BEHIND THE CAMERA: DO TEACHERS ASSESS THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN IN LEARNING OF THE STUDENTS IN VIRTUAL CLASS?

The sudden shift of modalities in Education from face-to-face learning to distance learning/ virtual classes brought by the Pandemic caused many changes. Both the teachers and students are expected to respond to the challenges and adjustments.

Unfortunately, during the first semester of having classes online—and runs until now, aside from technical issues the students also expressed their frustration over online classes affecting their mental health.

This is just an example of millions of rants spreading across social media. Students are voicing out how virtual classes affect their mental and emotional aspect. They feel they are just complying with the activities and not learning anymore.

In an article written by Mary Burns (2020). She enumerates the fundamental issues in online classes she gathered from the students. She concludes that: Students dislike much of the product itself. They don’t like learning alone; they don’t like spending so much time in front of a screen; they find being online “distracting” and “lonely.” She also adds that “it’s not simply that students miss their friends—they do—they especially miss being part of a community of learners. They miss the experience and structure of school and the place-based nature of learning—or as one student noted, “(being) in a place where everything is designed for learning.”

With this, I count myself in as one of those students who feel like just surviving the academic year. I can definitely relate to the struggles that everyone is going through in a virtual class. Now that I am writing this journal, it made me realized what most teachers failed to do—the affective assessment.

On the other hand, as a learner studying pedagogy, I must know the three domains of learning: cognitive, affective and psychomotor. I am also aware that the cognitive domain is to be taken as high importance in terms of hierarchy. In fact, most college learning is designed to take place in the cognitive domain, developing mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge (buffalo.edu). However, the three domains should be present in the lesson plan.

In this case, the domain which oftentimes neglected is the Affective—and I think it’s the reason why students and teachers are both struggling with online class. This is because according to Oakland (1997) Affective Assessment provides information about learning difficulty or the behavior of the students that affects the learning and it lets the teachers understand the students as learners and humans. Hence, teachers should look into students’ attitudes, values and beliefs, interest, motivation and self-confidence to know and understand them better. But in reality, only few teachers consider the affective domain and focuses more on cognitive instead.

In virtual class, or even in a face-to-face class, the Affective Domain should also be considered. Indeed, we have different assessment tools to use for that. We can use Self-Report Questionnaires such as likert scale, semantic differential and check list. I also recommend Reflective Journals just like this one as this is a great tool to know more about the students.

References:

Burns, M. (10 June 2020) Online Education’s COVID-19 Struggles. Retrieved from: https://www.ukfiet.org/2020/online-educations-covid-19-struggles/

Oakland, T. (1997) Affective Assessment. Retrieved from: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-85571997000100002

University of Buffalo (n.d) Pedagogy and Design: Domains of Learning. Retrieved from:https://www.buffalo.edu/ubcei/enhance/designing/learning-outcomes/domains-of-learning.html