Chapter 14: Affective Assessment Assessing the Personal Aspects of Students

Affective Assessment Defined This involves the measurement of the personal aspects that impact learning, such as student perceptions, viewpoints, feelings, attitudes, etc., and are connected to the affective side of learning However, it’s important to recognize that these areas are also influenced by thinking factors along with the emotional connections that go with them. Bottom Line: both emotional and cognitive issues are involved and typically measured with affective assessment measures.

Limits and Boundaries “Students are much more than the academic work they produce.” Information generated from affective assessments can help provide a window into better understanding of your students and potential learning opportunities in your classroom. But there are limits and boundaries that must be recognized.

Cautions with Affective Assessment Affective assessment is not personality testing and assessment (in-depth personal analysis or psychopathology is not connected with affective assessment). Validity and reliability must be demonstrated, particularly since the measured constructs (e.g., attitude toward school) may be unstable or change considerably over a short period of time.

Cautions with Affective Assessment The over generalization of findings and implications must be recognized and prevented. Jumping to conclusions without several sources, with repeated findings from those measures, must be avoided at all costs. As with any assessment measure, make sure that the data, and the domain(s) being measured, are truly needed and relevant.

Selection of Affective Assessment Areas: Student Attitudes An attitude involves one’s personal view or opinion and/or feelings specific to a certain subject. Student attitude information helps the teacher understand the students’ collective mindset and their perceptual reality.

Selection of Affective Assessment Areas: Student Interests An interest deals with the unique quality of a topic or issue that draws one’s attention toward it. It allows one to understand what students are “into” and usually like and enjoy.

Selection of Affective Assessment Areas: Personal Beliefs and Values Personal beliefs are connected to our personal operating system, which involves the principles of right and wrong or ethics from which individual actions and decisions are based. Commonly recognized “school” values include honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness, etc., but value recognition and/or assessment is a very controversial subject due to competing views of what values should be emphasized and whether that “education” should occur in the schools or within the confines of the family unit.

Selection of Affective Assessment Areas: Personal Perceptions/Viewpoints Perceptions reflect general insight or understanding that is gained based on personal experience. Along with gaining awareness of student perceptions, affective assessment allows for the collection of information on student viewpoints (e.g., school climate, security, academic rigor, etc.) which can be used to further examine various viewpoints and positions as part of in- class learning activities.

Generating Affective Assessments Due to time limitations, measures must be relatively simple and easy to implement. One of the most direct and effective ways to examine the personal responses of students is with self-report inventories. A self-report inventory takes the form of a survey or questionnaire that consists of several questions, usually reviewed and rated based on the Likert response format, which students are asked to complete anonymously.

Likert Scale Involves a list of descriptors that are used to indicate a respondent’s level of agreement or disagreement to a specific statement or item. The five descriptor format (strongly agree, agree, not sure/neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) is the most common and recognized scale.

Constructing a Likert Self-Report Measure Construction steps to consider and follow: Careful selection of affective assessment domain Construct statement items that are clear, well written and focused on the domain to be reviewed Complete an external review of the items and the inventory

Constructing a Likert Self-Report Measure Conduct a pilot or field test Administer the inventory Analyze the results Review findings and examine educational implications Revise statement item(s) as needed

Topic/Domain Selection As a concept, it should have clear definition and be seen as educationally relevant. As the teacher, make sure you are going to directly benefit from and use the data that will be generated from this (or any) assessment.

Construction of the Items Each constructed statement should be written as a simple sentence that provides one clear message and thought. Simple and understandable words and language should be used with every item, along with the survey directions. As a rule, more and finer selection items can be used with older students, while fewer and more general items often work better with younger respondents.

External Review Have the items reviewed by a colleague(s) in order to check for accuracy and continuity. In the review, it’s essential that the items “hold together” and are independently reviewed as consistently addressing the intended area or domain.

Field Testing Finding a comparable group to take and field test the measure is critical. Procedural problems, unclear questions, or other kinds of difficulties can be “caught” and corrected. Student reactions and comments should be sought out as they are often extremely helpful in building a better instrument and refining the administration of it.

Administering the Inventory A designated time period needs to be set aside for the completion of the inventory; not “complete this when you have time” response. In addition, adequate time needs to be provided for the completion of the measure.

Scoring/Analyzing Responses Descriptive statistics can be generated for the ratings for each individual statement as well as for a combined composite score. Lower ratings are associated with disagreement, middle scores with neutral or uncommitted views, and high ratings with strong agreement.

Using the Data/Educational Implications Most important part of the entire process: what is done with the information that is collected. If valid and reliable, collected data can provide greater awareness and knowledge for the teacher and for the students if that information is shared.

Future Modifications After the process is completed, it needs to be reviewed in order to determine if changes are needed. Feedback is important and needs to be considered. It’s just good practice to review your inventory and the statements that comprise it so that the measure is even better the next time it is used.