Examining the effects of descriptive-qualitative evaluation approach in achieving cognitive, affective and psycho- motor educational objectives at primary schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of descriptive-qualitative evaluation approach on achieving cognitive، affective and psycho- motor educational objectives at primary schools in the Markazi province. Participants were 328 students in the third grade of both new (descriptive-qualitative) and old (traditional) assessment systems at elementary schools. Participants completed five educational achievement tests in cognitive and psycho-motor domains and three questionnaires for affective domain. Data were collected at the end of academic year prior to final exams. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was performed along with post-hoc comparison tests. The results showed significant differences between experimental and control groups in math، science، Persian language and spelling performance. Students'' grades in descriptive-qualitative system were higher in comparison with those of traditional group in cognitive domain، such as math، sciences، Persian language and spelling. No significant difference was found between experimental and control group in affective domain. Significant differences were found between experimental and control groups in terms of psycho-motor domain based on their performance on leaf and trees test as well as garbage stuff test. Students of experimental group displayed better performance in leaf and tree test whereas the control group had a better performance in garbage stuff test. Compared with boys، girls had better performance in educational achievement tests related to cognitive domain. Also، in affective domain girls had more positive attitudes to Persian language whereas no significant difference was found between boys and girls in terms of their attitudes toward math and science. Finally، compared with boys، girls had better performance in psycho-motor domain.