Colonial Lit There Are Three

Colonial Lit

There are three categories of learning as generally associated with students and the methods that they use to assimilate and retain the information they are attempting to understand. They are categorized as learning domains and include; cognitive, affective and psychomotor.

A domain is a sphere or range of influence or activity."(Dettmer 2006-page 70)

In layman's terms, therefore, the three learning domains are known as knowledge, attitude and skills. "This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as 'the goals of the training process.' That is, after the training session, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes." (Taxonomy 2007)

These three domains were initially established in the mid-1900's in order to declare a foundation for teaching students in public schools. Since that time, some experts have actually revised the three domains to include a fourth domain; the social domain.

A social domain is introduced to accentuate socio-cultural processes that accompany thinking, feeling and sensing movement." (Dettmer pg 70) Each domain has certain characteristics that allow the teacher to communicate in a more efficient manner with students, if the domains are understood by the teacher and used correctly.

The cognitive domain is the domain of knowledge, what the student knows and does not know in an educational sense. The second domain is the affective, or attitude domain.

When working with the affective domain, the most important thing to remember about the individual student is what type of attitude will work best with that person. The last commonly used domain is the psychomotor domain, which is the domain that allows for movement and physical training in order to learn. If the fourth domain is included it would be the social domain which allows the student to learn through social interaction(s).

When establishing criteria for curriculum development the three domains should be used in such a manner as to make it a simple matter for students to understand what is expected. In a recent study the researchers discovered that it was "necessary to separate operationally the effects of tension in the cognitive and the affective domains,,because students reacted most productively not to the degree of difficulty and expectation in the course,,but to the quality of materials and activities." (Spielmann 2001-page 259)

If those two domains are adversely affected by poor research materials or activities that are not relevant to the subject, then one way to achieve a higher level of learning is to incorporate improved materials into the daily lesson plans. Using material that is current and relevant makes a lot of sense and piques the interest of most students.