EXPANDING YOUR TEACHING STRATEGY: CONSIDERING THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN IN TEACHING GEOSCIENCES

Science faculty generally focus much of their teaching strategy on the cognitive domain. However, the affective domain also plays a critical role in student learning. The affective domain includes factors such as student motivation, attitudes, perceptions and values. Teachers can increase their effectiveness by considering the affective domain in planning courses, delivering lectures and activities, and assessing student learning. As part of the On the Cutting Edge series of professional development workshops for geoscience faculty, a workshop on the Affective Domain in Teaching Geosciences was held in February 2007. In conjunction with the workshop, a web-based resource for teachers was developed (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/index.html).

Workshop participants included faculty from the fields of the geosciences, science education and cognitive psychology. Presentations included the background and definitions of the affective domain, information about student attitudes and perceptions, descriptions of real-world successes and failures in the classroom as they relate to the affective domain, the role of group work and field work, the importance of immediacy in the classroom and a demonstration of teaching evolution and other controversial topics. Each of these presentations can be found on the workshop website.

An important component of the workshop was the development of a collection of anecdotal essays about affective domain challenges that faculty have experienced in the classroom. Solutions to some of these dilemmas have been written by workshop participants, and all of the dilemmas and responses are hosted on the website.

A second major accomplishment from the workshop was the establishment of two working groups. One is making a concept map that shows the relationship between faculty goals for students and aspects of the affective domain. The second working group is moving forward with a coordinated data collection effort to establish baseline data on the attitude of geoscience students toward science.

The information presented at the workshop and the accompanying website represent a step forward for geoscience educators' understanding of the affective domain, and will hopefully translate into the use of new pedagogic strategies which incorporate the affective domain.