Child Development and Pedagogy PYQs

Classroom Management consists of the teacher’s thoughts, plans and actions that create an orderly environment and promote learning.

• Classroom management stands for management of resources, pupils’ learning activities and behaviours in the classroom. It is essentially a human relations skill.

Key Points

• Many teachers use various types of rewards and punishments to manage their classrooms.
• They use punishment to eliminate pupils’ undesirable behaviours and rewards to promote their desirable behaviours.
• Repetitive or excessive use of rewards or punishments will repress the innate interests and opinions of the students and will make them showcase the behaviour which is expected by others from them.

Hence, Repeatedly asking children to engage in learning activities either to avoid punishment or to gain a reward will Decrease children’s natural interest and curiosity involved in learning.

Hint 

• Intrinsic motivation is internal. It occurs when people are compelled to do something out of pleasure, importance, or desire.
• Extrinsic motivation occurs when external factors compel the person to do something.

The RTE Act of the Parliament of India was enacted on 4 August 2009 and came into force on 1 April 2010. 

• This act is also known as the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act because of its provision of, “the fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 to 14 with specifies minimum norms in elementary schools.”

Key Points Important Provisions of RTE are as follows:

• Right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighborhood school.
• It makes provisions for a non-admitted child to be admitted to an age-appropriate class.
• It specifies the duties and responsibilities of appropriate Governments, local authorities, and parents in providing free and compulsory education.
• It lays down the norms and standards relating to Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs), buildings and infrastructure, school-working days, and teacher-working hours.
• According to the RTE Act, a teacher will spend a minimum of 45 hours in teaching including preparation hours in a week, and will be prohibited from the practice of private tuition.
• It provides for the appointment of appropriately trained teachers, i.e. teachers with the requisite entry and academic qualifications.
• The act prohibits physical punishment and mental harassment.
• It provides for the development of a curriculum in consonance with the values enshrined in the Constitution, which would ensure the all-round development of the child.

Hence, from the given points, it is clear that the working hours per week for teachers are 45 hours.

Developing an effective tool is a challenging task. We need to follow a scientific and systematic procedure to develop or standardize a tool.

• To get accurate results, you have to prepare or select a proper tool.
• Before selecting a tool for a certain purpose, you have to look into the criteria or qualities of the tool.

Key Points The essential qualities or criteria of an effective tool may be as follows:

• Reliability: Reliability is an important criterion of a good test/tool. Reliability refers to consistency. A test that shows a consistent result in its frequent uses in different situations and places is called the reliability of the test.
• Validity: Validity tells us about the accuracy and truthfulness of a test. The accuracy of a test can be said if and when the test measures the purpose it was constructed.
• Usability: Usability refers to how successfully you, as a teacher, use the test in a classroom situation.
• Objectivity: Objectivity is another important feature of a good test. The objectivity of a test refers to two aspects of the test, viz; Item-objectivity, and Scoring-objectivity.
• Norm: Norm can be defined as the average or standard score on a particular test made by a specified population.

Hence, aptitude is not a characteristic of a good test.

HintAptitude: English and English (1958) defined the term as “the capacity to acquire proficiency with a given amount of training.”

The term ‘curriculum’ came into general use when the new curriculum movement of the 1950s gained momentum. 

• Taba (1962) defined curriculum as “a plan for learning”.
• Good (1973) defined curriculum as “a general overall plan of the content or specific materials of instruction that the school should offer the student by way of qualifying him for certification”.

Key Points Learner-centered Curriculum: A learner-centered curriculum considers children as individuals who learn differently from adults. In such a curriculum the characteristics of the child dominate the curriculum.

Learner-centered Curriculum:

• The child and not the teacher is the focus of the entire process of teaching-learning.
• The child is an active participant in the classroom process.
• Has a democratic climate so that the child gets maximum opportunities for interaction with others.
• Reflects planning of teaching-learning and its monitoring jointly by teacher and children.
• The curriculum and the instructional materials serve as a means to foster the child’s all-around development and are not ends in themselves.
• The goal of teaching-learning is not merely to help children to acquire knowledge but also to promote the all-round development of personality.
• Activities planned by teachers and carried out by children become the medium of learning for the child rather than only the textbook.
• Teacher adopts a variety of teaching-learning strategies to address the needs of all children at the same time.
• The child-centered curriculum perspective was accepted and propagated by John Dewey, Rousseau, and Parker, although they all have different perspectives on childhood.

Hence, the child is most important in a Learner-Centered Curriculum.

Important Points

• Subject-centered curriculum: Subject-centered approach:- The focus is on the delivery of the subject contents by the teacher for students to acquire i.e. importance is laid on topics/concepts included in the subject, around which all the teaching and learning activities revolve.
• Life-centered Curriculum: The International Commission on Education (1999) emphasized the concept of lifelong learning. Education throughout life is based on four major principles or pillars:
• i) Learning to know;
• ii) Learning to do;
• iii) Learning to be; and
• iv) Learning to live together

The meaning of learning becomes clear when a teacher opens up new vistas. The process of teaching is one of discovery both by the teacher and the learner and for the teacher it is also the process of reflection and planning for change.

• The values that a reflective teacher has been cultivated through practice and study.

Every student has a unique way of learning. A sensitive and caring teacher's role is to facilitate learning and not channel it.

Key Points A Reflective teacher creates classroom situations for students as:

• The environment of the classroom should be flexible.
• All the students and teachers have equal right to deliver their point of view in front of others.
• Rules should be made by the discussion with learners so that rules and norms are flexible for all.
• Interaction between Teacher and Student should be increased when the curriculum is reflective and the student is the center of the classroom.
• The classroom environment should be free, there is no rigidity in any context that should be seen in the classroom.
• The teacher should encourage the students to take part in the classroom discussions so that they can learn conceptually.
• The topic of the discussion should be changed every time so that learners and teachers develop their skills of thinking in a divergent manner.
• Classroom discussion and other collaborative activities facilitate the learning of the students, students learn much by interacting with their peers and others.
• No limitations and prohibitions for the learners while discussing the respected topics.
• No partiality and differences to the learners for giving them the opportunity to take part in the discussion.

Hence, a reflective teacher creates classroom situations for students to promote interaction between students and the teacher.

Research is a systematic way of investigation, a process of discovering new knowledge. Research is also considered as searching for and gathering information, usually to answer a particular question.

Each research study has its own specific purpose.

Key Points Action research:

• Its primary aim is to solve an immediate problem. It is cyclic in nature.
• It is a form of interpretive research to study human actions and social practices with the participation of the researcher.
• It is applied research, which is focused on immediate application, not to develop any theory for general applications.
• It refers to the application of research to educational problems in a particular classroom setting.

Hence, we can conclude that research initiated to solve an immediate problem is Action Research.

Important Points The Cycle of Action Research:

• Action Research achieves its goal by using a ‘cyclic research process, where each cycle is made up of four phases - Plan, Act (implementing plans), Observe (systematically) and Reflect.
• It is a continuous cycle one can circle back to earlier phases within a cycle (e.g., cycle back and forth between reflection and planning).

 

Characteristics of Action Research:

• There is always room for improvement when it comes to teaching and educating others.
• The main traits of action research related to collaboration between teachers, educational managers, and members of the organization to solve problems.
• Possibility to gain in-depth knowledge about the problem.
• It can be used with quantitative as well as qualitative data.
• This research focuses on specific situations and their context.
• This type of research is facilitated by the participation and collaboration of a number of individuals with a common purpose.

Additional Information 

1. A longitudinal research

• In a longitudinal study, researchers repeatedly examine the same individuals to detect any changes that might occur over a period of time.
• Longitudinal studies are a type of correlational research in which researchers observe and collect data on a number of variables without trying to influence those variables.

​2. Applied Research: 

• ​​It is also called field research.
• Fundamental research may propound a theory or discover a law, but applied research is concerned with the testing of such theories or laws in the actual field setting.
• It is almost always done based on fundamental research.

National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005 provides a guideline with which teachers and schools can choose and plan experiences that they think children should have. It seeks to reform the curriculum and to bring learning experiences in and outside the classroom.

Key Points As per NCF, the role of a teacher:

• The teacher is a facilitator, as his role is to create such an atmosphere of learning where the children can themselves realize their true potential and make meaning of the knowledge.
• A teacher is one who plays diverse roles like an innovator, action researcher, planner, manager, content provider, facilitator, leader, co-creator, etc.

Hence, from the above-mentioned points, we conclude that as per the NCF 2005, the role of the teacher is that of a facilitator. 

Important Points The NCF 2005 emphasizes these points concerning children’s learnings:

• All children are naturally motivated to learn and are capable of learning.
• Making meaning and developing the capacity for abstract thinking, reflection and work are the most important aspects of learning.
• Children learn in a variety of ways – through experience, making and doing things, experimentation, reading, discussion, asking, listening, thinking, and reflecting and expressing themselves in speech, movement, or writing—both individually and with others. They require opportunities of all these kinds in the course of their development.
• The physical activity of moving, exploring, and doing things, on one’s own, with one’s peers, or in the company of adults, and using language—to read, to express or ask, to listen, and to interact—are the key processes through which learning occurs.
• Learning takes place both within the school and outside the school. Learning is enriched if the two areas interact with each other.

Evaluation: Evaluation is a systematic way to assess learners’ abilities, analyze performance, provide appropriate feedback to each learner, and help them to progress. High-quality evaluation is required in teaching for successful learning. Evaluation needs to be integrated with the process of teaching and learning.

Key PointsPurpose of Evaluation in Education: 

• To encourage thinking and reasoning in learners
• To provide constant feedback regarding the effectiveness of the course.
• To diagnose the difficulties and strengths of learners
• To know learner’s performance and bring improvement
• To measurement of the value of teaching methods
• To build a system of feedback that helps the learners to enhance their learning
• To assess the attainment of students’ learning.

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that the purpose of the evaluation is to provide feedback on the extent to which we have been successful in imparting education for a productive life.

Important Points Other purposes of evaluation:

• To enhance learning through diagnostic and remedial teaching.
• To assess both scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of learning.
• To improve academic achievements and students' motivation level.
• To find and diagnose learners' diverse learning needs for effective learning.
• To evaluate learner's achievement to bring improvement for meaningful learning.

The term ‘development’ refers to qualitative changes in an individual such as changes in personality or other mental and emotional aspects. However, very often growth and development are used interchangeably.

Key Points

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that (1) - (d), (2) - (a), (3) - (b), (4) - (c), is the correct answer.

Important Points 

• Proximodistal sequence:  means that the development proceeds from the central part of the body towards the peripheries. In this sequence, the spinal cord of the individual develops first, and then outward development takes place. 
• For example, babies cut their front teeth before they cut their side ones.
• Cephalo-caudal sequence: means that development spreads over the body from head to foot i.e. individual begins to grow from the head region downwards. Sufi first gained control of her head, then she could catch hold of objects, sit, crawl and later she could stand and walk.
• Principle of Interrelation: The development of an individual is reflected through the balanced interrelation of all the aspects of life. Development in any aspect affects the other aspect also.
• Principle of Individual Differences: It says that every individual is unique in himself/herself as the heredity and environmental factors make him/her different from others.

The term ‘development’ refers to qualitative changes in an individual such as changes in personality or other mental and emotional aspects. However, very often growth and development are used interchangeably.

• The process of development continues even after the individual has attained physical maturity (growth). The individual is continuously changing as he/she interacts with the environment.

Key Points There are some principles of development, which show the features of development, these are:

• Principle of Continuity: Development follows the principle of continuity which starts with conception and ends with death. It is a never-ending process in life.
• Principle of Individual Differences: It says that every individual is unique in himself/herself as the heredity and environmental factors make him/her different from others.
• Principle of Generality to Specificity:  The development process starts with general responses shown by the child as s/he passes through the later stages s/ he starts exhibiting specific behaviors.
• Principle of Interrelation: The development of an individual is reflected through the balanced interrelation of all the aspects of life. Development in any aspect affects the other aspect also.
• Principle of Interaction: The principle of interaction suggests that an individual is the product of heredity and environment. In other words, the interaction takes place within and outside forces of the child.
• Principle of Differentiation in Rate: Differentiation in the rate indicates that individuals differ in the rate of development. There is a difference in the rate of development in girls and boys like girls grow faster than boys at the early stage of development.
• Principle of Integration: The principle of Integration refers to the integration of various aspects of development like physical, mental, emotional, social, and moral.
• Principle of Predictability: Development is predictable i.e. with the help of the uniformity of the pattern and sequence of development, we can predict the behavior to a great extent of a child in one or more aspects in a particular stage of her/his growth and development.
• Principle of Sequentiality: It states that every individual although exhibit difference in change, they follow the same sequence of change.

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that Development proceeds from General to Specific.

Noam Chomsky, the linguist gave an explanation that human beings have an innate ability to acquire language. He put forth the innate proposition of the development of language. 

• This knowledge is given to them by nature – the rules that govern language are part of a biologically based human language faculty. This is called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD).

Key Points Nativist theory: The nativist theory of language development proposed by Noam Chomsky, argues that language is a unique human accomplishment.

Some major points of his theory are-

• The rate at which children acquire words and grammar without being taught can not be explained by learning principles.
• Children also create all sorts of sentences they have never heard and, therefore, could not be imitating.
• Chomsky believes language development is just like physical maturation- given adequate care, it “just happens to the child”.
• Children are born with “universal grammar”. They readily learn the grammar of any language they hear.
• Children throughout the world seem to have a critical period, a period when learning must occur if it is to occur successfully, for learning the language.
• Children across the world also go through the same stages of language development.
• Chomsky’s emphasis on our innate readiness to learn grammar helps explain why children acquire language so readily without direct teaching.

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that Noam Chomsky is related to language development.

Hint

• Jean Piaget Proposed the Cognitive theory of development.
• The moral development theory is proposed by Lawrance Kohalberg.

Individual differences refer to how individuals differ from each other. Different people have different interests; and their behavior is influenced by these interests, likings, values, beliefs, etc.

Key PointsCharacteristics of Individual differences:

• Individual differences in personality are due to hereditary and environment-related factors.
• The role of heredity is mostly important when we talk of physical features such as black eyes or fair complexion and other such aspects.
• Genes are responsible for producing biological differences in personality. These differences are called temperaments which refer to general tendencies to feel or act in particular ways.
• Three main types of temperament are activity level, emotionality, and sociability.

Hence, we conclude that Individual differences in temperament are basically ​Innate.

Personality is an all-inclusive concept and includes in it all the traits and tendencies that bring about consistency and dynamism in personality. 

• It is the total of an individual’s properties as a distinct and unique human being.
• The external properties are directly observed, while the internal is only inferred from the behavior of a person.

Key Points

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that B.F. skinner has not propounded any theory of personality.

Hint

• B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) was an American. His experiments on operant conditioning won him worldwide fame. Skinner defined operant conditioning as the process of learning that elicits operant behavior. According to Skinner, there are two types of behaviors, namely respondent behavior, and operant behavior.

Personality is all that a person is. It is the totality of one's behavior towards one's own self as well as others. It includes everything about the person, his/her physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual make-up. 

Key Points There are different kinds of projective techniques for personality measurement and the Thematic Apperception Test is one of them.

• The Thematic Apperception test is developed by Murray and Bellack.
• TAT was originally designed to measure personality factors in research settings.
• TAT consists of 31 pictures (one of which is blank), almost all of which depict people rather than objects.

Some of the pictures are designed to be administered to males, some to females, and others to both genders.

• A thematic apperception test (TAT) is a projective technique used to investigate a person's unconscious self.
• More specifically, a thematic apperception test can uncover a person's true personality, their capacity for emotional control,

and their attitudes towards aspects they encounter in everyday life (wealth, power. gender roles, racial and religious attitudes, intimacy, etc.).

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that TAT is the test of personality developed by Murray and Bellack.

Hint 

• The Sentence Completion Test is given by Hermann Ebbinghaus
• Sixteen Personality Factors are Given by R.B. Cattell.

Growth refers to quantitative changes in size which include physical changes in height, weight, size, internal organs, etc. of a child.

Key Points The growth of a child depends on various factors :

• Nutrition
• Health
• Sleep
• Environment
• Exercise
• Socio-Economic Status
• Emotions

Domicile is the place of residence of an individual. It refers to the state, area, village, or particular place of residence. It does not influence the growth of a child.

Hence, option 4 Domicile is not a factor related to growth of a child.

Additional Information An individual passes through a series of stages throughout his life 

• Prenatal
• infancy
• early childhood
• middle childhood
• adolescence
• early adulthood
• middle adulthood
• old age.

Intelligence has been defined as the total of everything you know, as the ability to learn or profit from experience, as the ability to solve problems, or as the ability to cope with the demands of the environment.

• Intelligence tests are used to measure the intelligence level of an individual because of individual differences.

Key Points Raven's Progressive Matrices test (Standard) of intelligence:

• The Raven's Progressive Matrices is administered as a nonverbal group test.
• It is an Adult Culture Fair Test.
• It is typically a 60-item test used in measuring abstract reasoning and is regarded as a non-verbal estimate of fluid intelligence.
• Many patterns are presented in the form of a 6×6, 4×4, 3×3, or 2×2 matrix, giving the test its name.

Thus by all these references, we can conclude that, Standard Progressive Matrices.

Important Points Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

• The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents.
• Provides deviation IQ

Intelligence tests for rapid classification of army personnel. In view of this, American Army psychologists developed two tests:

(i) Army Alpha and (ii) Army Beta.

• Both the tests were group tests in which the first was a language test, while the second was a non-language-performance test.

Bhatia Battery test is a performance test of intelligence which is developed by C.M. Bhatia in 1955. It includes cards with different patterns and the children are required to draw these patterns without lifting the pencil. Bhatia Battery Test includes five sub-tests, namely:

• Pattern Drawing Test
• Kohs' Block Design Test
• Picture construction Testx
• Alexander Pass along Test
• Immediate Memory Test for Digits

Howard Gardner proposed a theory of multiple intelligence. Gardner defines intelligence as "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture.

Key Points  Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences proposes that people are not born with all of the intelligence they will ever have. It includes eight types of intelligence.

• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence
• Intrapersonal intelligence
• Spatial intelligence
• Naturalistic intelligence

Thus, we consider that emotional intelligence is not included in the eight types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner.

Hint In later discussions and revisions of the theory, Gardner introduced additional intelligences, such as "Naturalist Intelligence" and "Existential Intelligence." 

The term emotional intelligence has been widely used by many people. It was first brought into focus that intelligence is not just the general ability but has three different levels of functioning i.e., abstract intelligence, mechanical intelligence, and social intelligence.

• Goleman defined emotional intelligence as a person's capacity to control their emotions and express them in a healthy and productive way.

Creativity is the phenomenon whereby imaginative and original ideas are turned into reality. It is a cognitive ability to produce something novel by offering a fresh perspective.

• There are some elements that create hindrances to creativity such as Functional fixedness, Convergent thinking, and Mental set but Divergent thinking is not a hindrance to creativity.

Key Points Creativity is related to the concept of 'divergent thinking' as creativity to the ability to identify or prepare original and divergent solutions to problems. 

Divergent thinking refers to:

• a way of solving problems with more than one approach.
• an act of working with open-ended questions using creativity.
• a process that includes brainstorming, out-of-the-box thinking, etc.
• the ability possessed by people who are creative, persistent, and imaginative.

Hence, it could be concluded that Creativity is usually associated with Divergent thinking.​

Hint Reflection is a kind of thinking process in which one brings the subject to the forefront of the mind and gives serious thought to this.

• It is a process of manipulation of knowledge and it's reprocessing toward the set goal, so it is goal-directed.
• One ‘thinks’ when in uncertainty or difficulty so as to solve the problem and the process leads to testing through some action.

Mental Retardation is the state of functioning beginning in childhood that is characterized by limitations in intellectual and adaptive skills.

Key Points It is characterized by certain malfunctions in the intellectual abilities such as :

• The person with this disability learns very slowly.
• Other areas of difficulty are attention, short-term memory, planning, and language.
• The term mental retardation is replaced with the term Intellectual disability by Rosa's Law in October 2010.​

Hence, The term mental retardation is replaced with Intellectual disability.

Important Points  Intellectual disability involves problems with general mental abilities that affect functioning in two areas:

1. Intellectual functioning (such as learning, problem solving, judgment)
2. Adaptive functioning (activities of daily life such as communication and independent living)

• Intellectual disability is thought to affect about 1% of the population. Of those affected, 85% have a mild intellectual disability. This means they are just a little slower than average to learn new information or skills. With the right support, most will be able to live independently as adults.

Personality is the “dynamic organization within the individual of those psycho-physical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment".

Key PointsTheoretical concepts of personality include :

• Personality is the more or less stable and enduring organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect, and physique that determine his or her unique adjustment to his or her environment according to Eysenck.
• It is generally defined as an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
• Personality is not static but dynamic.
• It refers to the distinctive patterns of behavior that characterize each individual’s adaptations to the situations of his life or her life.

So, we can say that stable, enduring, and unique are the theoretical characteristics of personality.  Hence, "normal " is not true for the theoretical concept of personality.