Affective Competencies That Students Don't Learn and Schools Don't Systematically Teach

All affective variables or domains must be stimulated from the earliest pre-school age. Other-wise it is a very difficult, almost impossible, task for high school and the university. However, at any age, the world of feeling is always open to exploration and individual growth. If this has not been achieved at the previous levels of the education system or it has not been attempted, it is never too late to teach and learn, and in no event should this be an ex-cuse for the university institution not to fulfill its obligations. These are some of the affective domains and social competencies that educational systems are required to fulfill [1]:

1. Development of thought and ethical behavior.
2. Full and responsible exercise of human rights.
3. Democratic cooperative behavior.
4. Simultaneous exercise of rights and obligations for the practice of freedom.
5. Multicultural, intercultural and international understanding.
6. Development of aesthetic sensitivity.
7. Critical sense and spirit of dialogue with full respect for the ideas of others.
8. Flexibility and tolerance.
9. Development of self-criticism.
10. Ability to listen.
11. Fostering sharing attitudes.
12. Capacity to compete with oneself and not with others.
13. To permanently strive to be free from mental and social prejudices.
14. Motivation to learn and cultivation of learning habits.
15. Development of attitudes conducive to creativity and innovation.
16. Capacity for risk-taking and accepting responsibility for learning.
17. Fostering the inquiring spirit to keep curiosity alive.
18. Moderation of superfluous elements.
19. Learning for enterprise: sense of initiative and entrepreneurship.
20. Learning to care: sense of living in harmony with nature and fellow human beings.
21. Learning to carry on learning: sense of living in harmony with knowledge.

To educate is to learn and teach; instruction rests on an intellectual level and affective education blends into a personality development, manifesting in a students’ overall behavior. Education as a general concept should not only include teaching or instruction, but social and cultural learning, as an independent act of an individual and of an interaction with his or her peers. We need to make sufficient room for afective, emotional and social learning. Teaching cognitive competences at the expense of teaching affective competences is wrong and reduces education to a very superficial acquisition of knowledge and values.

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[1] This list of affective learning variables is based in my research on cultural learning presented in my book, The Psychosocial and Cultural Nature of Education (2004). Boston: Pearson. ?2018 Miguel Angel Escotet. All rights reserved. Permission to reprint with appropriate citing.