Dr. Fatima Rehan Dar
Head, Department of Education
SZABIST, Karachi
A curriculum plays a key role in developing a human
mind. It should, therefore, ensure intellectual growth
and simultaneously develop human qualities which
are important for peaceful coexistence in society.
Cognitive-affective approach is an approach that
provides a philosophical foundation from which
teachers can base their teaching outcomes ensuring
that both the emotional and traditional cognitive
realms are being delivered
Pace (2006)
The Ideal
The Problem
 Texts are important elements
 For the proper implementation
of any school curriculum and
provide a solid platform
through which students view
the world
 Texts, readers, and contexts
are inseparable from one
another
Galda and Beach (2001)
of any school curriculum,
textbooks become part and
parcel of the education system
Mahmood, 2010
 Texts are seldom tapped for
the various functions they may
perform including social and
emotional development of
students. Cognitive skill
development is a dominant
focus
Curriculum in Pakistan emphasizes
transmission of knowledge and the affective
domain of children goes unnoticed
Vazir (2003)
Normally a curriculum should have the
teacher as the centre but textbook
development appears to be the only
activity flowing from the curriculum
(NEP, 2009,p.44)
 How did the under study English language textual
materials from grades1-5 support E & P themes?
 How did the texts teach cognitive and affective skills to
students from grades 1-5?
 How did E & P integrated English language textual
materials and activities raise awareness among students
about the stated themes in the classroom?
Part 1- Document analysis of textbooks grades 1-5
(3 months)
For identification of E & P themes
Part II- Planning the intervention (4 weeks)
The teachers, grades 1-5, were asked to develop lessons by highlighting the
E & P themes in texts through a specific focus on the characters and plot.
Part III – The Intervention (6 weeks)
The teachers conducted cognitive-affective lessons to note:
 awareness among students about E & P skills
 Students’ interest in academic work while they focused on cognitive-affective
lessons.
Cognitive
Texts
Affective
 Document Analysis
Textbooks from Grades 1-5
 Observation and note taking
15 lessons from grades 1-5
 Focused Group Interviews of teachers and students
8 teachers
18 students
About 8 teachers and 157 students from grades 1-5 became subjects of the
study
Table 1
Percentages of the Routine Lesson and Story Time Texts with E & P Themes
Time allocation given to
Grade routine lessons
1
2
3
4
5
% of routine lesson
texts with E & P
themes
Time allocation
given to story time
sessions
140 minutes per week
64%
45 minutes per
week
140 minutes per week
57%
160 minutes per week
60%
220 minutes per week
50%
240 minutes per week
23%
45 minutes per
week
40 minutes per
week
30 minutes twice a
month
30 minutes once a
week
% of story time texts
with E & P themes
15%
10.2%
28%
15%
41%
 Reduction of E & P themes as the grades
progressed
 Cognitive focus on texts and textual activities in
lesson plans
 Omission to integrate the cognitive-affective
domains in lesson plans
Some of the lesson activities used by teachers for the purpose were:
 Group discussions on E & P themes with respect to the text or activity
 Sharing of ideas among students
 Creative writing on E & P themes
 Writing dialogues on E & P themes
 Role-plays
 Paragraph writing on E & P themes
 Sentence construction through sharing of ideas
 Presentations on situations depicting help
 Linkages of texts with real life contexts of students
 Addition of E & P adjectives and adverbs to paragraph of a text
 Isolation of E & P traits of textual characters and writing about those traits with
textual references.

The students remained active participants in all activities
and were seen to be achieving academic targets well with
the affective integration in lesson plans.

They spoke well in groups and discussions, read with
eagerness and wrote with concentration.

There were hardly any student disruptions observed.
They were seen to be helping each other out in groups
 They shared ideas amicably and respected each other’s’
point of view
 They also took turns in responding.

Jennings and Greenberg (2009) observed that a healthy
classroom climate directly contributed to the students’ social,
emotional and academic outcomes.
All teachers reported that through the integration of E & P themes with
regular academic objectives students were able to come up with good
ideas, relate issues to real life contexts and find relevance in what they
were doing.
“I found some people who would never think, but this time I was there to
involve them…and they came up with something that surprised me as
well”
(Tr.1)
“They were realizing that what should be done about the major issues in
life.. that gave them awareness.” (Tr. 7)

Students took better interest in academic work through
the integration of E & P themes in the lessons.

Slow learners were found better engaged in work

Students worked with more concentration in pairs and
groups

Students worked cohesively and came out with more
thoughtful and better expressions while doing writing
tasks
 All students repeatedly opined that they had learnt to ‘share and care’
from the experience.
 They also reported that they had fun doing group and pair activities
based on E & P themes.
 The students demonstrated adequate awareness about E & P themes.
They could ascertain E & P themes very well from the texts and
referred to texts that enclosed the said themes.
 They also quoted instances of sharing and caring behaviours
embedded in the plot and traits of characters which authenticated
their awareness about the themes.
For a:
 Reciprocal purpose
 Humanitarian purpose
 Spiritual purpose.

E & P themes were underrepresented in the texts used for
the primary years, i.e. grades 1-5

Lack of focus to teach E & P themes through texts and
activities

The cognitive-affective link was found omitted

Cognitive-affective integration resulted in better
academic interest among students






Texts should manifest E & P themes
Raising teachers’ awareness about affective skills, E & P skills in
particular through professional development programmes
Enabling teachers to do lesson planning with cognitive-affective
theme integration
Highlighting E & P themes in texts and building activities around
them
Promoting E & P behaviours in classrooms through team building
activities
Promoting a school culture that is more empathetic and pro-social