The affective domain deals with a person's beliefs and attitudes toward a specific situation, person or institution. With this concept in mind, educators have more leniency when grading the affective domain. There are no real right or wrong answers, only the objective of having the student react to a situation in a general way. For example, in nursing, when dealing with patient care, there is the general concept of kindness and compassion; however, students will display these traits in diverse ways, according to their personality and beliefs. The educator will not be held to a strict standard as far as correctness goes and instead will be able to grade the students' overall attitude and participation.
Grading the cognitive domain, in terms of knowledge retention, usually requires traditional written testing. When grading the affective domain, the teacher can use a variety of assessment techniques, such as surveys, questionnaires, role-playing activities and opinion papers. Because there is no need for a conventional correct response, the instructor can vary the assessment means for student comprehension of the intended material.
The traditional grade is made up of points scored on assignments completed. Educators that use the affective domain can factor student attitude into the final grade to get a more complete picture of the student's overall effort in the class. Some students understand the material and study hard for assessments but are just not good at taking tests. This leaves them at a disadvantage with their peers. If the teacher incorporates student effort and attitude for learning the material into the final grade, this benefits the student tremendously. Even if the student is proficient at assessments, he will still receive the benefit if the teacher takes the affective domain into account.
An advantage of grading the affective domain will come in improved communication between teacher and student. Because the affective domain deals with the student's attitudes and beliefs, this opens up the possibility of conversation on a deeper level about the content. The teacher can speak with students regarding their feeling on situations and become more personally connected with them than if they only graded the cognitive domain through traditional assessments.