Domains of Learning

Learning takes place in multiple domains and at various degrees of complexity: Cognitive, Psychomotor, and Affective. While these domains are widely accepted, there is support for the others listed on this page.

Affective Domain: feelings, values, dispositions, attitudes.

Cognitive Domain: knowledge and mental skills.

Personal and Social Responsibility: behavior in/out of class.

Psychomotor Domain: motor skills.

Social Domain: teamwork, communication, leadership.

The purpose of the taxonomies below are to make it easier to sequence learning tasks in a logical order of difficulty ("SWBAT" = Students Will Be Able To).

For example, you would not ask students to judge the quality of a volleyball serve (level 5 of the cognitive domain) until they can describe the key cues for the serve (level 1 of the cognitive domain). Likewise, you would not expect students to be able to combine multiple psychomotor skills in game play (level 5 of the psychomotor domain) if they were unable to successfully repeat each skill in isolation (level 2 of the psychomotor domain).

Physical Education standards and the Domains of Learning

Standard 1 (Psychomotor Domain): The physically literate individual demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns.

Standard 2 (Cognitive Domain): The physically literate individual applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies and tactics related to movement and performance.

Standard 3 (Cognitive Domain): The physically literate individual demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness.

Standard 4 (Social Domain): The physically literate individual exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others.

Standard 5 (Affective Domain and Health Related Fitness Domain): The physically literate individual recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.

See this blog series for more information

Examples of progressive objectives

The 3 images below show a progression from lower order to higher order learning objectives for the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains.