Learning Principles in EVS Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

The NCERT EVS syllabus emphasises process skills such as observation, identification, classification, recording, discussion, explanation and expression, rather than memorising facts. That is the assertion.

The reason gives the purpose of this orientation: the learning outcomes of EVS are framed in terms of these skills, so they are achieved as children acquire and use them. Orienting learning to process skills is right because that is how the outcomes are reached, so the reason explains the assertion.

Answer: A

In a constructivist classroom you would NOT see children just solving familiar problems.

Constructivist teaching asks children to build new understanding. They meet new problems and situations, link them to what they already know, test ideas with concrete materials and revise their thinking. Repeating problems of a type they have already mastered does not challenge their existing ideas, so no new learning is constructed.

The other three describe a constructivist classroom: children using experience to make new connections between concepts, learning by doing with concrete objects, and having their experiences respected as the starting point for learning.

Answer: B

Least likely in a child-centred classroom: children will be seen in the classroom, listening to the teacher.

In a child-centred EVS classroom, children are active participants. They share their experiences, discuss, work on varied activities, and the seating is rearranged for group work, investigations or presentations. The teacher facilitates rather than lectures.

Children sitting and listening to the teacher describes a teacher-centred, lecture-style classroom. Some listening happens in any classroom, but as the typical picture it is the least likely of the four. The other three options are hallmarks of child-centred learning.

Answer: C

Group learning serves to inculcate values of cooperation and working together, enabling each child to participate actively and learn.

Working in groups lets children share ideas, help each other, take on roles and learn from peers, and it gives quieter children a chance to take part. NCF 2005 recommends it for these reasons.

Separating boys and girls, segregating high and low achievers, or using groups to reduce the teacher's workload all go against the inclusive, cooperative purpose of group work.

Answer: C

This indicates that EVS is child centred.

When children are given space to explore, observe, ask questions and find things out for themselves, learning is built around their activity and experience. That is what makes EVS child centred.

Learning by rote or by being given information, and a teacher-centred approach, all put the child in a passive role, which is the opposite of learning through exploration.

Answer: A

The key's answer is A, B and C: active participation of children, community members and EVS textbooks.

Children construct knowledge in EVS by taking part actively, by learning from people around them, such as family and community members who share experience of farming, crafts or local history, and by using the textbook as one resource among others.

Item D, the descriptions and definitions given in the textbook, is excluded because EVS discourages learning ready-made definitions; that rules out options containing D, and 'C only' leaves out active participation, the most important element.

Answer: C

Group work is encouraged because of B and C only: it promotes peer learning and improves social interactions.

Working in groups on crafts and arts lets children learn from one another's ideas and skills, share materials and responsibilities, and practise cooperation, communication and respect for others.

Using group work mainly to control indiscipline (A) or to finish the syllabus on time (D) are not educational reasons for it, so options containing A or D are wrong.

Answer: D

EVS follows the principle known to unknown.

EVS starts from what children already know, their family, home, neighbourhood and daily experiences, and moves outward to the less familiar: other regions, other people and wider ideas. Linking new learning to known experience makes it meaningful.

Global to local, abstract to concrete and unknown to known all reverse the direction in which young children learn best.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (R) are correct and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

When we talk with people who understand a subject differently, their views challenge ours, and we have to think more critically and refine what we know. That is the Assertion.

The Reason states the theory behind it. In social constructivism, associated with Vygotsky, knowledge is built through social interaction, and other people's views and beliefs play a central part in that building. Because knowledge is constructed socially, conversations with people who see things differently refine our knowledge, so (R) explains (A).

Answer: D

The child's own environment is the primary context.

The child's immediate surroundings, home, family, neighbourhood and local area, are the first and most direct context in which learning takes place. EVS builds on this primary context because children already have rich experience of it, and connecting new ideas to that experience makes learning meaningful.

Secondary and tertiary contexts are more distant settings that the child meets later or only indirectly, through books or media. 'Natural context' covers only part of the child's surroundings and leaves out the social and cultural side of the environment the question describes.