CTET Paper 1 - December 2019 (English-Hindi-Sanskrit) (Previous Year Paper)

Child development theories focus on explaining how children change and grow over the course of childhood. Such theories center on various aspects of development including social, emotional, and cognitive growth.

Key Points

• The acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend knowledge as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
• Early Childhood (3-5 years): A child in this stage can walk, uses the toilet, interacts with his family members. When it comes to intellectual development he can recognize colour, shape, size of objects.
• Also, his imagination develops, he wants to know about things around him, so, he wants to communicate through language, that's why this period is also termed as the most critical period of acquisition and development of language.
• Early childhood is the preschool age where the child is learning skills associated with schooling.

Hint

• Pre-natal Period (Before birth): Occurs during the period of 38 weeks prior to the child, during this period a single cell becomes a full-term baby. This period is generally divided into three categories: the germinal stage, the embryonic stage, and the fetal stage.
• Middle Childhood (6-12 years): Middle childhood refers to the age of 6 to 12 years.
• Adolescence (12-18 years): The characteristics like physically strong, hero-worship, emotionally vulnerable are most prominent in this stage. It is a stage of significant transition wherein a child moves from childhood to a more mature stage.

Hence, from the above points, it is clearly inferred that the most critical period of acquisition and development of language is early childhood stage.

Lawrence Kohlberg, an American psychologist, has propounded the Theory of Moral Development. 

 Key PointsKohlberg proposed three levels of moral development wherein each level comprised of two stages as depicted in the table below:-

Hint

• Latency Stage is the phase of Sigmund Freud’s theory, the framework of childhood, and adolescent psychosexual development. The latency stage begins sometime between the ages of 5 and 7 and endures until puberty.
• The Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years): It is a stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development. It marks the beginning of logical or operational thought which means that the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world). The child can reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets. It is able to perform reversible mental operations.
• Industry Versus Inferiority is a stage of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, which happens after the third stage of initiative versus guilt. The stage occurs during childhood between the ages of approximately six and eleven.

Hence, we can clearly infer from the above points that, Social Contract Orientation is the Stage 5 of Moral Development Theory proposed by Lawrence Kohlberg.

Classroom Discussions plays a vital role in shaping or constructing the overall personality of a child. The discussions help the child to not only presents his or her point of view but to get an idea of other's perception as well and this helps in shaping the all-round thinking of a child.

Key Points

Gender Bias:

• It refers to the belief when someone prioritizes one gender more than the other one.
• It is a form of unconscious bias, or implicit bias, which occurs when one individual attributes certain attitudes and stereotypes to another person or group of people.
• It is a preference or prejudice toward one gender over the other for example preferring boys over girls during an activity. Bias can be conscious or unconscious and may manifest in many ways, both subtle and obvious.

Examples of Gender Bias in Teaching and at school:

• Stereotypical expressions of male and female characters in textbook content.
• Assigning work differentially to boys and girls​.
• Girls being given lesser opportunities to participate in school and classroom events.

Hint

• Gender Constancy: The concept of gender constancy refers to a cognitive stage of development of children at which they come to understand that their gender (meaning their biological sex) is fixed and cannot change over time.
• Gender Relevance: Gender is an important consideration in development. It is a way of looking at how social norms and power structures impact on the lives and opportunities available to different groups of men and women.
• Gender Identity: Gender identity is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female. This concept is intimately related to the concept of gender role, which is defined as the outward manifestations of personality that reflect the gender identity.

Hence, during a classroom discussion if a teacher pays more attention to boys than girls then it will be regarded as an example of Gender Bias.

Classroom Discussions play a vital role in shaping or constructing the overall personality of a child. The discussions help the child to not only presents his or her point of view but to get an idea of other's perception as well and this helps in shaping the all-round thinking of a child.

• Gender Stereotyping refers to the relatively fixed and overgeneralized attitudes and behaviors that are considered normal and appropriate for a person in a particular culture based on his or her biological sex.
• Gender stereotypes are overgeneralized. For example, a man might say women aren't meant for combat, while a woman might say men do nothing but watch sports. Such expressions represent gender stereotypes, which are over-generalizations about the characteristics of an entire group based on gender.
• While women were barred from serving in military combat in Western nations until the latter half of the 20th century, in recent times they have served in combat roles as capably as men. And while many men may watch sports, not all men would necessarily do so. This kind of discussion on Gender Bias is an effective strategy to reduce children’s Gender Stereotyping.

Important Points

• Gender Bias:
• It refers to the belief that someone prioritizes one gender more than the other one.
• It is a form of unconscious bias, or implicit bias, which occurs when one individual attributes certain attitudes and stereotypes to another person or group of people.
• Gender Conformity is when your gender identity, gender expression, and sex are matched according to the social norm. When someone confirms one’s behavior and appearance for the social expectations and acceptance of one’s group, it is also an example of gender conformity and gender roles placed on us.

Hence, from the above points, it is clear that discussions regarding Gender Bias are an effective strategy to reduce children’s Gender Stereotyping and Gender-Role Conformity.

Learning leads to a permanent change in behavior in the learners and children adopt a number of ways to learn from their environment.

Key Points

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Learning:

• Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who believed that social interactions play a key role in development. According to him, learning occurs when children interact with people and the environment.
• His greatest contribution was the emphasis on the role of socio-cultural influences in our development.
• He asserted that the cognitive development of children is enhanced through social interaction with other people, particularly those who are more skilled.
• Vygotsky believed that children are active seekers of knowledge emphasized the influence of social and cultural contents on their thinking.
• He explains this with the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which refers to a range of tasks that a child can achieve only with assistance from a more skilled adult or peer called the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). Adult assistance is provided wherever necessary which is called 'scaffolding'.

Hint

• Jean Piaget in his Theory of Cognitive Development, proposed that humans progress through four developmental stages: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and a formal operational period.
• Lawrence Kohlberg, an American psychologist, has propounded the 'Theory of Moral Development'. Kohlberg proposed three levels of moral development wherein each level comprised of two stages.
• John. B. Watson, an American psychologist, has propounded the 'Theory of Behaviorism' in which he emphasizes that the environment is the prime factor in shaping the behavior and actions of a child.

Hence, from the above points, we can infer that Lev Vygotsky emphasized the influence of social and cultural contents on a child's thinking.

Gifted students are those who display evidence of high-performance capabilities, in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership quality, or specific academic subjects, in comparison to others of the same age.

Important Points

To locate a gifted child, the preliminary search can be based on an IQ test. Identified gifted children based on intelligence tests. Generally, gifted students have 140 and above Intelligence.

Giftedness based on intelligence was popular, intelligence tests were used for screening purposes. 

Key Points

Characteristics of Gifted students:

• Gifted students can often think abstractly and process information in complex ways
• They are independent thinkers
• Displays great intellectual curiosity and inquisitiveness
• High level of verbal ability
• High curiosity level
• Has an advanced level of vocabulary for their age
• Incredible comprehension level
• Display exceptional talent in one or more areas
• Uses a lot of common sense
• Able to learn new information readily
• They can come up with different solutions for a given problem

Hence, we can conclude that To locate a gifted child, the preliminary search can be based on an IQ test.

We know that speech is an essential tool for communication. If the child learned a language to speak, then he engages in self-talk to help build his activity and improve his thinking ability.

Key Points

Lev Vygotsky introduced the term 'Private speech' in his Sociocultural theory, which refers to when children ‘think out loud’. It illustrates that children use speech to guide their own actions.

​Concept of private speech:

• Private speech refers to the speech produced aloud by young children which seems to be addressed either to the self or to others, which sometimes cannot be easily conceived by a listener.
• It has a major role in the augmentation of the self and self-consciousness.
• For example, Najma says to herself, “Where is the blue piece? No, not this one, darker one that would go here and make this shoe”. This is a kind of self-talk by Najma, so it can be considered as private speech.
• This phenomenon starts in the early years of life and proceeds to the end of adolescence and even later.

Hint

• The concept of ' Scaffolding' was proposed by a Russian psychologist named 'Lev Vygotsky' in his 'Socio-cultural Theory'. It is a process through which temporary support is imparted by the teacher or the parents to the learners to enhance learning to achieve learning goals.
• According to Jean Piaget, the children are Egocentric in the preoperational stage which is the stage that refers to the age of 2 to 7 years. In this stage, the child is unable to understand others' points of view. The children use egocentric speech for self-guidance by talking themselves.

Hence, from these points, we can infer that the given kind of activity is referred to as a Private Speech.

Scaffolding is a teaching method that enables a student to solve a problem, carry out a task, or achieve a goal through a gradual shedding of outside assistance. Scaffolding literally means the structure which is made to support the work crew while a building is constructed or repaired.

Key Points

• Scaffolding is a technique that is linked to the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which refers to a range of tasks that a child can achieve only with assistance from a more skilled adult or peer.
• <li
• This concept was developed by the Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky in his "Sociocultural Theory of Learning".
• Scaffolding refers to a technique that provides the right kind of support in the right amount at the right time to increase a child’s competence.
• In other words, it is a means by which a child's 'zone width' (or potential for new learning) can be assessed**,** i.e. scaffolding helps with providing support to learners in their initial phase of learning, which is in the right amount and gradually decreases as the learner progresses.
• As children are given assistance or shown how to perform certain tasks, they use this information as a guide on how to perform these tasks and eventually learn to perform them independently.
• It helps a learner to move from a Zone of Actual Development to a Zone of Proximal Development and finally reach to Zone of Desired Development, with the help of a more experienced person like peers, elders in the family, or teachers.
• For example, a teacher gives a lesson on vocabulary before making the child read a difficult passage and provides necessary cues and prompts when the child faces difficulty.
• <li

Hint

• Reinforcement in learning is an approach to automating goal-oriented learning and decision-making. This approach is meant for solving problems in which an agent interacts with an environment and receives a reward signal at the successful completion of every step.
• Conditioning is a form of learning in which either a given stimulus (or signal) becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or a response occurs with increasing regularity in a well-specified and stable environment. The type of reinforcement used will determine the outcome.
• Educational Modeling can be defined as giving students a demonstration or example of a process or product that is representative of the skill or content they are expected to perform themselves.

Hence, from the above points, we can infer that giving cues to children and offering support as and when needed is an example of Scaffolding.

Piaget explained that children progress through four stages and in the same order. The Four Stages of Cognitive Development are as follows:-

1. The Sensorimotor Stage (0 to 2yrs)
2. The Preoperational Stage (2 to 7)
3. The Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12)
4. The Formal Operational Stage (12 to adulthood)

Important Points

The concrete operational stage is the third stage in Piaget's theory of Cognitive Development.

• In this stage, Children gain the abilities of conservation of number, area, volume, and orientation.
• Children can conserve numbers (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even when its appearance changes.
• Children enjoy the company of friends in this stage so, this stage is also referred to as gang age, where the feeling of class inclusion dominates in a child.
• Reversibility, seriation, transitivity also developed in this stage.

Hint

• Hypothetical-deduction reasoning – Formal Operational Stage.
• Object permanence – Sensorimotor Stage.
• Irreversibility of thought – Pre-Operational Stage.

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development can be summarised briefly by the following diagram:

Hence, behavior like Conservation and Class Inclusion will come under the category of ‘Concrete Operational Stage’ as proposed by Jean Piaget.

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development:

• • • Jean Piaget observed his children and their process of making sense of the world around them and developed a model of how the mind processes new information encountered.
• According to him, cognitive structuresare the basic mental pattern people use to process information.
• In other words, he called the schema, the basic building block of intelligent behaviour – a way of organizing knowledge.

Schemas act as 'units' of knowledge each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions, and abstract concepts. Schema is a representation in the mind of a set of ideas or actions which go together.

• Assimilation, Accommodation, and Equilibrium are the ways through which children integrate new experiences into already existing schemas.

Additional Information

• Albert Bandura is the Propounder of "Observational Learning Theory" that focuses on the importance of observation and imitation in the learning of new behaviour.
• Conditioning or Conditioned Response Theory is interrelated with the'Classical Conditioning Theory propounded by Ivan Pavlov. A conditioned response is a learned response to a stimulus that was previously neutral. This theory lays emphasis on the conditioning of behaviour by a repetitive association between the response and the stimulus.
• Reinforcement: Reinforcement Learning is an approach to automating goal-oriented learning and decision-making. This approach is meant for solving problems in which an agent interacts with an environment and receives a reward signal at the successful completion of every step.

Therefore, from the above points, it is clear that Schemas is a Piagetian construct in the context of the Cognitive Development of children.

Assessment is conducted in different phases of the teaching-learning process. Some assessments are conducted before the beginning of the teaching-learning process, some are carried out during the process, and others conducted at the end of the instructional process.

Important Points

Objectives of Assessment:

• The primary purpose of assessment is to improve students learning and teachers' teaching as both respond to the information it provides and focuses on the areas to clear the confusion of a concept and improve understanding of the child.
• Assessment for learning is an ongoing process that arises out of the interaction between teaching and learning. What makes an assessment for learning effectively is how well the information is used. Hence it should be a part of the teaching-learning process
• Assessment is useful and interesting when refers to the all-around development of students and assess both the scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of child growth. The objective of assessment should be to know the learning needs and to fill the gap by remedial teaching
• One of the purposes of assessment is the improvement of the system as a whole including management, curriculum, and academics.

Therefore, from the above points, we can clearly infer that the Primary Objective of Assessment should be understanding children’s clarity and confusion about related concepts.

Intelligence: Intelligence can be defined as the ability to grasp information, understand concept, and solving problems.

• Howard Gardener proposed the Multi-dimensional or 'Multiple Intelligence Theory' used by the human brain.
• This theory helps in understanding how cultures shape the potential of the human using Intelligence as a multi-dimensional set of complex abilities.
• It provides teachers to assess the learning strength of the children.

Hint

 The following table will provide a complete idea of Howard Gardener's 8 types of Intelligence.

Hence, from the above points, it can be clearly inferred that Intelligence is multi-dimensional and a set of complex abilities.

Creative Thinker: Creativity is the ability of a student which creates something new and presents novel ideas. Creative students have the ability to use imagination and critical reasoning to create new and meaningful ideas. Creative students have the ability to create or produce something.

Important Points

The Qualities of Creative Students are as follows:

• Ability to synthesize and closure
• Anxious and highly flexible
• They are neat and have self-actualization ability
• They are not afraid of abstract objects and thoughts
• Always in a state of thinking so that he can find various ways to solve a problem
• Divergent Thinker
• Quick learner and problem solver

• Convergent Thinking: It refers to thinking that is required to solve problems that have only one correct answer. The mind converges to the correct solution. It is based on a number series, where you have to find the next number. Only one right answer is expected.
• Egocentric speech: It refers to internal communication by which children direct themselves. It is a mechanism to turn shared knowledge into personal knowledge.

Hence, it becomes clear that Ruhi is displaying the characteristics of a Creative Thinker.

To promote inclusive practices in schools, it should be known that it requires a high quality of service, well-trained teachers, support personnel, and material resources. One is also well aware that collaboration and partnership by the school are at the heart of inclusive education.

Important Points

The teachers are actively involved in this individualized education plan process.  A responsible school promotes cooperative relationships, not only within the school but also between the school and the whole community. Providing an individual education plan (IEP) is most important in an inclusive classroom.

Need for IEP in an Inclusive Classroom

• In an inclusive classroom, students with diverse backgrounds, varied skills, diverse abilities, and challenges are grouped in a single classroom.
• So, the individual learning capacities will be highly different from each other physically, cognitively, academically, socially, and emotionally. To balance these individual differences, an appropriate individual education plan is highly necessary for an inclusive classroom.

Advantages of IEP:

• Aids in attending to the individual needs of a student so that he/she can be a part of an inclusive classroom
• Provide extra attention
• Evaluate independently
• Motivate in learning

IEP Strategies:

Hence, it becomes clear that in an inclusive classroom, a teacher should actively prepare Individualized Education Plans.

Learning Disability: It is a neurological disorder that prevents a person from learning a skill and using it effectively. Generally, it occurs in childhood and characterized by difficulty with certain skills such as reading, writing, speaking, etc.

Important Points

Dyslexia: It is a Reading disability, which is not due to mental retardation, brain damage, or a lack of intelligence. It is caused by an impairment in the brain’s ability to translate images received from the eyes or ears into understandable language.

Characteristics of a Child Suffering from Dyslexia:

• A child with dyslexia will read and write slowly, often reversing letters, words, or numbers.
• The child may try to guess while reading, omitting, or adding words, not in the text.
• He/she may have a poor vocabulary and weak comprehension.
• Difficulty in learning or copying from the board or printed book.
• A child may have difficulty remembering or understanding what he hears.
• Problems with reading accurately and fluency.

Hint 

 Some Other Common Learning Disabilities in Children:

Therefore, the primary characteristic of children with Dyslexia includes the inability to read fluently.

Right to Education Act, 2009 ensures “Every child of age 6-14 years must be given free and compulsory education”.

Important Points

Right to Education Act 2009: To provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of six to fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine.

• According to RTE 2009, the school should ensure the Inclusion of Students with disabilities/special needs as per the provision of the Act. (which means inclusive education).
• Inclusion requires teachers to accept the responsibility for creating schools in which all children can learn and feel they belong.
• The principles of Inclusive education includes:
• No discrimination among the students.
• Equal educational opportunities to all.
• Adapting to the needs of the students, e.g., making institutions handicap-friendly.
• Individual differences among the students are celebrated.
• The student's needs are taken seriously.

Hence, the concept of Inclusive Education as advocated in the Right to Education Act, 2009 is based on a rights-based humanistic perspective.

Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or the strengthening or weakening of old behaviour as a result of experience. It represents progressive changes in behaviour. It also involves the acquisition of knowledge, habits, and attitude. The term learning covers every modification in behaviour to meet environmental requirements.

Important Points

Learning theories are conceptual frameworks describing how information is absorbed, processed, and retained during learning.

• Constructivists believe that a learner's ability to learn relies to a large extent on what he already knows and understands, and the acquisition of knowledge should be an individually tailored process of construction.
• In the constructivist framework, the student must accommodate and assimilate the new knowledge and learning with meaning-making and understanding which they currently hold.
• The students need to be very active and participative as the student needs to focus on the current trends of the knowledge along with collaborating with the teacher.
• By reflecting on their own experiences they construct their own understanding of the world they live in. Each of the students generates their own "rules" and "mental models," which they use to make sense of their experiences.
• Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models through meaningful understanding to accommodate new experiences In a constructivist environment.

Additional Information

• Reinforcement in learning is an approach to automating goal-oriented learning and decision-making. This approach is meant for solving problems in which an agent interacts with an environment and receives a reward signal at the successful completion of every step.
• Conditioning is a form of learning in which either a given stimulus (or signal) becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or a response occurs with increasing regularity in a well-specified and stable environment. The type of reinforcement used will determine the outcome.

Hence, from the above points, we can clearly infer that, In the constructivist framework, learning is primarily focused on the process of meaning-making.

The advances in emotional understanding accompanying conceptual growth enable children to better understand others' emotions, and also their own. So, a proper understanding of concepts helps as a building block of the learning process.

Important Points

Building Blocks to Develop the Understanding of Concepts:

• Hearing: A child needs to have adequate hearing abilities to ensure that they can hear appropriate language models, and therefore use appropriate language.
• Attention and concentration: Sustained effort, doing activities without distraction, and being able to hold that effort long enough to get the task done.
• Play skills: Voluntary engagement in self motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment where the activities may be, but are not necessarily, goal-oriented.
• Understanding of Concepts: Conceptual change often takes the form of theory change and examples, because concepts are considered to be embedded in theories and their practical demonstration through examples and counter-evidence that help in clearing the misconceptions that arise in a child's mind, often regarded as "naive theories".
• Constructivism emphasizes the active role of the learner in building understanding, making sense of information, and applying knowledge which often challenges their earlier misconceptions and then clear or builds up a proper understanding of the topic.

Therefore, Naive theories that children construct about the various phenomenons should be challenged by presenting counter-evidence and examples.

Children are active explorers of the environment as they are excited to learn about what is this, why it is here, how it is working, etc. They ask many questions about objects and situations in their surroundings and their experiences play an important role in building up their understanding.

Important Points

• A child-centered method is one that gives primacy to children's experiences and needs and provides ample opportunities for the children to foster their strategy of learning to perform a task or classroom activities.
• The active participation and involvement of children play a very vital role in learning and shaping the personality of a child.
• While investigating the problems, it is often found that children break the problem into parts and analyze it, then they try solving the parts logically, this critical thinking shapes the child to be Scientific Investigators.
• When a child is encouraged to be self-dependent, it helps in developing thoughts and rationality in them and they try multiple ways to find a solution, and doing this multiple times helps them evolve as a Problem Solver.
• The problem-solving method emphasizes the learner's active involvement. In this method, teachers create a problematic situation for students and then assist them in perceiving, defining, and stating the problems in a fear-free classroom environment.
• Strategies like Project making emphasizes the voluntary participation of students by working in a group to complete a specific project. It ensures the transmission of practical knowledge to students and active learning by the mutual co-operation of a group of peers.
• Approaches like Laboratory and experimental techniques that involve students in observation and experimentation with objects or materials both individually and collectively. It provides scope for greater involvement of both the mind and the hand, which facilitates cognition.

Hence, from the above points, we can infer that child-centered pedagogy promotes giving primacy to children’s experiences.

Emotion is a mental state associated with fear, anger, love, etc. Cognition is the process of acquiring knowledge through experiences and senses.

Important Points

The relationship between cognition and emotion has fascinated important thinkers within the Western intellectual tradition. Physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development in a child is the development of an integrated and holistic fashion. 

Cognition Aspect:

• Cognition refers to all kinds of thought processes such as perceiving, memorizing, learning, analyzing, problem-solving, applying, and evaluating.
• It is the process by which one acquires knowledge through experience, thought, and sensory input.
• It should be noted that, When a person uses his cognition to integrate various inputs to create an understanding, it's called cognitive thinking
• Cognition embraces all those aspects of human intelligence that we use to adapt to and make sense of the world and the emotional environment around us has an impact on our cognitive thinking.
• Emotions and cognition are interwoven with each other.
• Cognitive skills are used to comprehend, process, remember and apply incoming information.

Emotional Aspect:

• Changes that occur between an individual and other people including the development of social skills and high self-esteem.
• A mental state associated with fear, anger, love, etc. may arise due to the effect of his cognitive thinking.
• Development in a child in the holistic approach contains physical, social & emotional, sensory, cognitive, and communication i.e. language development.

Key Points

The diagram below will show the interdependency of major domains of development i.e. physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional (social and emotional).

Hence, from the above points, we can infer that  Emotions and cognition are interwoven with each other.

Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or the strengthening or weakening of old behaviour as a result of experience. It represents progressive changes in behaviour. It also involves the acquisition of knowledge, habits, and attitude. The term learning covers every modification in behaviour to meet environmental requirements.

Important Points

In education, constructive learning means encouraging students to make use of active techniques like experiments, real-world problem-solving, etc. The constructivist teachers encourage the student to involve in the activity continuously which helps them to gain understanding. In addition, the students become “expert learners” as they start knowing “How to Learn.”

• Constructivism emphasizes the learner constructing new information on existing information. This requires the child to be a problem solver and a scientific investigator.
• It is represented as a spiral shape wherein the students gain power through the reflections over their experiences. The biggest role of the teacher is to encourage the students to keep on learning and reflecting.

Key Points

• Some of the central ideas of the Constructivist Perspective view of learning:
• Learners are the makers of meaning.
• Children are little scientists.
• learners are active in constructing their own knowledge.
• Social interaction is important in knowledge construction.
• Learners build new knowledge by activating their previous knowledge.
• Learners learn through experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences, etc.

Therefore, from the above points, we can infer that a constructivist perspective emphasizes learning as the process of construction of knowledge by active engagement.

Teaching for conceptual change requires a constructivist approach in which learners take an active role in reorganizing their knowledge. The notion of conceptual change assumes that cognitive growth is domain-specific and that young children, and lay adults too, have naive or intuitive theories for important aspects of the world.

Important Points

• Conceptual change often takes the form of theory change and examples, because concepts are considered to be embedded in theories and their practical demonstration through examples.
• Spontaneous conceptual change occurs as a consequence of children's increased and enriched experience in their physical and sociocultural environment.
• Instructionally-based conceptual change occurs as a product of systematic science education, but even with good teaching, only a limited portion of older children and adults may achieve it.
• Conceptual change is often induced through the spreading of truth-value alteration, analogy, and social interaction including group discussion or question asking.
• Constructivism is based on the concept that individuals build their own knowledge by exploring and interacting directly with their physical and social environments.
• Constructivism emphasizes the active role of the learner in building understanding, making sense of information, and applying knowledge.
• The use of hands-on materials promotes each student's active engagement in the learning process and the use of real-world problems as examples helps them clear their concepts and provides the students with authentic and relevant contexts in which to apply new knowledge.

Therefore, on the basis of the above facts, it can be inferred that presenting students with clear examples and non-examples is an effective way to encourage conceptual change.

Students come to the class with their own knowledge and ideas about the world around them. They are driven by curiosity and keep observing things, correlating, guessing, and exchanging information. Ways of doing this could include class discussions, group investigation, and other collaborative work like gathering information from newspapers, the internet, professionals, people, in general, and so on.

Curiosity is the natural instinct that implies wanting to know more about something through research and interaction. It encourages children to seek new information, interact with their environment and the people who surround them. This instinct also stimulates personal growth.

Key Points

When you repeatedly ask children to engage in learning activities just to avoid punishment or to gain a reward eventually it will decrease children’s natural interest and curiosity involved in their learning experiences.​ 

Important Points

Tips to Encourage Curiosity in Children:

• Be a good role model: Your child does everything he or she sees you doing. So take advantage of this behaviour to increase their curiosity.
• Encourage your child’s interest: Your child’s curiosity will lead him or her naturally towards subjects and topics that are of interest to them.
• Give your child curiosity tools: Give your kids the ability to pursue their curiosity on their own. Try to build a good stock of books at your home as well as getting them membership in the local library.
• Let your child make mistakes: As parents, our tendency is to prevent our kids from feeling disappointed, hurt, discouraged, or rejected. But making mistakes and pulling themselves up again keeps your child curious and resilient.
• Fight boredom: Your child learns from you. When you label any activity or situation as “boring” they too will learn that only.
• Teach them how to observe: When you are with them encourage them to look around themselves and notice things that seem interesting, mysterious, exciting, etc. Teach them to look for the small details also and not just the big picture.
• Talk to your child about the impact of curiosity: Explain to your child how so many of the things that are staples in our lives are born out of someone’s curiosity about that subject.
• Give open-ended materials to play: Along with toys that have specific ways to be played with give your child open-ended materials like sand, arts and craft supplies, empty boxes, blocks that can be used in any way they want.

Therefore, we can say that repeatedly asking children to engage in learning activities either to avoid punishment or to gain a reward decreases children’s natural interest and curiosity involved in learning.

Meaningful learning is an active, constructive, and durable process. It implies understanding i.e a child must feel that the information is useful and not limit them to only memorizing it. It requires active learning techniques. It also implies linking new information to existing knowledge.

Key Points

• Co-operative learning: It is a teaching strategy where students of mixed levels of ability are arranged into groups to meet specific learning and interpersonal goals. "Each member of the group collectively contributes to achieving active and meaningful learning".
• Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, commonly know as 'CCE' has been introduced as a school-based system of evaluation by the CBSE in 2009 with the enactment of the Right to Education Act.
• It refers to the all-round development of students which includes cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains.

Following are the Objectives of CCE:

• To lay emphasis on thought processes and meaningful learning practices and to de-emphasize memorization.
• To the all-round development of students including cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains.
• To emphasize continuity and regularity of assessment.
• To assess both scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of a child's growth.
• To make evaluation an integral part of learning through diagnostic and remedial teaching.

Hint

• Corporal punishment refers to the punishment that causes physical pain to the pupils for their unacceptable behavior.  It could lead to aggression, anxiety, and frustration in them. It may temporarily turn-off a child's negative behavior but be ineffective in the long run. It has a huge impact on a child's psyche and could take them away from studies.
• Due to constant comparison among students, weak students get demoralized and demotivated so this cannot be a good way. Every student has a different ability and understanding skill, so they cannot be compared with anyone or with anyone’s weaknesses and skills.

Therefore, practices like providing a co-operative learning environment, continuous and comprehensive evaluation promote meaningful learning.

Teachers play the most crucial role in the life of a child, especially in the understanding of complex concepts in children through planning and dedication. The benefits of teaching are maximized when teachers act as a facilitator for the students.

Key Points

• The role of the teachers is considered to view learners as active participants in their learning and not as recipients of knowledge.
• Teacher support is also seen as a necessary component of developmentally appropriate practice.
• A teacher also functions as a learner, counselor, manager, assessor, and innovator.
• Teacher interventions during play take on many possibilities from assisting with problem-solving, questioning, redirecting undesired behaviors, and enticing children into play themes.
• Teacher's interactive role in the teaching-learning process mainly emphasizes the active involvement of all students for meaningful learning.
• Being interactive a teacher should try to facilitate learning by addressing the needs of all children and making learning enliven through student-teacher interaction.
• Teachers facilitate understanding of complex concepts in children by providing opportunities for exploration and discussion.
• A teacher has to play an interactive role with patience and perseverance to foster the potential of young seedlings to grow and bloom.
• Children are active explorers of the environment as they are excited to learn about what is this, why it is here, how it is working, etc. They ask many questions about objects and situations in their surroundings.
• Teachers facilitate students as a facilitator by providing with the proper environment of exploring their ideas and materials to learn.
• Demonstration Method is A method of teaching that is experience-based and designed to illustrate a procedure, process, or phenomenon in a step by step manner is called a demonstration. Demonstrations involve doing/performing something to facilitate understanding and enable learning by observation.

NOTE: Delivering a lecture, organizing competitive events, and repetitive mechanical drill does not help children in understanding of complex concepts.

Hence a teacher can facilitate understanding of complex concepts in children by providing opportunities for exploration and discussion.

Teaching in a primary school or kindergarten classroom is challenging. It is physically demanding because there is rarely a moment to sit down. It is mentally and emotionally demanding because it requires that you be constantly alert and always searching for ways to extend the children’s discoveries and enhance their learning. 

Key Points

Functions and Roles of a Primary Teacher:

• The teacher should work according to the interests of the children so that the children get the freedom to achieve their true potential.
• The best way to motivate the students is to be gentle, warm, supportive, empathetic towards them, and encourage them to make intuitive guesses followed by brainstorming discussion to explore the logic behind that possibility.
• To help students learn by imparting knowledge to them and by setting up a situation in which students can and will learn effectively.
• Teachers fill a complex set of roles, which vary from one society to another and from one educational level to another. Some of these roles are performed in the school, some in the community.
• To plan and prepare appropriately the assigned courses and lectures and to conduct assigned classes at the scheduled times.
• To demonstrate competence in classroom instruction and to implement the designated curriculum completely and in due time.
• To plan and implement effective classroom management practices like experiments or discussion sessions with a target of brainstorming their thought process so that they are not afraid of abstract objects and thoughts, but to get in a state of thinking that he can find various ways to solve a problem.
• When a child is encouraged to be self-dependent, it helps in developing thoughts and rationality in them and they try multiple ways to find a solution, and doing this multiple times helps them evolve as a Problem Solver.
• The role of a primary teacher is to deliver classroom instruction that helps students learn and to accomplish this, teachers must prepare effective lessons, grade student work and offer feedback, manage classroom materials, productively navigate the curriculum, and collaborate with other staff.

Therefore, from the above points, it can be inferred that a primary school teacher can help children to become effective problem solvers by encouraging them to make intuitive guesses and then brainstorming on the same.

The general pattern of physical growth is similar for all individuals. However, there can be considerable variations observed in terms of the rate and timing of growth and the size attained.

Key Points

These are grouped into various stages as follows:

• Infancy (birth to 2 years) refers to the first year or the early period of a child's development in which the child grows rapidly after birth. "It is a crucial period of physical and mental development" in which the child learns to sit, crawl, stand, start grabbing objects, making babbling sounds, etc.
• Characteristics of Infancy:
• The appearance of teeth.
• Development of reflexes.
• Dependency on others.
• Rapidity in Physical development.
• Time of radical adjustment.
• Rapidity in mental activities.
• Early Childhood (3 to 5 years): This is also called the 'toy age' as kids are more engaged with toys rather than playing with other people.
• Characteristics of Childhood Age:
• The child learns various actions by imitating others.
• He asks questions whenever he gets to know about a new object.
• When it comes to intellectual development he can recognize color, shape, size of objects.
• Also, his imagination develops, he wants to know about things around him and thus he questions about it.
• He can walk, uses the toilet, interacts with his family members.

Hint

• Middle Childhood refers to the age of 6 to 12 years. Early childhood is the preschool age where the child is learning skills associated with schooling. So, the first stage of socialization in school is the childhood stage.
• In the period of Adolescence, the individual gets puberty which results in a rapid increase in height, weight, and also in sexual characteristics. At this stage, the individual can understand and deal with the varied situations on his own.
• In the period of Adulthood, the individual is completed 18 years whose physical changes are completed in this stage and he becomes mature.

Hence, on the basis of the above points, we can clearly infer that Infancy and early childhood are the stages where physical growth and development occur at a rapid pace.

The development includes a series of qualitative and progressive change. Development can be defined as the changes in the structure, thought or behaviour, of a person that occurs as a function of both biological and environmental influences.

Key Points

Principles of Human Growth and Development:

• Development is gradual.
• Development is continuous and lifelong.
• Development is sequential.
• The rate of development varies from person to person.
• Development proceeds from general to specific.
• Most traits are correlated in development.
• Growth and Development is a product of both Heredity and Environment.
• Development is predictable.
• Development is modifiable.
• There is a constant interaction between all factors of development.

Hence, from the above points, we can clearly infer that Development is not universal and cultural contents influence it.

Individual variations refer to the difference which distinguishes an individual from another on the basis of psychological characteristics.

• Heredity and environment are the elements that play a vital role in determining the personality development of an individual.
• How a person will develop depends on the environment but how far a person can develop depends on heredity.

Key Points

The Role of Hereditary and Environment in the Development and Variation of a Child:

• The relative contributions of peers and genes are not additive, but they are productive i.e. dependent on each other.
• It is defined by J.S. Ross. According to him, the form in which a child grows is just because of heredity. Both father and mother know that children already have the properties of their peers.
• That is why sympathy and responsibility are already present in a child for their parents.
• Children get knowledge about social heredity, the development of human values, and the development of personality through the interplay of both.
• The relative effects of heredity and environment vary in different areas of development because all the inborn traits, instincts, potentials, and I. Q. of an individual depend on the heredity whereas all the mental and social traits depend on the environment.
• So, these are complementary to each other in structuring the life of an individual.
• Development = Environment × Heredity

Hence,  from the above points, we can say that the complex interplay between heredity and the environment is the primary cause of individual variations.

Socialization is the process where the child learns to associate and relate with others. It refers to the process which transforms a quite helpless human infant into a self-aware, knowledgeable person who is skilled in the ways of their society’s culture. 

Key Points

Types of Socialization: 

    1. Primary Socialization: 

• It happens during infancy and childhood. It refers to the process where the child becomes socialized through the family or neighbourhood in the early childhood years.
• This highlights that the key agent in the process of primary socialization is the family.
• For example, a very young child in a family has little knowledge of his culture. He is unaware of the values, social norms, practices, etc. It is through the family that the child gets to know what is accepted and what is not in a particular society.     2. Secondary Socialization: 
• It occurs once the infant passes into the childhood phase and continues into maturity. It refers to the process that begins in the later years through agencies such as school education and peer groups.
• During this phase more than the family, some other agents of socialization like the school and friends’ group begin to play a role in socializing the child.
• Friends, school, and media are some examples of secondary social agents.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that school and media are secondary socializing agencies.

Concept: 

To find the minimum number of packets of each brand, we need to find the LCM of 10, 12, and 24.

LCM of 10, 12 and 24 is = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 5 = 120

Number of packets of brand A = 120/10 = 12

Number of packets of brand B = 120/12 = 10

Number of packets of brand C = 120/24 = 5

Additional Information

LCM: Least common multiple or lowest common multiple, or smallest common multiple of two integers a and b, usually denoted by lcm(a, b), is the smallest positive integer that is divisible by both a and b.

Given:

Side of the square = 4 cm

Formula used:

Area of the square = (side)2

Calculation:

Area of the square = (side)² = 4² = 16

Now it is cut into 4 equal squares,

∴ Area of each small square = 16/4 = 4 cm²

Prime Number∶ A prime number is a positive integer greater than one, that can only be exactly divided by the positive integer 1 and itself without leaving a remainder.

• 2 is only even prime number
• 3 is the smallest odd prime number
• 1 is neither prime nor composite Prime number has only two factors, 1 and itself
• 2, 3, 5, and 7 are the single-digit prime numbers

Calculation:

Checking option,

Option 1: 2 is the even prime number so option 1 is not correct

Option 2: There are infinitely many prime numbers.

For example:  2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53,...... and the list goes on.

This statement is true

Option 3: A prime number has only two factors,1 and the number itself.

This statement is true

Option 4: There are only four single-digit prime numbers i.e 2, 3, 5, and 7.

This statement is true

∴ Option 1 will be the answer to this question

To find the number which is divisible from 1 to 10, we need to find the LCM of those numbers.

LCM of 1, 2, 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 is 2520

Hence, the least number divisible by all the numbers from 1 to 10 is 2520

Given:

Ayesha has Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 coins,

Total number of coins = 25

Total amount of money she has with her = Rs. 160

Calculation:

Let the total number of coins of Rs. 5 be x, then number of coins of Rs. 10 be (25 – x).

According to the question

5x + 10 (25 – x) = 160

⇒ 5x + 250 – 10x = 160

⇒ 10x – 5x = 250 – 160

⇒ 5x = 90

⇒ x = 90/5 = 18

Number of coins of Rs. 5 = 18

Number of coins of Rs. 10 = 25 – 18 = 7

∴ the number of Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 coins are 18 and 7 respectively.

We can solve this question without using any equation with the help of options

From option 1:

As Ayesha has Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 coins,

∴ 5 × 18 + 10 × 7 must be equal to Rs. 160

⇒ 90 + 70 = 160

Hence option 1 is correct.

17.5 × 3 – 21 ÷ 7 – 3 × 12.5

⇒ 52.5 – 21 ÷ 7 – 37.5

⇒ 52.5 – 3 – 37.5

⇒ 12

Let the total number of trees be x

Number of neem trees = x/6

Number of Ashoka trees = x/2

Number of eucalyptus trees = x – x/6 – x/2 = (12x – 2x – 6x)/12 = 4x/12 = x/3

According to the question

⇒ x/6 = 5

⇒ x = 5 × 6

⇒ x = 30

Number of Eucalyptus trees = 30/3 = 10

The number of neem trees is 5 and one-sixth of the trees in a garden are neem trees, 

∴ Total number of trees = 5 × 6 = 30

So, Number of Ashoka trees = 30/2 = 15

Given that remaining are Eucalyptus trees i.e Total trees - Ashoka tree - Neem tree

∴ Number of Eucalyptus trees 30 - 15 - 5 = 10

Calculation:

Required time from 29^th August 2019 at 16:30 to 30^th August, 2019 at 16:30 = 24 hr

Required time from 30^th August, 2019 at 16:30 to 30^th August, 2019 at 24:00 = 7:30 hr

Required time from 31^st August, 2019 at 00:00 to 31^st August, 2019 at 08:45 = 8 : 45 hr

Total time = 24 + 7:30 + 8:45 = 40 hours 15 minutes

∴ The total travel time of the journey is 40 hours 15 minutes

Concept used: 

1 km = 100 decametres

1 decametres = 10 m

1 m = 10 decimetre (dm)

1 decimetre = 10 cm

1 cm = 10 mm

1 dm = 100 mm

1 m = 1000 mm

Convert all the length to the same units

Calculation:

80 dm 8 cm = 80 × 100 + 8 × 10 mm = 8000 + 80 = 8080 mm

800 cm 8 mm = 800 × 10 + 8 = 8000 + 8 = 8008 mm

8 m = 8 × 1000 = 8000 mm

∴The required decreasing order is 8500 mm > 80 dm 8 cm > 800 cm 8 mm > 8 m

Given:

The length of the wire = 180 cm

The width of the rectangle = 30 cm

Formula used:

Perimeter of the rectangle = 2(l + b)

Here l → Length, b → breadth

Calculation:

Let the length of the rectangle be l cm

According to the question

Perimeter of the rectangle = 2 (l + b)

⇒ 2 (l + 30) = 180

⇒ l + 30 = 180/2

⇒ l + 30 = 90

⇒ l = 90 – 30

⇒ l = 60

∴ The length of the rectangle is 60 cm

Concrete reasoning involves the ability to analyze information and solve problems on a literal ("concrete") level. We use concrete materials when we think through and solve hands-on problems. Explaining concepts through concrete materials helps in: :

• Understanding of basic cause and effect relationships.
• Basic knowledge of names of objects, places, and people.
• To give the knowledge of the grouping concepts i.e. dividing  44 children into 2 equal groups and then demonstrating the children into diving the students of the class into 2 groups of 22 each. This is how we use concrete material which is helpful in determining the difference between 44 and 404 for children.
• Solving problems that do not involve theory, metaphor, or complex analogy.

Therefore, when students write 44 as 404 as a teacher, we will address this by explaining the principle of exchange using concrete materials.

Mapping is the creative process of organizing content and can be used in planning lessons, learning, and developing mathematical literacy and spatial thinking.

Important Points

• With the help of mapping concepts at the primary level, we can also promote reasoning thinking and solving power in children.
• Mapping strengthens spatial thinking, promotes proportional reasoning, and can be integrated into many topics of Mathematics.
• Concept mapping is a pedagogic technique to help students to check explicitly how new concepts can be related to previously learned concepts.
  

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge.

They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts or propositions, indicated by a connecting line between the two concepts.

• So, mapping is an important part of the mathematics curriculum.

Hence, the main purpose of introducing ‘mapping’ in the Primary Mathematics curriculum is/are to promote spatial thinking along with proportional reasoning.

According to NCF 2005, the main goal of mathematics education at the primary level is the development of children's ability in mathematization.

It means that children should learn to think about any situation using the language of mathematics. They can use the tools and techniques of mathematics in real life.

Important Points

• The National Curriculum Framework 2005 is among the four National Curriculum Frameworks approved by the National Council of Educational Research and Training NCERT in India.
• At the Primary level, children learn from concrete objects and visualization processes.
• In the primary school mathematics curriculum, the following topics have been included;
• Tessellation
• Symmetry
• Patterns
• Mathematics takes place in a situation where mathematics is a part of children's life experience.
• Mathematics subject to be learned in order to perform daily life activities in a better way.
• Constructing the Mathematics curriculum we need to consider those topics Mathematics or themes, which would help children to succeed in their everyday life.

Hence, it could be concluded that NCF 2005 doesn't include the topic "ratio" at the primary level.

Teaching-learning materials (TLMs), also known as instructional aids, facilitate a teacher in achieving the learning objectives formulated by her/him before teaching-learning activities start.

Important Points

• Graph paper is used to draw 2D diagrams. By counting the number of blocks area of rectangles can be compared with the help of graph paper.
• Scale:- It is a standard measurement tool for measuring any type of distance weight etc. It is different for different works. It will work only when we apply the formula to measure the area of a rectangle.
• Tiles can also be used as a TLM for showing the dimensions of two different rectangles.

Hence, it becomes clear that Graph paper and tiles can be used by the teacher to show that two rectangles of different dimensions.

Mathematics is the study of numbers, shapes, quantities, and patterns. Mathematics is the ‘queen of all sciences' and its presence is there in all the subjects. It acts as the basis and structure of other subjects.

Important Points

Underachievement is defined as a large discrepancy between the child's performance (at school) and his innate ability.

• When a child with a high I.Q. level is performing poorly, he is said to be an underachiever.
• A child who has average intelligence, but whose performance is below average is also said to be a low achiever.
• Factors are those related to the underachievement in mathematics, which surrounds the individual as well as to his unique persona (e.g., socio-economic level and educational background of the family, the school climate, the language background, and students’ attitudes toward mathematics).
• Among social variables, the factors which were considered very widely are socio-economic status, parental involvement, and parent's education.

Therefore, from the above points, we can infer that socio-economic level is a contributing factor towards underachievement in mathematics.

Students may have some facility with fractions, many of them appear not to have fully developed an understanding that fractions are numbers.

Using Paper Strips:

• To understand the concept of fractions at the primary level we use Paper Strips because children can easily learn to see concrete material and compare them.
• It is easy for children to understand from paper as children are very familiar with them.
• You need for this activity is a sheet of paper, some scissors, and a bit of patience when it comes to cutting the strips. And can easily explain  that $\frac{1}{4}$ is less than $\frac{1}{3}$.

LCM method:- It is difficult at the initial level because in this case, children are not able to compare any object.

Number chart:- It is used for counting numbers, and also useful for the learning table.

Dienes blocks:- It is a mathematical manipulating tool that helps children to learn basic mathematics like addition, subtraction, place value, counting, and simple multiplication.

Therefore, teaching children using paper strips is the most appropriate strategy to explain that $\frac{1}{4}$ is less than $\frac{1}{3}$.

The Lesson Plan is a guideline through the help of which a teacher can teach well and reach his desired goal. Making use of these guidelines the teacher can deliver the good materials to students in a logical se­quence.

Important Points

• A lesson plan is a concise and organized structure that provides answers to important questions.
• In the absence of a lesson plan, the progress of the class is hampered For good teaching we have to use a good method of teach­ing.
• Constructivism emphasizes the learner constructing new information on existing information. This requires the child to be a problem solver and a scientific investigator.
• Providing opportunities to students in the class like mathematical games will allow the construction of concepts because children are the little scientists and are active in constructing their own knowledge.
• It is because of the lesson plan, children get an idea about the concepts that is going to be taught in next day and they answer well in class.
• Also, during the check of previous knowledge, their past learnings are tested. They use their own thinking and determination power.

Hence, Providing opportunities to students to allow the construction of concepts is the most important aspect of making a lesson plan while teaching Mathematics to primary school children.

The constructivist approach to learning suggests that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner. 

Important Points

• A constructive approach is an approach to learning suggesting that children should construct their own understanding of the world in which day lives.
• <strong<spanConstructivists believe that a learner's ability to learn relies to a large extent on what he already knows and understands, and the acquisition of knowledge should be an individually tailored process of construction.
• In the constructivist framework, the student must accommodate and assimilate the new knowledge and learning with meaning-making and understanding which they currently hold.
• Mathematics can be objective but, in this type, the only answers can be verified as right or wrong and cannot check the constructivist thinking of children.
• It cannot make children to think divergently. For constructivist mathematics, we should be familiar with children's daily life and the approach that he takes.

Hence, an objective type test can NOT be considered as a feature of a constructivist mathematics classroom.

Mathematics is the study of numbers, shape, quantity, and patterns. Mathematics is the ‘queen of all sciences’ and its presence is there in all the subjects. It acts as the basis and structure of other subjects.

For a constructionist view of mathematics, it is necessary to visualize the concept.

Important Points

• Constructive learning means encouraging students to make use of active techniques like experiments, real-world problem-solving, etc.
• Constructivist teachers encourage the student to involve in the activity continuously which helps them to gain understanding. In addition, the students become “expert learners” as they start knowing “How to Learn.”
• Visualization is used for 3D mathematics and geometry.
• The role of language and dialogue in learning Mathematics is given due to attention and visualize each and every aspect of a number of possibilities.

Therefore, the statement 'Visualisation is an important aspect of Mathematics.' is in agreement with the constructionist view of Mathematics.

Spatial relationships refer to children's understanding of how objects and people move concerning each other, comparison of two objects like big-small, fast-slow, long-short, colour comparison, near-far, etc.

Important Points

The Spatial Ability is the capacity to understand, reason, and remember the spatial relations among objects or space.

• For understanding spatial thinking, students should enable them to understand visualization.
• It is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional figures.
• Hence, drawing the top view of the bottle is an example of a spatial thinking concept.
• It is typically measured with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance with some kinds of user interfaces.

Key Points

• Representing number on a line show concept of rational, irrational and whole number concepts.

Hence, drawing the top view of a bottle is a best-suited activity for the development of spatial understanding among children.

Mathematics is a branch of science which deals with counting, calculating, and studying numbers, shapes, and structures. It is the study of numbers, shape, quantity, and patterns. It relies on logic and connects learning with children's day to day life.

Important Points

In a rather technical, but uninteresting, sense, mathematical ability is not innate; we cannot recognize the meaning of the symbols 2 + 2 = 4 at birth.

• We must, of course, learn the symbols of mathematics before we can express mathematical relationships, i.e., before we can "do math" as is commonly understood.
• Mathematics requires rigorous practice, hence, the ability to perform and excel in Mathematics is not innate.
• Practice makes a man perfect can be rightly used in terms of mathematics.
• For the learning of mathematics children's social background and school, the environment plays an important role.

Hence, the statement that the ability to perform and excel in Mathematics is not innate.

In the above question, there is comparison addition is performed.

Given that:-

I have 6 pencils but Manish has more than 2 me

It means Manish have total pencil :- 6 + 2 = 8 pencil

Now we can easily understand their addition is performed and also compared with Manish pencils and my pencil.

Comparison Addition: In this method, we find the relation between two amounts by asking or telling how much more (or less) is one compared to the other.

Additional Information

• Comparison Subtraction: The difference between the two groups of numbers, namely, how much one is greater than the other, how much more is in one group than in the other. e.g., if Munna has 15 erasers and Munni 5, how many less does Munni have than Munna?
• Takeaway: It is used for subtraction which means 'Remove', or  'Reduce' the group of words or numbers. E.g. How much is left if you take away 3 marbles from 5 marbles. In this way, the children learn to understand 'take away', and relate it to 'add'.

Hence, it becomes clear that the given problem is comparison addition.

Base 2 system provided in the Binary number system. In Binary number system (0,1) only two no. are taken.

Hindu Arabic number system base 10 is provided.

• Hindu Arabic number are as follows (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
• They are additive in nature.
• Additive: a + b = b + a
• The position of a digit in a number dictates its value.
• It is multiplicative in nature.
• This is a base-ten (decimal) system since place values increase by powers of ten.
• Furthermore, this system is positional, which means that the position of a symbol has to bear on the value of that symbol within the number.

The teaching of mathematics emphasis should be more on the understanding of basic principles than on the mechanical teaching of mathematical computations.

Important Points

The teaching of Maths at the Lower Classes (NCF 2005):

• Children learn to enjoy Mathematics rather than fear it.
• Practical activities related to the environment and daily life.
• Use of creative methods where children can participate.

Teaching geometry at the primary level children should be kept free from definition and vocabulary.

• They should be given the opportunity to make their own knowledge for understanding the different types of shapes.
• At the primary level teacher can use concrete materials like the box, ball and duster etc.

Mathematical reasoning is the ability to provide a justification for a mathematical procedure. It also involves the ability to think logically and systematically. People practising mathematical reasoning are able to reflect on solutions to problems and settle on whether or not they are making any sense.

Important Points

• In mathematical reasoning, we determine the truth of the value of the given statement and justify all the parameters.
• Mathematical reasoning is the ability to provide a justification for a mathematical procedure. It also involves the ability to think logically and systematically.
• It plays an important role, both in solving problems and in conveying ideas when learning mathematics.
• Reasoning supports students in learning mathematics.
• In mathematical reasoning, there is no role in definitions and formulae.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that mathematical reasoning is the ability to provide a justification for a mathematical procedure.

Calculation:

Price of 1 kg tomatoes = Rs. 40

Price of ½ kg tomatoes = 40/2 = 20

Price of 2 kg potato = 25

Price of 1 kg potatoes = 25/2 = 12.5

Price of 250g carrot = Rs. 20

Price of ½ kg (500 g) carrot = 20 × 2 = 40

Price of 100 g chillies = Rs. 10

Price of 250 g chillies = 10 × 2.5 = 25

Price of 6 lemon = 10/4 × 6 = 15

Total price = 20 + 12.5 + 40 + 25 + 15 = Rs. 112.5

Remaining price = 200 – 112.5 = 87.5 

∴ The remaining price is Rs 87.5

Concept used:

Prime number:- The number which is divisible by one and itself 

Ex:- 2, 3, 5, 7 etc

Calculation:

With the help of option

Taking option 1

Let the number be 57, the

Sum of the digit is multiple of 3 and 4 = 3 × 4 = 12

Sum of digit of 57 = 5 + 7 = 12 (condition satisfied)

∴ The required number is 57

Calculation:

Total time from 7:00 a.m to 4:30 pm = 9 hrs 30 minutes

From the above-given data, 

The parking rates for more than 8 hrs and up to 12 hrs is Rs. 150.

∴ Rajeev will have to pay Rs. 150

Solution:

Given number is 7.07, 7.70, 7.707, 7.007, 0.77

Required Ascending order = 0.77 < 7.007 < 7.07 < 7.70 < 7.707

∴ The number which is at third place is 7.07

Calculation:

The digit at ten’s place is 8

The digit at unit’s place is = 8 × (1/4) = 2

The digit at thousands place is = 0

The digit at the hundred places is = 2 × 2 = 4

The digit at the tens thousand places is = 3 × 2 = 6

The number becomes = 60482

∴ The number is 60482

Alternate Method

The digit at ten’s place is 8

The digit at unit’s place is = 8 × (1/4) = 2

The digit at thousands place is = 0

From the given only three conditions, we can find the answer with the help of option, only option (4) is satisfied by all three 

Number become = 60482

∴ The number is 60482

Concept:

• Speed: The distance travelled by the body in unit time.
• $Speed = \frac{{Distance}}{{Time}}$
• Also, $Time= \frac{{Distance}}{{Speed}}$
• Average Speed: Since the body does not always have the same speed, So we use the concept of average speed. It is the ratio of total distance covered to total time taken by the body.
• $Average;Speed = \frac{{Total;Distance}}{{Total;Time}}$

Calculation:

Given: Total distance = 2120 km

Calculation of total time:- 

19:45 hour ⇒ 29 November to

19:45 hour ⇒ 30 November

So, the time consumed is 24 hours.

Now, 19:45 hour ⇒ 30 November to

11:45 hour ⇒ 1 December

So, the time consumed is 16 hours.

Hence, the total time is 24 + 16 = 40 hours.

Average Speed of the train = $\frac{Total Distance}{Total Time}$ = $\frac{2140 km}{40 hour}$ = 53 km/hr

Hence, from the above calculation, it becomes clear that the average speed of the train during this journey was 53 km/h.

• Indian women have had some success at the World Weightlifting Championships.
• Kunjarani Devi, Karnam Malleswari, Lalita Polley, Bharti Singh, Neelam Setti Laxmi, and Saikhom Mirabai Chanu are the winners who secured medals at the said tournament.

About Karnam Malleshwari:

• Karnam Malleshwari is an Indian retired weightlifter of international fame.
• She was conferred numerous prestigious awards by the Indian government, including the Arjuna Award (1994), Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (1999), and the Padma Shri (1999).
• During her ten years career, she has won 11 gold and three silver medals besides the prestigious Olympic bronze.
• She has been the National Champion for nine years (twice in the 52 kg category and seven times in the 54 kg category).
• Karnam Malleshwari created history at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 by lifting 110 kilograms and 130 kilograms in the ‘snatch’ and ‘clean and jerk’ categories.
• She won the bronze medal and became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that Karnam Malleshwari is a weightlifter of international fame.

Additional Information

• Sunita Williams is an Indian-origin American astronaut. Sunita Williams ran a marathon in space. She is the first person in the world to do so.
• Bachendri Pal is an Indian mountaineer who became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1984.

The correct answer is carrot, beetroot, radish.

Key Points

• The part of the plant which is hidden under the soil is called root.
• Roots bind the soil particles and keep the plant stable on the ground.
• They absorb the mineral salts required for the nutrition of the plant from the ground and transport it through the stems.
• Humans consume almost every part of the plant such as root, stem, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc.
• Examples of the root vegetables that we consume as food are carrot, radish, beetroot,** turnip, sweet potato, etc.**

• Ginger, potato, and turmeric are stem vegetables.
• The part of the plant which is mostly present above the surface of the soil is called the stem, while roots are part of the plant which are mostly present below the soil surface.

The Correct Answer is: Australia

Key Points

Desert oaks look like Christmas trees, while mature trees form large, spreading canopies. Adult Desert Oaks are largely fireproof, recovering from epicormic shoots in the crown, at the same time seedlings sprout in the wake of the fire.

• Desert Oak is a tree that is found in Australia.
• The majestic desert oak tree is one of Central Australia’s iconic trees and plays a significant role in Aboriginal dreaming.
• It grows up to 10 to 12 meters. It has very few leaves.
• The trees are often found in dense forests, an arid desert region.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that Desert Oak is a tree which is found in Australia.

The Correct Answer is: A and B only

Concept:

• Carnivorous plants obtain the essential nutrients from the heterotrophs.
• These plants trap insects and obtain the nutrients which they do not get from the soil.
• They are not called heterotrophs or consumers, because they only derive nutrients from insects.
• These plants get energy from the process of photosynthesis.
• Hence they are both producers and carnivores.

Key Points

Nepenthes is a plant which:

• trap and eat frog, insects and even mice.
• is found in Australia, Indonesia and Meghalaya in India.
• has a pitcher-like shape and the mouth is covered by a leaf.
• has a special smell that attracts insects to it, which get trapped and can't get out.

Thus,

A. This plant is found in Australia, Indonesia and Meghalaya in India: Correct

B. It has a pitcher-like shape and the mouth is covered by a leaf: Correct

C. It can trap and eat only small insects: Incorrect

D. It emits a pleasant sound to attract small insects which get trapped and cannot get out: Incorrect

About Salt March: Salt March is also known as Dandi March was initiated by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi started the Dandi march from Sabarmati Ashram towards the small coastal village of Dandi.

• It was started on 12 March 1930 and rallied for 24 days at Sabarmati near Ahmedabad. Dandi seashore located in Gujrat.
• Mahatma Gandhi reached Dandi on 6 April and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing salt by boiling seawater.
• Gandhiji and more than thousands of people got arrested while making their own salt as a protest of British rule and British taxation of salt production to make it legal and tax-free.
• Mahatma Gandhi sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands on 31 January 1930. The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax. Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one of the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the government monopoly over its production, Mahatma Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive face of British rule.
• Mahatma Gandhi’s letter was, in a way, an ultimatum. If the demands were not fulfilled by 11 March, the letter stated, the Congress would launch a civil disobedience campaign. Irwin was unwilling to negotiate.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that the Dandi seashore located in Gujarat.

The Correct answer is:  ​malaria

Cinchona tree is used to extract medicine from the bark of cinchona. Cinchona is used for increasing appetite.  It is also used for blood vessel disorders including haemorrhoids, varicose veins, and leg cramps.

Key Points

• Malaria is a disease caused by Plasmodium parasites that are transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. High fever with a shiver, headache, vomiting, and nausea are common symptoms of malaria.
• Quinine medicine was made from the bark of the cinchona tree.
• Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. Quinine was first isolated in 1820 from the bark of a cinchona tree. It is an antimalarial drug that is made from Cinchona bark.
• Cinchona is used in eye lotions to numb pain, kill germs, and as an astringent.

Additional Information

• Typhoid: It is a bacterial infection caused by Salmonella typhi bacteria. Contaminated food or water is the primary source of typhi bacteria.
• Chikungunya: It is an infection caused by the Chikungunya virus. It transmitted to humans by infected female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
• Dengue: Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease. Dengue is caused by the Dengue virus transmitted to humans by female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that malaria can be treated with the bark of the Cinchona tree.

Concept:

• A map is a representation or a drawing of the earth’s surface or a part of it drawn on a flat surface according to a scale.
• There are three components of Maps – distance, direction and symbol.

Explanation:

• There are four major directions, North, South, East and West. They are called cardinal points.

• The other four intermediate directions are north-east (NE), southeast(SE), south-west (SW) and north-west (NW).

• We can locate any place more accurately with the help of these intermediate directions.

• We can find out the direction of a place with the help of a compass.

Given: The Doctor is located at X.

• He first goes to A which is 600 m due east of X.
• Then, he goes to B which is 450 m due south of A.
• Then, again he goes to C which is 120 m due west of B.
• And, then finally he goes to Y which is 90 m due north of C.

Hence, from the above diagram, it becomes clear that with respect to the hospital the correct direction of the doctor's house is north-west.

The correct answer is Mizoram.

Key Points 

• Cheraw is one of the traditional and oldest dances of Mizoram. It also recognized as the oldest dance form of Mizoram.
• It is also known as the Bamboo dance.
• It is one of the most famous dances in Mizoram, and a centre of attraction during festive occasions.
• Chewar is performed by six to eight people holding a pair of bamboo staves on another horizontally placed bamboo at the ground on special occasions such as when there is a bumper harvest of a crop. Gongs and drums are used as musical instrument in Cheraw dance.

Additional Information

Khuallam, Sarlamkai, Chheihlam and Mizo are other Traditional Dances of Mizoram.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that “Cheraw” is the dance form of the people of Mizoram.

Key Points

• Tamilnadu is the southern states of India, Chennai (formerly known as Madras) is the State Capital of Tamilnadu.
• Tamil Nadu is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth-largest by population(Census,2011). Neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu are Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka.
• Presently Governor of Tamil Nadu is the R. N. Ravi and  Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu  M.K.Stalin.

​

The NCF (National Curriculum Framework) 2005 is one of the four NCF published in India by NCERT. It seeks to provide a framework for the betterment of educational purposes and experiences.

Important Points

According to NCF-2005 objectives of teaching EVS at the primary level:

• To develop an awareness about environmental issues.
• To nurture the curiosity and creativity of the child particularly in relation to the natural environment.
• To help children to explore and connect to their surroundings.
• To make children able to solve environmental issues in an inclusive manner.
• To engage the child in exploratory and hands-on activities to acquire basic cognitive and psychomotor skills through observation, classification, inference, etc.
• To train children to locate and comprehend relationships between the natural, social and cultural environment.
• To enhance children's learning capabilities by providing a concrete learning experience.
• To develop their own insight into the functioning of several things in their environment.

**Hence, we conclude that '**developing precise quantitative skills among children through an understanding of environmental issues is not the objective of teaching EVS at primary level as per NCF-2005.

EVS is a multidimensional subject that covers important principles from various academic fields. EVS for class III to V is a subject area that integrates the concepts and issues of Science, Social studies and Environmental education because of early childhood.

Important Points

• children look at their environment in a holistic manner.
• children couldn't compartmentalize any topic into 'science' and 'social science'.
• children are not mature enough to interpret the aspects of science and social science in a graded manner.

So, from the above-mentioned points, we conclude that EVS syllabus of class III to V has been made in an integrated manner including science and social science as well.

Environmental Studies is a multidimensional subject that covers important principles from various academic fields. It is a broad field that studies the basic principles of EVS as well as associated subjects such as social science, science, language, mathematics, etc.

Key Points

• In class I and II, the concepts of Environmental Science are integrated into Language and Mathematics.
• The teaching of language and mathematics are woven around the child's immediate environment to ensure contextual learning.
• National Curriculum Framework-2005, has prescribed Environmental Studies as a separate subject at Classes III-V.

Hence, we conclude that for classes I and II, EVS is taught through language and Mathematics.

Environmental Studies is a subject that deals with a human's interaction with the environment. It gives the children a lot of freedom to explore their physical and social surroundings.

Important Points

Child-centred approach to education gives primacy to children's experiences and needs. A child-centred classroom or approach of education discourages rote learning and emphasizes upon: 

• giving children the freedom to make them work through exploration at their own pace.
• ensuring primacy to children's understanding, requirements and thinking.
• providing ample opportunities to the children to foster their own strategy of learning.
• allowing children to develop naturally towards their fullest potential, both educationally and morally.

Hence, we conclude that ​children get lots of space to learn EVS through exploration favours child-centred education.

The EVS syllabus of class III to V is connected and integrated within broad themes and sub-themes to make content more lively for students so that they can make the best of their educational experiences.

Key Points

"Animals" is a subtheme under the broad theme "Family and Friends" suggested in the EVS syllabus while remaining are the broad themes of the EVS syllabus for class III to V.

Hence, we can conclude that Animals is a subtheme under the theme suggested in the EVS syllabus.

India is a multilingual, multicultural, and multireligious country and the effect of this diversity could also be seen in the classroom. So, addressing the multicultural dimensions of diverse classrooms is a desirable practice for an EVS teacher.

Key Points A teacher should always address the multicultural dimensions of diverse classrooms by:

• using contents and examples from different cultures.
• providing equal educational opportunities to every learner.
• including learners irrespective of their caste, culture, and creed.
• helping learners to develop a positive attitude towards different cultures.
• modifying his/her teaching methodology to fulfill the multicultural needs of learners.

Hence, we conclude that addressing multicultural dimensions of diverse classrooms is a desirable practice for an EVS teacher.

Environment Studies is a subject which is concerned with the development of learner's awareness about environmental issues. Children actively construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world by observing and interacting with the real content and situation. 

Important Points

Activities or things which are important in constructing knowledge in EVS by the children:

• Textbook of EVS.
• Hands-on activities.
• Organization of field visit.
• Linking classroom to real-life.
• Conduction of creative activity.
• Active participation of children.
• Community members of children.

Hence, we conclude that the above-mentioned points are important in constructing knowledge in EVS by the children.

Children can be effectively engaged in EVS learning through narratives and stories as these are the effective tools of the teaching-learning process that broadens children's reading choices. Narratives and stories are used as a method of teaching in EVS at the primary level to engage children effectively in EVS learning.

Key Points

• providing the contextual learning environment to children.
• promoting imaginative and creative ability in the children.
• developing interest and providing fun and enjoyment to children.
• increasing children's vocabulary, listening and critical thinking skills.
• making children able to construct meaning based on their own experiences.

So, it could be interpreted that narratives and stories are the tools that can engage children successfully in EVS learning.

Environmental Studies is a subject which is concerned with the development of learner's awareness about environmental issues. Effective EVS teaching-learning takes place when children are allowed to explore and observe their immediate environment. 

A teacher encourages children to observe animals and make pictures on their own with the objectives to develop:

• creativity of children.
• aesthetic sense of children.
• self-expression skills in children.
• awareness and sensitivity towards animals.
• observation and design skills of children.
• classification and exploration skills in children.

So, it could be interpreted that all the given objectives are true in the context of the question.

Group Learning is a learning in which students work collaboratively and involves in active learning. It serves as an important tool to make learning meaningful by working together. 

Key Points

In EVS learning of crafts and arts while working in groups, is encouraged because group learning:

• promotes peer learning.
• improves social interaction.
• ensures the participation of all children.
• boosts brainstorming and critical thinking skills.
• develops communication and life long learning skills.
• increases the ability to understand other's perspectives.
• allows collaboration and cooperation of maximum children.

Hence, we conclude from the above-mentioned points, group learning is encouraged since it promotes peer learning and improves social interactions.

Environmental Studies is a subject that is concerned with the development of learner's awareness about environmental issues. Effective EVS teaching-learning takes place with the help of varieties of resources that provide children with a better learning experience.

Key Points 

The most effective resources for EVS learning includes:

• Textbook
• Newspaper
• Family members
• Educational media
• Natural environment
• Members of community

Hence, we conclude that all the above points are necessary as the most effective resource for EVS learning.

Environmental Studies is a subject that is concerned with the development of learners' awareness of environmental issues.

Key Points

For EVS transactions the teacher must be equipped with an understanding of the principles of pedagogical processes such as:

Known to Unknown is the principle of learning that is followed in teaching EVS.

• In this principle the teaching and learning process starts from previous knowledge with new content to be taught, the learner does not find difficulty in moving from known to unknown.
• The contents are spirally organized starting with the immediate experience of the child (known) moving out to the world she/he inhabits (unknown), leading to an analysis of some of the factors that influence life on this planet.
• The focus of EVS enlarges from the personal to the national and global (local to global), from the physical dimension to the aesthetic dimension.

Important Points

Other learning principles followed in EVS

• Simple to Complex
• Easy to difficult
• Whole to part
• Local to Global Environment
• Constructivist
• Activity-oriented Approaches
• Learning to do

NOTE: Abstract to concrete, Unknown to known are the maxims of teaching but these are not followed in teaching EVS

Hence, we conclude that Known to the unknown is one of the learning principles.

Formative assessment is a type of assessment that refers to monitor the child's progress throughout the learning and teaching process. Various tools are used by the teacher to assess a student's progress. Portfolio, rating scale and anecdotal records, etc are the tools for formative assessment of learning in EVS.

Key Points

Let's understand in brief:

Hint

 The annual achievement test is not a tool for formative assessment of learning in EVS as it is designed to measure skill and knowledge obtained at a grade level to determine the level of instructions for which a student is prepared.

Hence, we conclude that the Annual Achievement Test is not a tool for Formative Assessment of learning in EVS.

Assessment is a process of collecting, receiving and using data for the purpose of improvement in the learning process. It is of two types: Formative (assessment is taken throughout learning) and summative (assessment at the end of the session). 

Key Points

Judging children's answer in terms of right or wrong should be avoided while assessing them in EVS as it could:

• result in anxiety.
• lead to low self-esteem.
• develop a feeling of failure.
• decrease or hinder their self-confidence.

Note: Indicator for assessment refers to the indicator of progression that identity the fundamental capabilities and skills of students that will lead to the desired outcome.

Hence, we conclude that judging the answers given by children in terms of right or wrong should be avoided while assessing children in EVS.

Children can be given meaningful learning when he gets them engaged in some sort of activity. The teacher encourages his/her children to observe, share their experiences followed by a discussion on the activity because through

Key Points

• Observation: Children will learn to explore, discover and analyse the things and world around them.
• Sharing experiences: Children will know the other's perspectives and point of views regarding the activity.
• Discussion: Children will experience learning through social interaction in group settings and democratic ways of thinking.

So, it could be interpreted that observation, sharing of experience and discussion will make the activity meaningful.

The Correct Answer is: Crow

Concept:

• Aquatic Animals live in water for most or all of its life.
• It may breathe air or extract its oxygen from that dissolved in water through specialized organs called gills, or directly through its skin.
• Aquatic animals are those animals that live in water are called aquatic habitats.
• Ponds, swamps, lakes, rivers, and oceans are some examples of aquatic habitats.

 Key Points

• All animals given in the option except crow is an aquatic animal.
• While crow is a bird from the Corvus genus.
• Fish, Tortoise, Crocodile, Duck (aquatic bird) are an example of aquatic animals.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that Crow is different from the others.

Key Points

• Hong Kong cuisine is inspired primarily by Cantonese cuisine. Most of the dishes in Cantonese cuisine is based on Snake. Cooked snake and Snake soup are popular in Hong Kong.
• Goa is situated on the west coast of India. Due to the high yield of coconut oil and fish, fish cooked in coconut oil is popular in Goa.
• Jammu and Kashmir is a state located in North India. Jammu and Kashmir's climate is cold. Mustard oil has the healing property, Fish cooked in mustard oil is popular in Jammu and Kashmir.
• Boiled tapioca with any curry is popular in Kerala.

So the correct match is-

NOTE: Chholay Bhature is popular in North Indian states like Delhi, Haryana, etc.

The Correct Answer is: Mynah

Key Points

• Mynah birds are species in the family starlings. Mynah is best known for their ability to talk and to mimic any sounds.
• Mynah found in Africa, India, and Southeast Asia.
• In India Mynah known as Maina. The word “mynah” comes from the Hindu word maina, and the Sanskrit word madana, which means "delightful and fun-loving."
• The scientific name of the Mynah bird is 'Acridotheres tristis'.
• Mynahs are medium in height and have sturdy feet**.**
• Mynah can move its neck back and forth with a jerk.

Additional Information

Owls can rotate their necks up to 270 degrees.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, it becomes clear that the Mynah bird’s species moves its neck back and forth with a jerk.

Key Points

Description of houses of different places:

• In Ladakh, houses are made of woods, with sloping roofs and covered in snow.
• In Assam, houses are made of wood on strong bamboo pillars (almost 10 to 12 feet above the ground).
• In Kashmir, some old houses have a special type of window which comes out of the wall. It is called 'dab'.
• In the villages of Kashmir, houses are made from stone cuts and kept one on top of the other and coated with mud.
• In Srinagar, 'Donga' houseboat can be seen in Dal Lake and Jhelum river. From inside it is just like a house with different rooms.
• In Manali (Himachal Pradesh), houses are made of stone and wood, but not on bamboo pillars.

Hence, we conclude from the above-mentioned points that in Manali (Himachal Pradesh) houses are not made on bamboo pillars.

The Correct Answer is: C, D and A

Key Points

About Elephant and its herd:

• The elephant is the largest existing mammal on the Earth
• The herd follows matriarchy, i.e. the oldest female elephant becomes the head of the herd.
• There are 10 to 12 female elephants and young ones in a herd.
• It mainly consists of females and baby elephants.
• There is no male elephant in the herd, they leave when they turn 14 or 15.
• The herd sometimes is joined by the (bull) elephants depending on the climate and terrain.
• An adult elephant can eat up to 100kgs (1 quintal) of leaves and twigs in one day.
• A three-month-old elephant weighs about 200 kgs (2 quintals).
• Elephants do not rest much and sleep for only 2-3 hours per day.
• Elephants are usually found in tropical habitats.
• Elephants love to play with mud and water. The mud keeps their skin cool.
• Their big ears also work like fans. The elephants flap these to keep themselves cool.
• Family is what forms the basis of the formation of elephants but it can consist of more than one family.

Thus, 

A. Elephants do not rest very much, they sleep 2 to 4 hours only in a day: True

B. An adult elephant can eat more than 200 kg of leaves and twigs in a day: False

C. They love to play with mud and water, the mud keeps their skin cool: True

D. In the elephant herd, the oldest female elephant decides everything: True

The correct answer is Pillars formed by rocks resembling a forest.

Explanation

• It is mentioned that "These earth forests are full of pillars formed by rocks that collectively appear like a forest from afar – an ‘out of the world’ landscape that was formed by geological movements of the earth and erosion by wind and water."
• Clearly, the beautiful landscape is due to the presence of pillars formed by rocks that look like forests.

Hinglish

• उल्लेख है कि: "These earth forests are full of pillars formed by rocks that collectively appear like a forest from afar – an ‘out of the world’ landscape that was formed by geological movements of the earth and erosion by wind and water."
• स्पष्ट रूप से, सुंदर परिदृश्य जंगलों की तरह दिखने वाली चट्टानों से बने स्तंभों की उपस्थिति के कारण है।

The correct answer is it is a major source of water supply and power generation.

Explanation

• It is mentioned that "It leaves the Himachal boundary to enter the plains of the Punjab at the Bhakra Dam, the second highest gravity dam and a major point of water supply and electricity generation for the North of India."
• Clearly, no other option mentions the appropriate reason.

Hinglish

• उल्लेख है कि  "It leaves the Himachal boundary to enter the plains of the Punjab at the Bhakra Dam, the second highest gravity dam and a major point of water supply and electricity generation for the North of India."
• स्पष्ट रूप से, कोई अन्य विकल्प उचित कारण का उल्लेख नहीं करता है।

The correct answer is Both A and B are true.

Explanation

• It is mentioned that "Kangri Karchok, the Kailash Purana of the Tibetans describes the sacred elephant-mouthed river or Langchen Khambab as a long and extensive river that rises from the ‘lake unconquerable’, the Tso Maphan or Manasarovar that flows from the mountainous regions of Tibet" and "Then it streams into Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur and is responsible for the **rich cultivation of grapes, apples and apricots all along its banks."**
• It can clearly be deduced that Kangri karchok is a holy book. Also, it can be inferred that Langchen Khambab is responsible for rich cultivation  of grapes, apples and apricots in Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur.
• Thus, Both A and B are true.

Hinglish

• उल्लेख है कि  "Kangri Karchok, the Kailash Purana of the Tibetans describes the sacred elephant-mouthed river or Langchen Khambab as a long and extensive river that rises from the ‘lake unconquerable’, the Tso Maphan or Manasarovar that flows from the mountainous regions of Tibet" and "Then it streams into Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Bilaspur and is responsible for the rich cultivation of grapes, apples and apricots all along its banks."
• इससे स्पष्ट रूप से अनुमान लगाया जा सकता है कि कांगड़ी करचोक एक पवित्र ग्रंथ है। साथ ही, यह अनुमान लगाया जा सकता है कि शिमला, कुल्लू, मंडी और बिलासपुर में अंगूर, सेब और खुबानी की समृद्ध खेती के लिए Langchen Khambab जिम्मेदार है।
• अत: A और B दोनों सत्य हैं।

The correct answer is huge.

Key Points 

• Gigantic: of very great size or extent; huge or enormous.
• Let us look at the meanings of the options-
• Terrifying means causing extreme fear.
• High means of great vertical extent.
• Formidable means inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.
• Huge means extremely large; enormous.