FEEDBACK AND ASSESSMENT- The 3 Main Domains of Evaluation: Psychomotor, Cognitive and Affective – in Light of my Teaching Experience
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I believe that assessment is a valuable tool to monitor the abilities of students, while evaluation includes analyzing and reflecting on the capabilities of students.
Based on my teaching experience, as a social science teacher, I believe it is necessary to effectively implement Growing Success, which has shaped my educational philosophy and how I apply the Ontario Curriculum to my classes.
I insure that I am continuously assessing student progress and development using various strategies and methods.
Moreover, it is important to have students develop metacognitive skills and self initiation, to ensure that they are monitoring their learning process, as they observe their personal strengths and weaknesses.
Moreover, students are very proud of themselves when they set out attainable learning goals, which are achievable through hard work and sincere commitment.
There are many aspects that need to be considered, especially when it comes to striking a balance between summative and formative assessment. Teachers need to examine their modes of instruction, to ensure that students are working on their weaknesses.
Moreover progress tests are an important part of formative evaluation, as “Benjamin S. Bloom, J. Thomas Hastings, and George F. Madiaus advised instructor to ‘break a course or subject into smaller units of learning’ and to administer ‘brief diagnostic progress tests.” (pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) In addition, summative evaluation is an important tool to “…find out whether the students have mastered the preceding instruction.”(pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) Furthermore, it assures teachers can observe outcomes based on what degree students have achieved the main learning goals.
Furthermore, evaluation can be broken down into 3 domains, which includes the ‘psychomotor,’ ‘cognitive,’ and ‘affective’ domain. .”(pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) I would like to discuss these 3 components in light of my teaching experience:
The Psychomotor Domain
The objectives that are set out in the ‘Psychomotor’ domain are based on the evaluation of performance. Therefore, teachers need to use their judgment when they ask students to express a ‘perceptual motor skill.’ In addition, it is important to take into account that ‘speed,’ ‘originality’ and ‘quality’ is part of the evaluation process… “beyond the simple dichotomy- performance or non performance (pass-fail, satisfactory-unsatisfactory) – of a skill assessment lie such factors as speed, originality, and quality.” (pg. 304, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon)Hence, in my social science classes, in advance, I ensure that my students are aware of the specific criterion they will be evaluated on.
The Cognitive Domain
Another important aspect of evaluation includes the ‘Cognitive’ domain that incorporated Bloom’s taxonomy. Throughout the academic Social Science courses I have taught, such as Gr.12 World History (CHY4U), Gr.12 Canadian and World Issues (CGW4U), Gr.12 Canadian and World Politics (CPW4U), Gr.12 International Business (BBB4M), Gr.11 Canadian Law (CLU3M) and Gr.11 Introduction Sociology, Psychology, and Anthropology (HSP3M), I regularly challenged my students’ learning by having them apply higher order thinking skills. This in turn has had them work harder and think more deeply when completing tasks.
The Affective Domain
The objectives of the ‘Affective’ domain are very different when compared to the ‘Cognitive’ and ‘Psychomotor’ domain. Therefore, ‘Affective’ objectives shouldn’t be evaluated, as it is a natural process that involves students to express their emotions, thoughts and values when participating in class discussions or completing tests/ assignments. Hence it is important to note that “the attainment of affective objectives can be discerned by instruments such as opinionaries or attitude inventories, by observation of the behavior of students, and by essay questions that ask pupils to state their beliefs, attitudes, and feelings about a given topic.” (pg. 308, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) I definitely agree with this quote, especially because in my Social Science classes student complete many assignments or in class writing tasks, where there is no right or wrong answer, it’s based on their opinions, views and judgment. However, as always, to ensure students have thoroughly analyzed the question, I ask my students to back up their answers with strong supporting evidence.
By and large, keeping in mind the attributes of these three domains, ‘Psychomotor,’ ‘Cognitive,’ and ‘Affective,’ in the process of evaluation, will guide our teaching practice on how we analyze student progress and the outcomes of assigned learning goals.
Based on my teaching experience, as a social science teacher, I believe it is necessary to effectively implement Growing Success, which has shaped my educational philosophy and how I apply the Ontario Curriculum to my classes.
I insure that I am continuously assessing student progress and development using various strategies and methods.
Moreover, it is important to have students develop metacognitive skills and self initiation, to ensure that they are monitoring their learning process, as they observe their personal strengths and weaknesses.
Moreover, students are very proud of themselves when they set out attainable learning goals, which are achievable through hard work and sincere commitment.
There are many aspects that need to be considered, especially when it comes to striking a balance between summative and formative assessment. Teachers need to examine their modes of instruction, to ensure that students are working on their weaknesses.
Moreover progress tests are an important part of formative evaluation, as “Benjamin S. Bloom, J. Thomas Hastings, and George F. Madiaus advised instructor to ‘break a course or subject into smaller units of learning’ and to administer ‘brief diagnostic progress tests.” (pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) In addition, summative evaluation is an important tool to “…find out whether the students have mastered the preceding instruction.”(pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) Furthermore, it assures teachers can observe outcomes based on what degree students have achieved the main learning goals.
Furthermore, evaluation can be broken down into 3 domains, which includes the ‘psychomotor,’ ‘cognitive,’ and ‘affective’ domain. .”(pg. 301, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) I would like to discuss these 3 components in light of my teaching experience:
The Psychomotor Domain
The objectives that are set out in the ‘Psychomotor’ domain are based on the evaluation of performance. Therefore, teachers need to use their judgment when they ask students to express a ‘perceptual motor skill.’ In addition, it is important to take into account that ‘speed,’ ‘originality’ and ‘quality’ is part of the evaluation process… “beyond the simple dichotomy- performance or non performance (pass-fail, satisfactory-unsatisfactory) – of a skill assessment lie such factors as speed, originality, and quality.” (pg. 304, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon)Hence, in my social science classes, in advance, I ensure that my students are aware of the specific criterion they will be evaluated on.
The Cognitive Domain
Another important aspect of evaluation includes the ‘Cognitive’ domain that incorporated Bloom’s taxonomy. Throughout the academic Social Science courses I have taught, such as Gr.12 World History (CHY4U), Gr.12 Canadian and World Issues (CGW4U), Gr.12 Canadian and World Politics (CPW4U), Gr.12 International Business (BBB4M), Gr.11 Canadian Law (CLU3M) and Gr.11 Introduction Sociology, Psychology, and Anthropology (HSP3M), I regularly challenged my students’ learning by having them apply higher order thinking skills. This in turn has had them work harder and think more deeply when completing tasks.
The Affective Domain
The objectives of the ‘Affective’ domain are very different when compared to the ‘Cognitive’ and ‘Psychomotor’ domain. Therefore, ‘Affective’ objectives shouldn’t be evaluated, as it is a natural process that involves students to express their emotions, thoughts and values when participating in class discussions or completing tests/ assignments. Hence it is important to note that “the attainment of affective objectives can be discerned by instruments such as opinionaries or attitude inventories, by observation of the behavior of students, and by essay questions that ask pupils to state their beliefs, attitudes, and feelings about a given topic.” (pg. 308, Peter F. Oliva and William R. Gordon) I definitely agree with this quote, especially because in my Social Science classes student complete many assignments or in class writing tasks, where there is no right or wrong answer, it’s based on their opinions, views and judgment. However, as always, to ensure students have thoroughly analyzed the question, I ask my students to back up their answers with strong supporting evidence.
By and large, keeping in mind the attributes of these three domains, ‘Psychomotor,’ ‘Cognitive,’ and ‘Affective,’ in the process of evaluation, will guide our teaching practice on how we analyze student progress and the outcomes of assigned learning goals.