Teaching Prepared by Caroline W. Ndirangu

No.
Question involving Implication and relevant examples
1
Memory
Recall  of  facts  previously  acquired  by  learners,  e.g. What  is  the  capital  of 
Kenya? 
2
Organization
The ability to relate two or more variables, e.g. What happens when an acid 
reacts with a metal?
3
Cause
Identifying independent and dependent variables, e.g. What is the effect of 
light on the rate of photosynthesis?
4
Evaluation
Analyze critically characteristics of phenomena, e.g.  Critically examine the 
effects of drug abuse on the productivity of a country? 
5
Inference
Predict and draw conclusions from a given situation? E.g. Describe the effect 
of increasing altitude on a mountain climber’s breathing rate? 
6
Translation
Apply information to a situation e.g. How has global warming affected the 
weather and the vegetation in your country?
7
Comparison
Ability to identify similarities and differences e.g. Compare and contrast the 
governance of a democratic and a dictatorial leader.
8
Analysis
Examining  events  objects  to  reveal  their  characteristics  or  properties  e.g. 
Discuss the factors that lead to the second world war? 
9
Interpretation
Ability to draw a balanced point of view from a set of facts, e.g. How has gender 
inequality contributed to poverty? Cite examples supported by relevant data.
These categories will only become meaningful when associated with particular 
questions in an assessment meanwhile; these points should be noted with regard 
to the list of abilities:
•  They are arranged in a hierarchy – that is the intellectual demands 
which are made on students increase in complexity from knowledge to 
evaluation the ability to analyze and evaluate and unfamiliar passage 
from literature requires more complex thinking than does the solution 
of a routine problem of defining.
•  The ability in the hierarchy usually requires an element of those lower 
than it. For example the ability to comment on an unfamiliar method 
of extracting a metal will require both knowledge and comprehensives 
of the general methods which are used to extract metals. It follows that 
if the objectives of the course include the development of all these abi-
lities the students must be given a chance to display them in examina-
tions and any other forms of assessment if the assessment is to be valid.

---

African Virtual University
   
•  Activities or methods of teaching and learning. The assessment situation 
should not be radically different from the teaching/ learning situations. 
Students who have been engaged in certain activities during the course 
should find themselves in similar activities during their assessment. If 
this is not so, given the pressure of examination success which exists, the 
examination will tend to give rise to other, and possibly less desirable 
teaching methods
A comprehensive evaluation of the results of schooling should include examples 
from the three domains of educational objectives. These are;
•  Cognitive domain
•  Affective domain
•  Psychomotor domain
Read these in articles again this time focus on the domains. Note the key words 
which were used to describe the learning objectives, learning activities are going 
to be used to measure whether they have been achieved.
This time test your memory and fill six key words for each domain by category 
without referring to the reading
i) COGNITIVE
Objectives  refer  to  the  intellectual  results  of  schooling.  Improvement  in  the 
learners intellectual structure, increase in knowledge his ability to reason rather 
than just remember.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
ii) AFFECTIVE 
Objectives refer to his/her emotional education i.e. acquiring certain desirable 
attitude, interests and appreciation.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

---

African Virtual University
   
iii). PSYCHOMOTOR
Objectives refer to physical manipulative skills learnt at school.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Go back to activity one and cross check the correct order and words for each 
domain.
All the three domains can be described figuratively as referring to;
•  The head – Cognitive
•  The heart – Affective
•  The body – psychomotor
Most books on education put emphasis on affective domain than either cognitive 
or psychomotor. Conversely, the emphasis in educational measurement has up 
to now been on cognitive skills followed by the psychomotor skills. The affective 
domain has hardly been formally evaluated.
This is true of developing countries where misguided enthusiasm for the white-
collar jobs has resulted in lack of attention to the affective objectives of education. 
The results are that the schools and colleges have produced thousands of highly 
lettered graduates most of whom are hardly educated in the real sense of the word. 
This will have serious consequences on the developing countries in the future.

---

African Virtual University