Learner Characteristics Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Previous knowledge is very important in the process of learning.

New learning is built on what the learner already knows. Ausubel put it most strongly: the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Constructivist theory makes the same point, since learners make sense of new ideas by connecting them to existing knowledge, and a teacher who ignores it teaches into a vacuum.

School atmosphere, infrastructure and the teacher's personality are conditions around learning. They help or hinder it, but they act from outside the learner's mind, whereas previous knowledge is part of the learning process itself.

Answer: C

The key gives Y-(4), R-(3), L-(2), W-(1).

The firm anchor is Louis Braille, who invented the raised-dot script that bears his name for blind readers, so (Y) goes with (4) Blind learners. Only this code has Y-(4); the other three pair Braille with deaf learners or dumb and deaf learners, so they are wrong.

The rest follows the key's matching. Helen Keller, who lost both sight and hearing in infancy and learned to communicate and speak, is placed with (3); Thomas Edison, who was himself hard of hearing, with (2) Deaf learners; and Lal Advani, a pioneer of the education of the handicapped in India, with (1) Handicapped learners.

Answer: B

The adult learner is self-motivated.

Malcolm Knowles's theory of andragogy holds that adults are self-directed learners whose motivation to learn is mainly internal: the wish to solve real problems, to grow and to improve their lives, rather than external pressure.

Peers, family and society may influence an adult, but andragogy contrasts adults with children precisely on this point: children's learning is largely externally driven, adults' is self-motivated.

Answer: B

A teacher should identify individual differences among students and teach accordingly.

Pupils in one class differ in ability, prior knowledge, pace of learning, interests and learning style. Recognising these differences lets a teacher adjust explanations, examples, pace and tasks (differentiated instruction) so that every learner can progress.

The economic condition of students or of parents may affect learning, but a teacher does not plan instruction around it, and differences among parents are not what a teacher teaches to. Only the learners' own differences shape how a lesson should be pitched.

Answer: B

The key gives adolescence.

Educational psychology texts describe adolescence as the most intellectually fertile period: abstract reasoning develops (Piaget's formal operational stage begins at about 11 or 12), along with imagination, curiosity, idealism and the capacity for hypothetical thinking. It is the age when interests and talents become clear and learning capacity is at its most expansive.

Childhood thinking is still concrete, adulthood consolidates what has been formed rather than opening new capacities, and old age typically brings a decline in fluid intelligence.

Answer: D

The main characteristic is that They are independent in their judgement.

Gifted students typically show advanced reasoning, curiosity, originality and the confidence to form and defend their own views. Independence of thought and judgement is one of the traits most often listed for them.

Introversion or extroversion is a matter of personality and varies among gifted children as among others, so neither is a defining trait. Dependence on peers is the opposite of the independence they usually show.

Answer: C

Instruction for adults should focus more on the process and less on the content to be taught.

Andragogy, Malcolm Knowles' model of adult learning, holds that adults are self-directed, draw on their own experience and want learning that is relevant and problem-centred. The teacher acts as a facilitator who designs the process of learning (involving learners in planning, drawing on experience, applying ideas) rather than transmitting a fixed body of content.

Putting more weight on content describes the traditional pedagogical model for children, and the 'equal' options miss the shift in emphasis that andragogy makes.