National Research Themes R&D Project
A consideration of the place of Bloom’s Affective domain in contributing to
‘what makes great pedagogy’.
Is an identified, effective pedagogy transferable to a different context? A focus on the use
of Bloom’s Taxonomy and its impact on learner progress.
“…there is much less attention…on what constitutes effective teaching, or, put
differently, on the behaviours and actions of good teachers: what it is that good
teachers do to promote good learning. At its worst, this produces a circular
argument: good teachers are those who produce good outcomes, so that those pupils
with good outcomes must have been taught by good teachers.”
Husbands and Pearce (2012)
We believe that the success of the pedagogy at South Farnham Teaching School can be
linked to a high level of understanding of the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which
is explicit in the South Farnham curriculum planning and design. However, we noted that,
through observations of the teaching staff, the Affective Domain was also being
demonstrated strongly. The challenge of this research was to measure to what extent that
affective domain is consistently applied, whether it can be applied in more than one setting,
and how the learning context within the school in question supports this domain. Moved by
the idea that “any instruction that includes these qualities is likely to result in the desired
attitude formation or change” (Miller, 2005), we wanted to investigate whether the use of
the affective domain would help to define or produce a transferable pedagogy for use in
other settings. This would, in turn, also support our SLE and NLE work as a National Support
School and develop abilities and thinking when supporting schools in difficult circumstances.
The review by Husbands and Pearce (2012) set out nine claims about what makes for great
pedagogic practices drawing on a range of research evidence which suggests that
“outstanding pedagogy is far from straightforward”. They go on to suggest that the very
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best teaching “arises when research…is supplemented by a personal passion for what is to
be taught and for the aspirations of learners” (2012). At South Farnham, we believe that our
most successful classroom practitioners demonstrate their understanding of how these
ideas can work together. They are “active in building relationships between them” (2012)
and are committed to improving their practice for the benefit of pupils.
The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes the manner in which we
deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms,
motivations, and attitudes. The five major stages; receiving, responding, valuing, organising,
internalising , are all practices actively promoted in lessons by our teachers, demonstrated
through quality teaching with active facilitation of discussions to share opinions and beliefs.
Our focus was on how teachers engaged with the affective aspects of learning and teaching,
and to ascertain the impact of deliberate and mindful incorporation of the affective domain.
“Although they may not always be aware of it, most teachers are involved in some
form of attitude teaching. In some cases, attitude learning is the main objective of
instruction”
(Miller. M, 2005)
Whilst there is a wealth of research on attitudes, popular in social sciences, most of the
existing measurements for assessing attitudes and attitude change use quantitative
methodologies and have previously said to be flawed. Bednar & Levie (1993) stated that
“attitudes cannot be directly observed; they are inferred from behaviour, usually in the form
of verbal responses or observable actions”. They make similar recommendations for when
designing instruction for attitude change in that:
"…three approaches emerge from the theoretical literature: providing a persuasive
message; modelling and reinforcing appropriate behaviour; and inducing dissonance
between the cognitive, affective, and behavioural components of the attitude. These
approaches are ideally used in tandem"
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(1993, p286).
Miller suggests that there is
“…no firm agreement about the optimal order in which to present the various
cognitive and affective messages contained in a given unit of instruction”.
(2005)
Set within the interpretivist paradigm, and using a mixed method approach, three school
contexts were used to explore the relational engagements fostered in a range of learning
opportunities in the classroom. The research team adopted a social constructivist approach
to formulate the questionnaires; a pilot was used so as to ascertain if the words and their
meanings assumed by the researchers were shared more widely across both the pupil and
teacher populations of the schools.
This was helpful in also building up a deeper recognition of the hierarchy of experience
intended by Bloom and his team originally in 1956.
As “the most important school-related factor in student learning... is teaching” (Schwartz,
2009: online), our focus was to explore what it was about pedagogy of our teaching and
learning that helped to produce high attainment. Barber, in his report for McKinsey
concluded that “the best school systems are those that have the best teachers” (2007:13).
Our initial challenge was to investigate and define the characteristics of the pedagogies used
by teachers at South Farnham School.
Teaching observations, carried out as part of the methodology, and confirmed that the
majority staff in all three settings were demonstrating engagement with the affective
domain. For example, aspects of valuing, receiving, monitoring were evident across all
lessons observed. This information enabled us to recognise that the teachers’ attitude
towards embracing the pedagogy, including behaviour policies, professionalism as expected
in the staff handbook and treatment of the children, was based on Bloom’s Affective
domain.
National Research Themes R&D Project
Taking on a new school in difficulty as part of school-to school support work has allowed us
to ‘test’, the transferable nature of the chosen pedagogy. Results from SLE teacher
observations, from team teaching and following INSET on the use of AfL, planning and
assessment have demonstrated a positive impact to learning shown through greater pupil
engagement. Teachers’ practices were recorded as improved at an early stage in the
research project, in that they enabled pupils to give “statements of opinions, beliefs, or an
assessment of worth” (Smith & Ragan, 1999). However, use of the affective domain was
highlighted most acutely in this new (fourth) setting through a radical cultural shift in
behaviour management ideology and the implementation of a new behaviour policy.
Throughout the project, the research team were actively involved with academic leads from
the University of Roehampton and the Institute of Education. The nature of this
collaborative enquiry brought rigour to the process. It quickly developed a shared ideology
or practise and gave the opportunity for questioning and discussion for greater
understanding. It also developed leadership roles and delegation skills amongst the staff.
Another resulting factor of these partnerships was the invitation to submit an abstract
which enabled us to present our research at a BERA conference: ‘Supporting Teachers as
Researchers’ at the University of Manchester on 30th June 2014. Additionally, we
disseminated our research at a Practitioner Enquiry day at Farnborough Sixth Form College,
further enabling us to begin to be active in ‘influencing’ colleagues through our research. In
order to ensure our learning is shared and sustained going forward we will be seeking
publishing opportunities, looking to developing further links with HEIs, encouraging research
and development amongst colleagues and promoting and embedding a culture of R&D in
school and across the alliance.
We understand the very clear message from central government to ensure that any
pedagogical strategies used in initial teacher training need to be underpinned by a firm
research base, similar to the medical model, so as not to become dogmatic in approach
when training and developing staff. Therefore, our own delivery of ITT must be upheld by
scholarly research. Enquiry-based school environments are becoming the ‘hallmark’ of high
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performing education systems. This primarily pedagogical method emphasizes constructivist
ideas of learning, where knowledge is built from experience and process. The philosophy of
such an approach finds its ancestors in constructivist learning theories, such as the work of
Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, and Freire (amongst others). However, this approach can only be
considered useful for schools if it is embedded into the culture, in that it is seen as part of
the mainstream function, in our case underpinning the work of the Teaching School and
ultimately, linked to our School Development Plan.
National Research Themes R&D Project
References
Anderson, Lorin W. Assessing affective characteristics in the schools/Lorin W
Anderson and Sid F. Bourke.-2nd ed.p.cm
Bednar, A. & Levie, W.H. (1993). Attitude-change principles. In M. Fleming & W.H.
Levie (Eds.), Instructional message design: Principles from the behavioral and cognitive
sciences (pp. 283-304). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
Husbands, C & Pearce, J, 2012, What makes great pedagogy? Nine claims from
research, Nottingham, National College for School Leadership
Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S., Masia, B.B. (1973). Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives, the Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook II: Affective Domain. New
York: David McKay Co., Inc.
Miller, M. (2005). Teaching and Learning in Affective Domain. In M. Orey (Ed.),
Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology. Retrieved from
http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Teaching_and_Learning_in_Affective_Domain
Mourshed, M, Chijioke C, Barber M, How the World's Best-Performing School
Systems Come out on Top. New York: McKinsey & Company; Dinham, S. (2007).
Smith, P. & Ragan, T.J. (1999). Instructional design. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Schwartz, R, 2009, Attracting and retaining teachers, OECD Observer [online].
Available at www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/2235/ [accessed 15 April 2012]
South Farnham School
National Research Themes R&D Project
October 2014