Educational Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The original work on Vedanta is the Brahmasutra.

The Brahma Sutra (or Vedanta Sutra), attributed to Badarayana, condenses the teaching of the Upanishads into short aphorisms. It is the foundational text of the Vedanta school, one of the three texts (prasthanatrayi) along with the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

The other options are later commentaries on it. The Shankarabhashya is Shankaracharya's Advaita commentary, the Anubhashya is Vallabhacharya's commentary, and the Vedanta Saurabha is Nimbarka's commentary. Commentaries presuppose the original text, so they cannot be the original work.

Answer: C

The three parts are the Abhidhammapitak, Vinaypitak and Suttapitak.

The Tripitaka ('three baskets'), the Pali canon of Buddhism, consists of the Vinaya Pitaka (rules of discipline for monks and nuns), the Sutta Pitaka (the Buddha's discourses) and the Abhidhamma Pitaka (philosophical and psychological analysis of the teachings).

'Samyakpitak', 'Aryasattyapitak', 'Karmapitak' and 'Panchasheelpitak' are not parts of the canon. The names borrow Buddhist terms such as the 'samyak' (right) of the Eightfold Path, the four Arya Satya (Noble Truths) and Panchsheel, but none is a pitaka.

Answer: A

The true statement is that Jain religion is realistic and it does not acknowledge Vedas.

Jain philosophy holds that the world is real, made up of real substances, both living (jiva) and non-living (ajiva), which exist independently of the mind; in that sense it is realistic and pluralistic. Like Buddhism, Jainism is a nastika (heterodox) tradition: it rejects the authority of the Vedas and follows the teachings of the Tirthankaras.

The other options all say that Jainism accepts the Vedas, or a single Veda, which is wrong. Labelling it idealistic, naturalistic or pragmatic is also not the standard classification.

Answer: A

Indian spiritualism is closest to Western idealism.

Both hold that ultimate reality is spiritual or mental rather than material. Indian spiritual traditions, especially Vedanta, regard Brahman or the self as the highest reality and the material world as secondary; Western idealism, from Plato to Berkeley and Hegel, treats ideas, mind or spirit as the true reality. In education, both stress self-realisation, moral and spiritual values, and the teacher as a guide.

Realism holds that the material world exists independently of the mind. Naturalism treats nature as the whole of reality. Pragmatism judges truth by practical consequences. None of these shares the spiritual emphasis.

Answer: B

Naturalism declares that nature is the source of all knowledge.

Naturalism holds that nature is the whole of reality and that knowledge comes from nature through the senses and experience, not from any supernatural or spiritual source. In education, Rousseau's Emile expresses it: the child should learn from nature and from direct experience, following natural development.

The soul as the source of knowledge is the idealist position. Knowledge as the outcome of thought is closer to rationalism or idealism. Knowledge from creativity is not the defining naturalist claim.

Answer: C

Pragmatism is also known as experimental philosophy.

Pragmatism, developed by Charles Peirce, William James and John Dewey, holds that ideas are true if they work in practice and that knowledge grows through experiment and experience. Dewey called his version instrumentalism and experimentalism; in education it gave rise to learning by doing and the project method.

'Logical philosophy' suggests logical positivism, a different movement. 'Spiritual philosophy' describes idealism, which pragmatism rejects. 'Technical philosophy' is not a name for pragmatism.

Answer: C

Realism recommends the inductive method for learning.

Realism holds that the external world is real and knowable through the senses. Learning should therefore proceed from observation of concrete facts and objects to general principles, which is the inductive method championed by Francis Bacon. Realist educators such as Comenius stressed sense experience, observation and the study of nature and science.

The deductive method, from general principles to particulars, fits idealism. The play-way method belongs to naturalism and the kindergarten tradition. A diagnostic method (printed 'Dignostic') is used to find learning difficulties, not as a realist method of learning.

Answer: D

Swami Vivekananda's philosophy is described as Practical Vedanta.

Vivekananda took the Advaita Vedanta teaching that the same divinity is present in every being and turned it into a guide for action: serving human beings, especially the poor, as service to God, and building strength and character through education. He spoke of it himself as 'Practical Vedanta' in lectures of 1896, and the Ramakrishna Mission was founded to put it into practice.

His philosophy was spiritual and intellectually rigorous and had a social message, but 'spiritual', 'intellectual' and 'sociological' Vedanta are not the established name for it.

Answer: C

Epistemology deals with the theories of knowledge: its sources, nature, limits and validity, and the question of how we can know anything. Rationalism and empiricism are its two classical answers.

Reality is the subject of metaphysics (ontology is the study of existence, which is why option B is also not epistemology), and values, the good and the beautiful, belong to axiology, which covers ethics and aesthetics. So the branch concerned with knowledge is epistemology, option C.

Answer: A

Both statements are true. Philosophy determines the aims of education because it asks what the good life, the good person and the good society are, and the aims of schooling are drawn from these answers. The reason is also accepted: education draws on philosophy for its aims, curriculum and method, so it depends heavily on it.

Options B, C and D each call one statement false, which the standard view of education as applied philosophy does not support. The key is the first option, which says both are true.