Affective Education

Affect is defined as a feeling or emotion, as distinguished from cognition, thought, or action. Emotion is an intense feeling, a complex and usually strong subjective response, such as love or fear, or a state of agitation or disturbance. Psychological curricula deal with emotions or the affect. The movement has been called “affective education” by educators. Affective education includes a large variety of curricula and programs designed to change the values and the behavior of students. John Steinberg discussed the history of affective education or teaching toward emotional intelligence in 1998. He maintained that affective education is integral to all learning.

In the early 1970s, the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts became a center for humanistic-affective education. Methods for values clarification, self-concept development and conflict resolution were developed. George Brown, at the University of California in Santa Barbara, began developing the concept called “confluent education,” in which he maintained that affective and cognitive growth work together.

Another concept to be developed during the 1970s was the moral education movement. Lawrence Kohlberg from Harvard University led this movement. Kohlberg's research revealed that there were a number of different levels of moral behavior. The levels of moral behavior were similar to the levels for cognitive or intellectual development proposed by Jean Piaget. Piaget's work suggested that children move from concrete reasoning to abstract reasoning. The movement from the simple or elementary levels to the more complex or advanced levels is common to both concepts.

In 1975, affective education was presented in the form of an educational program called Quest. The Quest program, the first of its kind, was designed to be a humanistic values education curriculum. In 1982, a second version was introduced and several more have been published since.

Affective or humanistic education means that we see the “whole” child. During the last three decades, there has been a movement toward spending more time and thought on developing affective skills along with cognitive skills in the classroom. Both affective and cognitive skills are taught and valued. Educators recognize that to be a successful doctor, teacher, nurse, boss, or salesperson, a person needs both knowledge and social skills.

Affective education programs are intended to help students learn to solve social problems. Many programs are described as “value-free,” but most of the programs deal with values or values clarification. Most affective education programs are designed to improve self-esteem, good decision making, academic performance, and sensitivity to others. They may also help students reduce stress. For the most part, the curricula use moral relativism as a foundation and selfinterest as the primary motivation for developing character or for modifying behavior. Some of the programs are labeled as living or coping skills development programs. As a group, the programs are affective education programs, which address the emotional content of a student's learning process, rather than the cognitive education programs, which deal with the academics such as reading, writing, and math.

Instructional designers, instructors, teachers, or those who plan the lessons for students need instructional [Page 36]objectives to guide the lesson plans. The purpose of instructional objectives is to identify and specifically define the requirements of the lesson. When the requirements are clearly identified, the instructor will know what to include in the lesson. A clear definition allows the teacher to measure the outcome of the lesson. The instructional objectives will guide the measurement of the learning achieved as a result of instruction for a specific learning objective. The outcome or benefit of the instruction is described by or indicated by the precise description of what the learner is to accomplish. Objectives that are clearly defined are necessary for determining the most effective instructional or teaching strategies to promote the student's mastery of the lesson's objective.

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