Vicki Worrell, Colleen Evans-Fletcher, Susan Kovar.

Assessing the cognitive and affective progress of children

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. Reston: Sep 2002.Vol.73, Iss. 7; pg. 29, 6 pgs

Abstract (Document Summary)

A look at a ssessing the cognitive and affective progress of children is presented. Issues and strategies related to assessment of fundamental motor-skill learning (standard one), cognitive learning (standard two), and affective learning (standards five, six, and seven) are described.

Full Text

Quality physical education programs should consistently assess the physical, cognitive, and affective domains in order to assist in the development of physically educated children. Historically, physical educators have systematically evaluated the physical skills of their students, but have not assessed the cognitive and affective skills as consistently. Assessment results provide documentation of student learning and achievement. The current educational reform movement has appropriately begun to hold teachers more accountable for student learning and therefore has encouraged quality assessment in the cognitive and affective realms. However, teachers often overlook these two domains when assessing student learning. This article discusses issues and challenges related to assessment in these two areas, offers solutions to overcoming challenges, and provides practical examples for use in assessing K-12 students.

Cognitive Assessment

As outlined in content standard number two, a physically educated person can "apply movement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor skills" (National Association for Sport and Physical Education [NASPE], 1995, p. 1). This standard directly states one of the primary knowledge bases in physical education. However, other standards also include relevant knowledge bases, so in addition to movement concepts and principles, students should acquire knowledge in a variety of other areas: physical fitness principles; proper nutrition; the relationship between diet, weight, and exercise; conflict-resolution principles; ways to build friendships through movement experiences; and rules and strategies for playing a variety of games and sports. Instruction in these cognitive areas, and assessment of the level of student understanding, assists students in practicing and mastering skills outside of the physical education classroom and in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. When students leave the class, they must be able to use the knowledge on their own in their "real life," thus it is imperative that physical educators teach for the future by passing on movement knowledge to their students. The only way to know if that knowledge has "passed on" is to assess the extent of student understanding.

Educators should strive to better measure the current understanding their students possess in the knowledge bases identified above. Several factors-such as large class size, limited class time, language barriers, students\' reading ability, and lack of planning time to design and record assessments-often discourage teachers from implementing quality assessments in the cognitive domain. It is suggested that educators implement self- and peer assessment when classes are large and time is limited. Self-assessment allows students to assess and modify their own performance. Peer assessment has the additional advantage that students (peers) often serve as effective tutors when language and reading barriers exist. Another contributing factor to low-quality cognitive assessment is the fact that administrators, parents, and even students traditionally have been unconcerned about, and have not demanded, an assessment of the student\'s cognitive performance in physical education. In addition, teachers have often perceived traditional cognitive assessments (paper tests) as being of little value to the learning process in physical education and, therefore, they have chosen not to implement them.

The first principle of quality cognitive assessments addresses this negative perception. Assessment activities must be directly aligned with the curriculum that is being taught in order to inform (and thus improve) instruction and eventually the curriculum. Knowledge possessed by the students should be assessed in order to ensure that educational objectives and the national physical education standards have been met. The knowledge expected of students in the cognitive domain should be clearly communicated to them before instruction begins. Schiemer (2000) suggested that students be informed at the beginning of instruction as to what they are expected to learn in all three domains. Therefore, the cognitive component of each lesson needs to be identified by the teacher and presented to the students. This information assists the students in mastering the cognitive educational objectives. For example, in a soccer-dribbling lesson, the teacher might identify the following movement concepts: tap the ball lightly forward alternately with the insoles of the feet while focusing ahead (rather than on the ball). At the beginning of the lesson, these concepts would be identified for the students, and as the lesson is taught, the teacher (or others) would provide congruent feedback on how students are performing relative to the identified skill concepts.

The second principle of quality cognitive assessments indicates that assessment activities should be continuously infused throughout various lessons within the unit. Teachers who observe student performance and immediately provide feedback (a formative assessment process) are effectively and efficiently assisting their students\' progress toward the goal of increasing their cognitive understanding. Lambert (1999, p. 14) suggests,

Teaching and assessment occur .more simultaneously via this alternative method of integration. Assessment becomes integral to the learning experience and is not viewed as something imposed, stripped of context, and done after instruction is over.

Woods (1997, p. 29) concurs that "When all testing is done at the end of a unit, neither the teacher nor the students can make useful modifications to improve performance." In terms of cognitive assessment, an activity as simple as checking for understanding allows teachers to increase student involvement in learning and to assess the knowledge level of students. For example, while taking a fitness walk around the outdoor area, the teacher might walk beside various students and verbally quiz them (individually or as partners) on fitness knowledge, using questions such as "why are we walking," "how must we walk to improve cardiorespiratory fitness," and "how often outside of school do you take a fitness walk?"

Some cognitive assessment examples have already been presented; however, additional examples might be useful to the reader. Self-assessments such as student journals and learning logs provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate and share their knowledge of concepts presented in class. Word searches, word scrambles, crossword puzzles, mazes, and number blocks may be easily designed by utilizing two web sites: www.puzzlemaker.com or www.master makers.com. Older students may be challenged to design personal flexibility routines or to make a collage of pictures related to a specific fitness component. Students may write letters to aliens from other planets who are unfamiliar with games and sports played on earth, summarizing their knowledge of teaching cues essential for specific skills.

Students working with partners or in small groups may create computer presentations focusing on the game and sport rules, etiquette, and sportsmanship. They may also display their knowledge by developing bulletin boards on new and exciting units, including in-line skating, orienteering, and bicycle safety. The use of digital photography allows students to record and instantly view their skills. Students may then convert the photographic record into a self-assessment. Collectively, students may develop safety rules for swimming, wall climbing, or physical education classes and present them to younger students. Older students may create digital movies as they attempt to capture skill performances such as jump-rope routines, self-defense moves, or games strategies for specific sports (e.g., offensive strategy in volleyball).

Affective Assessment

In addition to assessing the cognitive and psychomotor domains in physical education, the affective domain must be assessed. The NASPE content standards in physical education (1995, p. 1) include three specific aspects of the affective domain: (1) "Demonstrates responsible personal and social behavior in physical settings" (standard number 5); (2) "Demonstrates understanding and respect for differences among people in physical activity settings" (standard number 6); and (3) "Understands that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and social interaction" (standard number 7).

Effective assessment of these content standards requires objective measurement of the affective elements of attitude, interpersonal interaction, and personal responsibility for the purpose of holding students accountable for learning objectives in the affective domain. The attitude element of the affective domain encompasses the interests, appreciation, attitudes, values, and emotional biases of students (Miller, 1998). For instance, do students view physical activity as a means for seeking challenge, selfexpression, and social interaction? Do students enjoy participating in physical activity? The interpersonal interaction element encompasses sportsmanship, communication, manners, fair play, teamwork, being a good friend, sharing, and cooperation versus competition. The personal responsibility element includes making good behavior choices (decisionmaking skills); demonstrating selfcontrol and resourcefulness; and being respectful, honest, helpful, caring, and compassionate.

A number of barriers exist in our efforts to conduct effective, appropriate assessment of the affective domain. First, the affective domain is difficult to assess from the standpoint of achieving valid, reliable, and objective measurements. Measurement of affective behaviors is as difficult and complex as the development of instruments to measure them (Martin, 1989). However, numerous ways are available to assess the affective domain when the physical educator wishes to evaluate achievement of learning objectives. These assessment methods will be described later in this article.

Second, the physical education profession has tended to emphasize the assessment of the physical domain and de-emphasize the affective domain. However, assessment of the attitude, interpersonal interaction, and sense of personal responsibility elements of the affective domain are important for several reasons. Most physical education activities involve interaction with others, and only through quality interpersonal interactions do students fully achieve learning objectives. In addition, since lifetime activity levels are directly related to our attitudes about being physically active, it behooves us to instill in our students positive attitudes about physical activity.

The third barrier involves our tendency to view the affective domain as encompassing primarily the measurement of participation, effort, attitudes, and sportsmanship. Participation is related to physical activity, and when students are actively participating, they are engaged in activities that are directly related to the lesson objectives. It is most appropriate, however, to assess the performance resulting from the students\' participation (rather than the participation itself). It may also be appropriate for teachers to observe the rate of participation and implement strategies to increase involvement. Thus, assessment of participation levels leads to enhancing the program rather than to grading students.

Effort is another element that can be formatively assessed but not graded. The effort put forth by students is not necessarily reflective of their final performance. As we have all observed, a lesser-skilled student may put forth more effort with less success than a highly skilled student. When teacher observation is the assessment tool used to measure effort, the result of the subjective measurement may tend to be an unreliable and biased student report. Self-assessment of effort is appropriate when the goal for students is to recognize their effort levels and try their best all the time.

Attitudes and sportsmanship are measurable and important elements of the affective domain. Techniques for measuring these elements are presented below. It is appropriate for physical educators to broaden their view of possible affective elements beyond the traditional elements of participation, effort, attitudes, and sportsmanship. Teachers might consider including other elements such as personal responsibility, cooperation, compassion, self-expression, positive interaction with other students, respect for differences, and being a good team member.

Although the affective domain is difficult to measure, adhering to three principles helps teachers to achieve accurate, objective measurements. The first principle involves the necessity for teachers to believe that social interaction and personal responsibility are behaviors that can be learned and that assessment of these behaviors is natural within a lesson. To be learned, the behavior must be defined and taught. The physical educator teaches these affective behaviors in the same way that physical skills are taught (by specifying objectives for the students and designing class activities that promote the development of the behavior). Then affective skill achievement should be assessed (in the same setting in which the affective behaviors were taught) using a variety of student-centered, problem solving, and cooperative learning activities. Teacher checklists (figure 1) are effective and easy to develop and use, and they provide objective measurements to document student achievement of affective skills.

The second principle is that teachers need to determine the desired affective behavior and/or attitude in order to objectively measure the affective skill or attribute. An excellent example of a behavior-measuring scale for assessing personal responsibility is Don Hellison\'s (1995) five levels of Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR). The five levels (from low to high indications of responsibility) include: irresponsibility, respect, participation, self-direction, and caring. Teachers can create similar measuring tools for the specific affective skills they wish to measure by creating a rubric that specifies the various levels of performance within that skill. Students can then use the rubric to self-assess their level of achievement in personal responsibility or in other designated affective elements (figure 2). Through self-assessment, students are given the opportunity to honestly evaluate their own behavior, and teachers may provide feedback to the students to support and encourage growth toward selected levels of achievement.

Using a variety of measurement tools when assessing affective skills and attitudes is the third principle for achieving accurate and objective measurement. These tools may include rating scales (figure 3), checklists, event recordings (figure 4), and anecdotal records. Anecdotal records may be in the form of student artwork for the primary grades or journal entries and short stories describing personal likes and dislikes for intermediate students. A variety of questions may evoke relevant journal entries:

• Describe your performance today. Did you feel good about your performance?
• How did you encourage a classmate today?
• How did you feel after your team was successful at attaining the goals set for the day? What problems did you solve to be successful?
• How do you feel after you play hard?

Performance indicators in many school districts require writing across the curriculum. Journaling in physical education easily contributes to the writing requirement while providing valuable information to the teacher about personal likes and dislikes of the student.

Having students use a Likert scale (figure 5) to express their likes and dislikes is often an effective method of assessing attitudes toward specific activities. Information gathered from Likert scales may be most accurate when students are not required to include their names on the scale. Teachers can use this information to improve and make changes in the unit. Likert scales can also be used to teach the students that there are activities that they will enjoy and some that they will not enjoy, but that there is value in all activity.

The final principle encourages physical educators to teach and assess the affective domain, but not to grade student achievement in this domain. We maintain that the assessment should be used to document student achievement of personal goals within the affective domain and should be reported to parents or guardians during conferences, in progress reports, and/or in the comment section of the child\'s report card.

Summary

Physical educators should make a commitment to implement cognitive and affective assessments. When assessing the cognitive domain, assessment activities should directly reflect what was taught and should be infused throughout the unit of instruction. Educators should realize that appropriate social interaction is an affective domain element that must be taught and learned. Students should be held accountable for their behavior. Assessment results in these two domains should drive instruction and, therefore, enhance learning.