been affected by the same paradigm shifted that influenced psychology. We talk about social cognition and situated learning (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wanger, 1991). According to Lave and Wanger (1991), situated learning is education that takes place in an authentic context and involves social interaction and collaboration. And, our participation in this workshop is a testament to the recognition of the role that affect has on learning.

15. Affect in contemporary psychology
Affect encompasses the broad range of experiences referred to as emotions and moods. (Forgas, 1991; Petty, DeSteno, Rucker, 2001)
Emotions – specific and short-lived internal feeling states
Moods – global and enduring feeling states (Schwarz &Clore, 1996)
There is a growing recognition that there are different categories of affective phenomena and their role in social cognition is quite distinct. One crucial distinction is between emotions and moods. Both emotions and moods may have an impact on social cognition, but the nature of this influence is quite different.
• Emotions are intense, short-lived, and highly conscious affective states that typically have a salient cause and a great deal of cognitive content, featuring information about typical antecedents, expectations, and behavioral plans (Smith & Kirby, 2000). The cognitive consequences of emotions such as fear, disgust, or anger can be highly complex, and dependent on the particular prototypical representations activated in specific situations.
• Moods, distinct from emotion, are relatively low-intensity, diffuse, and enduring affective states that have no salient antecedent cause and therefore little cognitive content (such as feeling good or feeling bad, or being in a good or bad mood). As moods tend to be less subject to conscious monitoring and control, paradoxically their effects on social thinking, memory, and judgments tend to be potentially more insidious, enduring, and subtle.

16. The affective domain includes numerous constructs, such as attitudes, values (includes moral values, professional values, greed, loyalty to community & country), beliefs (scientific, religious), opinions, interests, motivation, etc. Affect is not just a simple catalyst, but a necessary condition for learning to occur. Learning objectives for affect shall emphasize a feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection.
From a research prospective, the affective domain includes a host of psychological constructs. Of course, the essence of these constructs cannot be measured or assessed directly, but is inferred based on what is heard or witnesses. The affective domain is prominent in educational literature and speak. Krathwohl and colleagues, Bloom and Masia described educational objectives of the affective domain in their book, Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook II: Affective domain, published in The objectives range across six categories from general awareness or receiving to a point where the affect guides behavior or characterization by value set. Affect, as Perrier & Nsengiyumva (2003) point out, is a necessary condition for learning. And, it is this link between the affective domain and learning that brings us together for this workshop.

17. Stages of Affective Domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy (Krathwohl, Bloom & Masia 1965)
Receiving: Student passively pays attention, registers in memory.
Responding: Participates in learning process, attends to stimulus and reacts in some way.
Valuing: Values a piece of information, the object or the phenomenon addressed & links some values with the knowledge acquired.
Organising: Puts information, ideas and values in to own schema by comparing, relating & elaborating.
Characterizing: Holds a value/belief that influences & that becomes a personal characteristic.

18. Why affective instruction is important?
We like students to get interested and go beyond what we teach or just do what we tell them to do. We would like them to respond to what they learn, to value those, to organize those in their own mental framework.
We want students to like the subject areas they study. We want to find teaching methods that encourage students and draw them in to our programmes.
Students may experience affective roadblocks to learning that have a little chance of getting addressed when using a purely cognitive or a purely psychomotor approach.
Affective topics in educational literature include attitudes, motivation, communication styles, classroom management styles, learning styles, use of technology in the classroom and nonverbal communication. It is also important not to turn students off by subtle actions or communications that go straight to the affective domain and prevent students from becoming engaged.

19. Writing Learning objectives: Cognitive & psychomotor skills
Cognitive objectives are to increase the knowledge (mostly information) content a student has. Psychomotor objectives are to develop physical skills.
Examples of learning objectives:
Cognitive: The student will be able to evaluate different kinds of aircraft engines and demonstrate his/her ability to compare and discuss verbally the strengths and weaknesses of each kind .
Psychomotor: Given all required components the student will be able to assemble a three-phase motor completely in a laboratory without assistance.
audience
behaviour
condition
degree

20. Writing Learning objectives: Affective objectives
Affective objectives are to change an individual’s attitude, appreciations, preferences etc.
This kind objectives is the most difficult to formulate, execute and assess because
Affect is not in the horizon of traditional courses so we are not familiar and comfortable enough with it; and
Assessment of affect would inevitably be subjective, and has to be by observation by teacher and/or peers.
Example: Given the opportunity to solve an engine problem as a team, the student will demonstrate an improvement in attitude towards cooperating with team members to identify the causes of the problem and finding a solution.

21. Students need care and attention
There are many things that vie for each student’s attention, time and energy. It is crucial to understand what may increase or decrease a student’s motivation to pursue learning seriously.
If a student does not see the content interesting and relevant, he/she may see little value in mastering it.
If the student does not see does not expect to be successful in a course, he/she may disengage from it.
If a student has a financial or relationship problem, that may cause a distraction.
There are things that need to be addressed at the classroom level and others at the individual level. The teacher needs to be aware of this difference.

22. Attitude
Attitude is a settled way of thinking/feeling about someone or something or some event.
Attitude refers to reactions to specific attitude objects and does not represent a global affective experience on the part of the individual.
Attitude may help an individual to establish tendencies, organise/interpret information, protect self-esteem & express values/beliefs.
Attitude is changeable (through persuasion) & measurable.
Attitude can affect emotions and behaviour.
A person can possess both positive and negative attitudes, regardless of mood being happy or sad (i.e. attitude is distinct from mood).
Attitude– a general evaluation regarding some person, object or issue (Fazio, 1986; Petty & Cacioppo, 1981). Attitudes refer to valenced reactions to specific attitude objects and do not represent a global affective experience on the part of the individual. The person does not experience the positivity or negativity of the attitude as feeling or emotional state, but as an evaluative orientation toward the object. A happy or sad or moody person can possess both positive and negative attitudes.

23. Evaluative bases in attitude change
Cognitive:
thoughts or ideas, expressed as beliefs
Behavioral:
intentions to act or observable behaviours
Affective:
emotions related to the attitude object
In reality these may not be so distinct. Affective changes may cause cognitive and behavioral changes. Underlying beliefs may have an effect on affect & behaviour.
To better understand the role of affective factors in attitude change, it is helpful to understand the role of affect in the structure of attitude. Both classic and contemporary treatments of attitude view them as having three evaluative bases: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. Although an attitude can contain all three elements, it can also be largely or solely bases on one: cognitive, behavioral, and affect.
Cognitive-consists of one’s thoughts or ideas, expressed as beliefs. (belief that the boss is doing a good job)
Behavioral-refers to observable behavior or intention to act (supporters of the boss have a record of supporting the boss’ initiatives)
Affective-consists of feelings or emotions that individuals experience or have experienced regarding the attitude object (thinking about the boss might make a disgruntled employee furious)
All these components of attitude can be measured across an evaluative continuum ranging from very positive to very negative. When attempting to change attitudes one can provide information (cognitive appeal), one can provide attitude-relevant behavior experience (behavioral appeal), or one can stir the passions (affective appeal). The most studied method of promoting attitude change is incorporating fear-inducing materials. Most of the anti-smoking, drunk driving ads are of this kind. So if you wish to persuade students to enroll in a geology field course, your might share with them your thoughts about how enrolling will aid their understanding of important geological principles (cognitive), or you can demonstrate how they too will be able to identify rock strategy in any cut-through between KL and JB (behavior), or you can hang recruiting posters that show some attractive people examining rock samples (affective) along with the course title around campus.

24. Motivation
Motivation is an internal state that arouses, directs, and sustains behavior.
The study of motivation attempts to
-explain why students strive for particular goals when learning science,
-how intensively they strive,
-how long they strive, and
-what moods and emotions characterize them in the process.
The study of motivation by science education researchers attempts to explain why students strive for particular goals when learning science, how intensively they strive, how long they strive, and what feeling and emotions characterize them in the process. As science education researchers respond to current national initiatives to foster students’ science achievement, the emphasis placed on motivation has been increasing. Motivation influences learning and ultimately behavior.
Historically, science education researchers have adopted four orientations to motivation when studying learning: behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and social. A behavioral orientation to motivation focuses on concepts such as incentives and reinforcement. A humanistic orientation to motivation emphasizes students’ capacity for personal growth, their freedom to choose their destiny, and their desire to achieve and excel. A cognitive orientation to motivation emphasizes students’ goals, plans, expectations. A social orientation to motivation emphasizes students’ identities and their interpersonal relationships.

25. Students get motivated when …
They find a positive value in a learning goal/activity.
Expect to successfully achieve a desired learning outcome (self-efficacy).
Perceive support from their environment.
Motivation is typically explained in terms of (1) subjective value of a goal and (2) expectancies (expectations for successful attainment of that goal. Goals serve as the basic organising feature of motivated behaviour (Ryan, 1970; Mitchell, 1982; Elliot & Fryer, 2008). Goals guide and direct intellectual & creative pursuits, social relations, identity & self-concept, needs for safety & material possessions, and desire to be productive & competent. Multiple goals may operate simultaneously. Goals may include desire to acquire knowledge/skills, make new friends, demonstrate that self is intelligent, gain sense of independance and have fun. Students’ goals may differ from our goals for them. A student’s performance goals (as opposed to learning goals) may include protecting a favoured self-image & projecting a positive reputation /public persona. Performance-approach goals: do things to achieve normative standards. Performance-avoidance goals: focus on avoiding incompetence by meeting standards. Learning goals: seek help when needed, persist when faced with difficulty, feel comfortable with challenging tasks.
Multiple goals in one activity will work better, e.g. apply principles, make friends, engage in stimulating activity. When goals conflict, a student will choose the goal with higher perceived value. To get motivation there must be at least one value: attainment value (satisfaction by achieving something); intrinsic value (satisfaction by simply doing); instrumental value (satisfaction by getting rewarded) plus the student must see it as achievable & link past success linked to a controllable feature (ability & effort). When the student does not see value, efficacy and support does not count. Need all 3 to get motivated.
Strategies for value: connect material to interests; provide authentic real-world tasks; show relevance to current academic lives; demo relevance to future lives; identify & reward what you value; show own passion & enthusiasm
For expectancies: Align objectives, assessments & instructional strategies; select appropriate level; early success; articulate expectations; provide rubrics; targeted feedback; be fair; connect success/failure to controllable features (include time management, study strategies & hard work); describe effective study strategies
Overall: provide flexibility & control; give opportunity to reflect.

26. Important motivation constructs
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
Goal Orientation
Self-determination
Self-efficacy
Assessment Anxiety
The important motivational constructs being examined by researchers include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, goal orientation, self-determination, self-efficacy, and assessment anxiety.
• Motivation to do something for its own sake is mainly intrinsic, where as motivation to do it as a means to an end is extrinsic. Students often perform tasks for reasons that are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated.
• A distinction often is made between learning goals and performance goals (e.g., Cavallo, Rozman, & Potter, 2004). College students with learning goals focus on the challenge and mastery of a science task. Students with performance goals often are preoccupied with gaining social status, pleasing teachers, and avoiding “extra” work.
• Self-determination is the ability to have choices and some degree of control in what we do and how we do it (Reeve, Hamm, & Nix, 2003). When college science students have the opportunity to help determine what their educational activities will be, they are more likely to benefit from them (Glynn & Koballa, 2005).
• Bandura (1997) defined self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p. 3). When science education researchers use the term, they refer to the confidence a student has about his or her ability to succeed in a field of science (Koballa & Glynn, in press).
• All students experience anxiety from time to time, particularly in college science courses (Seymore, 1992). A moderate level of anxiety is good, in fact, in that it helps motivate learning (Cassady & Johnson, 2002).
The Science Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) assesses six components of motivation: intrinsically motivated science learning, extrinsically motivated science learning, relevance of learning science to personal goals, responsibility (self-determination) for learning science, confidence (self-efficacy) in learning science, and anxiety about science assessment (Glynn & Koballa, 2006).

27. Issues of the subject matter
These issues are subject dependent.
Telling the class that ‘this subject is difficult’ even as a genuine warning of a truth, may not be helpful. This can lead to early demotivation.
How each student sees the subject content is different from that of the teacher. Primarily they do not have expertise and experience as yet. The history that shapes the thinking of each student is different and that leads to distinct problems which need to be addressed by ‘facilitation’.

28. Issues in the subject matter (continued)
Students are more worried about getting a good grade or avoid failing than learning for understanding. They may want only to temporarily memorise. Wanting to look good in front of others is another issue. Teachers need to at least to be aware of these and act with due sensitivity.
Students learn better when they are engrossed in a problem. It will be useful to start with illustrations of core procedures involved (so that they can copy them) and then get students to solve a relatively smaller problem that can be addressed using those core procedures.
Giving them opportunities to discuss among themselves and share what they know will help students to learn.

29. IV. Controversial issues and problems
Issue - an idea about which people hold different beliefs
mandatory recycling
strip mining
Evolution
Problem - a situation that places a population at risk
Fishing industry and people’s health placed in jeopardy due to industrial waste
Science topics that seem to involve more than rational thinking, such as biological evolution and the environmental protection, have come to be associated with affective learning and invoke the use of teaching strategies that tap aspects of the affective domain.
Further, geoscientists and science teachers in general cannot disregard the preparation of students for life in which social, political and economic changes in society will be affected by science and technology. Many of these changes are coupled to controversy. A key to success in dealing with controversial issues and problems in science teaching is to recognize that leaning is influenced by affect and may involve allowing greater student choice and self-direction, assessing student learning in different ways, and teaching from an interdisciplinary perspective, which may mean dealing with content on the fringe of one’s com fort zone. Both issues and problems can be the focus of questions that spur student explorations and investigations. Giving attention to controversial issues is becoming more common place in introductory university science courses. According to Ballantyne and Bain (1995), instruction for effectively addressing controversial issues and problems in science classes are those that induce cognitive conflict (cognitive dissonance) and encourage learners to reconcile incompatible ideas by seeking information or striving to reorganize their existing knowledge. It is through their efforts to reconcile incompatible ideas that students rely on their beliefs, feelings and emotions.

30. Instructional approaches for dealing with controversy
Issue and Problem Awareness
Four-corners
Example stories on social issues & problems.
Issue and Problem Investigation
Analytical decision-making (Oliver & Newman, 1967)
Structured controversy (Johnson & Johnson, 1988)
Issue and problem awareness provides students with the opportunity to confront various areas of conflict and confusion that are of specific concern to them, in a constructive and systematic way (Simon, Hartwell, & Hawkins, 1973). A relatively easy way to implement issues awareness is to find an article on a social issue or problem “Awarding monetary compensation for flood damage to home owners who rebuild in flood prone areas.” Some teachers use the four-corner strategy where corners of the classroom as assigned the ratings of strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. A second approach is to use vignettes that focus on societal issues or problems. [Read vignette on cryogenics.]
Issue and problem investigation stresses the organization of factual information, the presentation of arguments and evidence, the separation of fact from opinion, and sensitivity to individuals who disagree about issues and problems. Both investigative approach, analytical decision-making and structured controversy, may culminate in students making decisions that affect their lives and the lives of others. For example, some communities are considering whether or not to use some of their land for long-term storage of radioactive waste. When, using the analytical decision-making approach, students must learn about the issue or problem. For example, they must learn about radiation and half-life and about the safety record of similar facilities. Students much also research the beneficial effects of a storage site to the community--jobs at the site, local economy, In moving from factual learning to reasoned decision making, students will also consider their own attitudes and the attitudes of the community impacted by the storage facility.
The structured controversy approach incorporates the unique feature of perspective reversal to help students focus on both the benefits and risks associated with a decision about whether or not to make land available or the storage of radioactive waste. Students are assigned randomly to learn either the pro or con position. After learning their assigned position and arguing forcefully in support of it, each pair of students is then required to learning and present the opposite position. By ensuring that all students understand both sides of the issue, reversing perspectives leads to collaborative decision making where the focus is not on winners and losers but rather on the best possible solution (Johnson & Johnson, 1988).

31. Concluding Remarks Affect influences learning.
Ability of a learner to regulate affect may depend on particular learning strategies adopted by the student.
Attitude and motivation are important constructs of the affective domain in science/technology education. Yet one should not overlook the other elements of affect like opinions and beliefs that has an effect on learning.

32. Date: 18 – 20 March 2015
Venue: Republic Polytechnic, Singapore