Educational Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The factor that is not part of the theory is the one about actors' rational calculation of interests making revolutionary participation seem rational.

Relative deprivation theory, developed by Ted Gurr in Why Men Rebel (1970), is a social-psychological explanation. Revolutions arise when the gap between what people expect and what they get grows, especially when expectations rise faster than achievements, producing discontent and frustration that turn into collective violence. Rising expectations, discontent tied to inequality and social-psychological dynamics are therefore all central to it.

The idea that revolution occurs when people's rational cost-benefit calculation makes participation worthwhile belongs to rational choice theory, a rival approach that rejects the frustration-aggression reasoning of relative deprivation.

Answer: C

The key gives Brown.

Sociologists describe a social institution as an established set of norms and behaviour patterns organised around a basic need of society, such as the family around reproduction and the upbringing of children, or the economy around the production of goods. The sentence in the stem follows that idea: behaviour clusters around a specific need or desire and becomes institutional.

Bogardus, Kairn and Barnes are also names that appear in older sociology textbooks, so the names themselves do not separate the options. I could not trace this exact wording to a published work, and I could not confirm which of the four wrote it, so the attribution to Brown rests on the official key and not on a source I checked.

Answer: B

The key's answer is that the Satyarth Prakash suggested a definite curriculum for educational institutions.

In the third chapter of the Satyarth Prakash (1875), Swami Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, sets out a detailed scheme of studies for students in gurukuls: which texts of grammar, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the six systems of philosophy, medicine, the arts and sciences are to be read, in what order and over how many years.

The book does discuss the purpose of education, but its distinctive contribution is that prescribed course of reading, which is why the more general options about objectives, activities or 'mission and vision' are not keyed.

Answer: B

The weakness is that pragmatic education has no decided aims.

Pragmatism, the philosophy of Peirce, William James and John Dewey, holds that truth and values are not fixed but are tested by their practical consequences and change with experience. Dewey even argued that education has no end beyond itself and that growth is its own aim. Critics therefore say pragmatic education gives no fixed or ultimate aims, only changing, immediate ones.

Pragmatism does have a curriculum (based on the child's activities and experiences) and clear methods (the project and problem method), and it gives the teacher a definite role as guide. So curriculum, methods and the teacher's role are not its recognised weakness.

Answer: A

The most important aim is to prepare the individual for Nirvana.

In Buddhist education, as in the monasteries and the universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila, all learning served the ultimate goal of the Buddha's teaching: liberation from suffering and rebirth through the extinction of craving, which is nirvana. Moral discipline, meditation and study were means to that end.

Moksha is the corresponding goal in Hindu thought, not the Buddhist term. Meditation and religious discussion were methods used in Buddhist education, not its final aim.

Answer: C

Pragmatism's most important contribution is to methods of teaching.

Pragmatists hold that children learn by doing and by solving real problems. From this came the project method of William Kilpatrick, Dewey's problem-solving method, learning through activity and experience, and the integration of subjects around life situations. These methods transformed classroom practice worldwide and influenced Gandhi's Basic Education.

Pragmatism also shaped ideas about curriculum and aims, but its aims are deliberately open and its curriculum follows from its methods, so the method of teaching is singled out as its chief contribution. It says little about the structure of knowledge, since it treats knowledge as provisional.

Answer: B

The true statement is that social movements are relatively common in modern, democratic society.

Democracies protect freedom of speech, association and assembly, so people can organise campaigns, protests and organisations to press for change, as the civil rights, environmental, women's and labour movements have done. Social movements are a normal part of politics there.

They arise within civil society, not outside it, so the first statement is wrong. Authoritarian regimes repress them, so they are not equally likely under every type of regime. And movements span the political spectrum, including conservative and religious ones, so not all are left wing.

Answer: D

The key gives Mati and Sruta.

Jain epistemology counts five kinds of knowledge: mati (sense and mind based), sruta (scriptural or verbal), avadhi, manahparyaya and kevala. The Nandisutra divides them into direct (pratyaksha) and indirect (paroksha) knowledge and puts mati and sruta under indirect, because they depend on the senses and mind. Later Jain logicians such as Jinabhadra and Akalanka added a class of practical or conventional direct knowledge (samvyavaharika pratyaksha) for what the senses and mind give in everyday experience, which the world treats as direct. The key takes mati and sruta as this practical, worldly knowledge.

'Sanmati', 'experience' and 'theory' are not Jain names for kinds of knowledge, so the other three options fail. Note that in the strict early scheme sruta is indirect, and some accounts place only mati under the practical class; the key follows the textbook grouping of both together.

Answer: D

The best alternative is to inculcate awareness of right political attitude at all levels of education.

Political development in a democracy depends on informed, responsible citizens who understand their rights and duties and take part in public life. Civic and political awareness built up through school and college education reaches every future voter, which is why education for political development stresses attitudes and values at every level.

Training election officers improves administration, not citizens' political maturity. Requiring politicians to be graduates is a qualification rule, not education. Research in political science at higher levels reaches only a few specialists.

Answer: A

The key gives there should be no concern of religion in political issues.

In its basic meaning, secularism is the separation of religion from the state and from politics: the state has no official religion, and political and public decisions are not made on religious grounds. The first option states that idea.

Religion is not an 'optional aspect' of politics under secularism, it is kept out of it, and the idea that the religion of the majority is important is the opposite of the secular view, so the second and fourth options fail. 'All religions are equal' is the other option people choose, and it is how Indian secularism is often described (equal respect for every faith, sarva dharma sama bhava). That reading is a statement about the state's attitude to religions rather than the definition of the term, which is why the key goes with the first option; the item is arguable on this point.