Classroom communication is normally considered as

Concept — Educational objectives, and the classroom exchanges that serve them, are conventionally sorted into three domains: cognitive (knowing), affective (feeling) and psychomotor (doing). Which domain an exchange belongs to is fixed by the kind of content it carries — not by how well it works, and not by how a receiver filters it.

Application — The routine business of a classroom is the transmission and construction of subject matter: a teacher explains a concept, learners question it, restate it and apply it. The content of that exchange is information, concepts, comprehension and reasoning, and that is exactly the cognitive domain. So classroom communication is normally considered cognitive.

Contrast with the other choices

• effective — an outcome judgement: it asserts that a particular exchange achieved the purpose it was meant to serve. Effectiveness has to be demonstrated case by case, so it is not the standing description of what classroom communication is.

• affective — the domain of attitudes, values, interests and emotional response. Rapport and motivation do run through a classroom, but they accompany the instructional exchange rather than define its normal content.

• selective — a receiver-side filter: selective attention, perception and retention let a person take in only part of the messages available. That names a screening process on the receiving end, not the domain of the exchange.

Result — Classroom communication is normally considered cognitive.

Exam note — The provisional UGC NET June 2014 Paper 1 key listed the affective option; the updated UGC key issued after grievances corrected the answer to cognitive.