Learning and Pedagogy Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The answer is Both (A) and (R) are false.

The assertion is false. Teachers should stay closely involved with their students, guiding, supporting and sharing responsibility for learning; distancing themselves and leaving it all to the learners abandons children who need help.

The reason is also false. Learning takes place effectively in a democratic environment, where children's questions and opinions are welcomed and they share in decisions. An authoritarian or rigidly authoritative climate suppresses curiosity and participation. (The paper prints 'affectively' where 'effectively' is meant.) Both statements being false rules out the other options.

Answer: D

The effective strategies are (i), (ii) and (iii).

Concepts are learnt well when students see examples, see non-examples that show the boundaries of the concept, and think about how the concept relates to others. Together these help students form the concept's defining features themselves.

Giving a definition to be memorised by rote (iv) does not build understanding, so any option including (iv) is wrong, and the options with only two of (i), (ii), (iii) leave out an effective strategy.

Answer: A

Teacher and students exchange roles in reciprocal teaching.

Developed by Palincsar and Brown, reciprocal teaching has the teacher model reading strategies, after which students take turns leading the discussion as 'teacher': asking questions, summarising, clarifying and predicting.

Conditioned learning is behaviourist stimulus-response learning, receptive learning has students receive information, and expository teaching is teacher-led explanation; in none of them do the roles switch.

Answer: D

The most effective strategy is to ask students to share their own experiences related to the new material and then connect them to the topic.

Meaningful learning, in Ausubel's and the constructivist sense, happens when new ideas are linked to what learners already know. Starting from students' experiences activates that prior knowledge and gives the new concept something to attach to.

A step-by-step guide, a lecture with terms to memorise and reading a chapter to answer end questions all present the material without connecting it to what the students bring.

Answer: B

In constructivist learning, prior knowledge is important for building connections and facilitating new learning.

Constructivism holds that learners build new understanding on what they already know. Teachers therefore find out what children already think, connect new ideas to their experience, and use their existing ideas, including misconceptions, as starting points for change.

Option A treats prior knowledge only as an obstacle, but even misconceptions are something to work with, not ignore. Options C and D wrongly limit its importance to advanced or highly motivated learners; prior knowledge matters for every learner.

Answer: C

Teachers support self-directed learning by encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning and develop self-regulation skills.

A self-directed learner sets goals, plans, monitors progress and adjusts strategies. In a constructivist classroom the teacher builds these skills by giving students choices, encouraging reflection and gradually handing over control of learning to them.

Grades used to make students outperform each other promote competition and extrinsic motivation (A). Teacher-set goals for every task (B) and detailed, prescriptive instructions (D) keep control with the teacher and leave students dependent on direction.

Answer: A

In discovery learning, students derive information for themselves through exploration and manipulation of ideas.

Discovery learning, associated with Jerome Bruner, has learners explore materials, examine examples and work with ideas so that they find principles and relationships themselves, with the teacher guiding rather than telling. The discovery is new to the learner, not to the world.

Options B and D wrongly suggest that students make new discoveries for the world. Options C and D name rehearsal and extended practice, which are methods of memorising, not of discovering.

Answer: B

Rich learning is encouraged by a classroom with open activity corners and a variety of children's literature in open shelves accessible any time of the day.

Children learn by handling materials, choosing books and exploring at their own pace. Open corners and freely accessible literature allow this every day, and encourage independent reading and activity.

Displaying material out of reach, keeping it in cupboards for once a week, or driving all learning from textbook content limits children's access and initiative, so those classrooms do not support rich learning.

Answer: A

Textbooks are best described as one of the resource and reference materials available in the class.

NCF 2005 cautions against treating the textbook as the only source of knowledge. It should be one resource among many, alongside the children's experiences, the community, libraries and other materials.

Homogeneity of learning across a State is not a desirable aim of textbooks. Guidance about the course of study is the role of the syllabus. Calling the textbook the most essential resource is the textbook-centred view that the framework wants to move away from.

Answer: D

The most suitable is that the teacher should facilitate children to interact with each other on real-life situations.

In the constructivist and social-constructivist view, children learn best by discussing and working together on problems drawn from their own lives. Peer interaction lets them test ideas, explain to each other and build understanding, while real-life contexts make learning meaningful.

Regular tests measure learning but do not improve it by themselves, explaining with examples keeps the teacher at the centre, and having every type of material available is useless unless children engage with it.