Domains of Learning: Learning is a psychological process. Thus, the assessment of learning, of necessity, requires the assessment of various psychological processes. In developing assessment tools (tests), it is important that we first have an understanding of these psychological processes and how to go about measuring them. Although there are many psychological models for the process of learning, for this workbook we have chosen the taxonomy of Behavioral objectives as useful tool. In Bloom‘s taxonomy, there are three fundamental learning domains: Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective.
Affective learning of beliefs,
attitudes, and values: Psychomotor learning of physical movements, such as a
ballet steps, how to pitch a curve ball, how to drill out a cavity in a molar,
etc.
Cognitive learning of information and the
processes of dealing with that information. There are six levels of Cognitive
Learning as specified by Bloom:
1.
Basic
Knowledge
2.
Comprehension
3.
Application
4.
Analysis
5.
Synthesis
6. Evaluation
Generally, it can be said that the first category, Knowledge, is information-oriented as it stresses the ability to recall existing knowledge. The other five categories can be termed‖ Process oriented‖ because they entail more sophisticated learner behaviors and competencies that require increasing degrees of understanding. The following are brief definitions of these six levels with a suggestion as to how to assess this level of learning:
Basic Knowledge: To recall and memorize- assessed by direct questions. The object is to test student‘s ability to recall facts, to identify and repeat the information provided.
Comprehension: To translate form one
form to another-assessed by having students
• Restate
material in their own words,
• Reorder
or extrapolate ideas, predict or estimate.
• Assessment must provide evidence that the students have some understanding or comprehension of what they are saying.
Application: To apply or use information in a new situation- assessed by presenting students with a unique situation (i.e. one not identical to that used during instruction) and have them apply their knowledge to solve the problem or execute the proper procedure.
Analysis: To examine a concept and break it down into parts- assessed by presenting student with a unique situation of the same type but not identical to that used during instruction, and have them analyze the situation and describe the appropriate procedure or solution to the problem.
Synthesis: To put information together in a unique or novel way to solve a problem- assessed by presenting students with a unique situation NOT of the same type used during instruction, and have them solve a problems by selecting and using appropriate information
Levels of Affective Objectives: Krathwohl‘s affective
domain taxonomy is perhaps the best known of any of the affective taxonomies,
the taxonomy is ordered according to the principle of internalization, which is
to process whereby a person‘s affect toward an object passes from a general
awareness level to a point where the affect is ―internalized‖ and consistently
guides or controls the person‘s behavior
Receiving is being aware or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate to accept to listen (for), to respond to.
Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena involved by actively responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim
Valuing is willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas, materials, or phenomena‘s. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, and to support, to debate.
Organizing is to relate the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious and internally consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate to balance, to examine.
Characterization by value or value set is to
act consistently in accordance with the values he or she has internalized.
Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value, to
avoid, to resist to manage to resolve.
Levels of Psychomotor Objectives
Direct Instruction/ Lecture
Advantages:
•
Teacher-controlled
•
Many
objectives can be mastered in s short amount of time
• Lends to valid evaluations
Disadvantages
•
Teacher-controlled
•
Student
involvement is limited to the teacher
• Depends in part to rote learning (repetition form memory, often without meaning)
When to use?
•
When
the objectives indicate effectiveness
•
When
the teacher determines that it is the best to use of time & effort