The effect of descriptive evaluation on cognitive, affective and psychomotor characteristics of elementary third grade students in Tehran

The purpose of this research was to study the effect of descriptive evaluation plan on cognitive, affective and psychomotor characteristics of elementary third grade students in Tehran. This plan has been carried out experimentally in four regions of Tehran since 1382-83 educational year (regions 1, 5, 9, 16) emphasizing on formative, performance evaluation and descriptive feedback. The target population was limited to above mentioned regions. In this research 96 third grade students were selected randomly among experimental schools of descriptive evaluation plan (48 girls and 48 boys) and 96 student from equivalent schools as control group. Measurement instruments used in this research are: (1) academic achievement tests, (2) metacognitive awareness questionnaire, (3) quality of school life (QSL) questionnaire, and (4) performance tests. MANOVA and ANOVA was carried out to analyze data.The results showed that progress level of third grade students among experimental schools in cognitive variables such as math, science, Persian language and metacognitive awareness was significantly higher than that of control group. There was no significant difference between experimental and control groups in variables of affective domain such as general satisfaction from school, negative affects to school, teacher- student relation, social integration, opportunity (feeling confidence in ability for success in school affair) and adventure (self motivation feeling and enjoy learning). There was significant differences between two groups on psychomotor domain variables. The results showed that the mean score of experimental group in tree and leaf test is significantly higher than the mean score of control group. In other performance tests such as rubbish things test and thermometer test the mean score of two groups was not significantly different.