response to discussion 6 BF

Courtney

I feel that assessing affective variables is a very important part of education. When we use these assessments, we are able to figure out the student's values, interests, self-esteem, and overall attitude to different aspects of education. For example, knowing how the students feel about school could tell us a lot about the student. If the student doesn't care for school or doesn't think it is important to learn, they may not do as well as their peers. If we, as teachers, know that a student may struggle with enjoying school, we could also assess their interest. Knowing the student's interests could help motivate them to enjoy coming to school. It could possibly give us an insight as to how their parents feel about school as well. If the parents aren't encouraging learning, the child could have that same attitude. 

Although some people may feel that it is the responsibility of the parents to promote values, some parents may not care enough to do so. When a teacher finds that this may be the case for their student, I feel that it becomes the teacher's responsibility to help promote the necessary values to produce productive members of our future society. The teacher may be the only positive influence the child has. 

Obviously, I would like to assess the students in my own classroom. I would like to assess my student's self-esteem and interest in learning. I also feel like the two things should always be assessed in school. We know that sometimes children can be mean, and some are bullies. Assessing the student's self-esteem could help prevent bullying or being bullied. As I stated earlier, some children may not be interested in school, and knowing their interests could help motivate them to love learning. 

Karla

After reading this week's text, I believe that assessing affective variables is extremely important. In our reading, we are shown that students' self esteem highly influences the way that they view studying and learning (Popham, 2019). As a future educator, I am interested in using these affective assessments to give me a better insight into the beliefs of my students. Using affective assents allows us to predict future behavior for students based on their current beliefs on a certain topic (Popham, 2019). I believe that is so beneficial for a teacher to use in the classroom to help further the type of classroom environment they wish to create. Furthermore, I also believe that potential interest target assessments should be done to access the thoughts on different important subject matter taught through the semester. I personally liked the idea of using the self-report assessment. I believe that it is one of the most accurate ways to get un biased and truthful feedback from students. It was also interesting to learn that compared to cognitive oriented tests, teachers probably shouldn't make inferences with affective tests. The only negative about affective tests is the probability that some students, for varying reasons would not answer truthfully (Popham, 2019). Although that chance is high, the results wouldn't be completely skewed, as mentioned in our text, sometime teachers are able to still use even fifty percent of their data and be able to form an accurate inference. I am looking forward to implanting affective assessments in my future classroom. 

Lutresha

`How do I feel about assessing affective variables? I feel that as a teacher, I would like to know how my students are feeling about the subject area that I am teaching. I believe as teachers, we should also be concerned about our students attitudes as well as their knowledge and skills of our subject area.  According to Popham (2020), affective variables, most educators concede, are important and that students' attitudes toward learning, play a major role in how much learning those students will pursue (p. 244). As teachers, we should be willing to get our students motivated.  As teachers, we should be concerned about what motivates our students.

I will assess affective variables in my classroom. Being in the assistant position at my current my job, I always to try to determine what motivates the students by having conversation with them. You will be surprised with the feedback from the students. I actually find it rewarding to listen to the students and to learn where their minds are on school and what their goals are for the future.  I believe that students who are confident in their schoolwork, perform better in the classroom. I use affective variables to keep my students educationally interested in my subject area. It is important to know what makes our students value our subject area. As Popham (2020) stated, "We measure what we treasure."

I feel that students will perform better if they are in the right mood and emotionally ready to digest the material we are teaching in the classroom.  I would use the self-report assessment because as Popham (2020) stated you can get a decent fix on students' affective status by asking them to complete self-report inventories meaning that students will be anonymous when responding to questions. According to Popham (2020), Self-report assessment procedures were suggested as the most practical way to gather affective data in classrooms.  I would also use Likert Inventories which Popham (2020), states as series of statements in response to which you register your agreement or disagreement responses.

Some may argue that it is the parents' jobs to teach their children such variables at home and that may be true, but as educators and because we spend a lot of time with the students, it our responsibilities, as well, to help promote our students' interests while they are in our care.