Teachers of middle school children, how do incorporate cognitive & affective learning in the classroom?

Question

Do you think affective is as important as the cognitive development? How do you combine the two while teaching?

Answer 1

I think addressing emotions in a learning environment is very important, but I think Bloom's take on it with the "affective domain" is far too ... dry? If you really want an interesting way to address that domain, I urge you to look into accelerated learning (aka suggestopedia). Positive emotional experiences are a key to being able to acquire new skill and knowledge. I would love to discuss, but this is not a discussion board... try this Yahoo Group:

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/idstraightpoop/

Answer 2

I'll be honest with you. I don't. I think children's affective development is crucially important. But I only have a limited amount of time with the kids. I have to place a priority on their cognitive development. Of course, I teach reading and writing. So it's never hard to incorporate character education into the work the class does. For example, we can talk about the characters in books and the choices they make. I guess you could say that in some way, affective learning is infused into most of what we do.