Educational Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The slogan 'things as they are and as they are likely to be encountered in life rather than words' is that of the Realists. They hold that the world exists independently of the mind and that education should deal with real objects and experience, so they oppose verbal and bookish teaching.

Pragmatists stress experience and problem-solving, Idealists stress ideas and the spirit, and Existentialists stress personal choice. Realism, option B, is the one that puts 'things' before 'words' (Comenius and Bacon took this line).

Answer: C

An existentialist teacher stresses freedom, responsibility and subjective feelings. For existentialists the individual makes himself through free choice, bears responsibility for the choice, and values personal experience over collective rules, so I, II and III are correct.

Cooperative living (IV) is a theme of pragmatism and social philosophies, and existentialists regard group conformity as a threat to authenticity. Options A and B leave out one valid emphasis and option D includes cooperative living, so the key is option C.

Answer: D

Karl Marx advocated a classless society. In his view history is a history of class struggle and, after the overthrow of capitalism, the end state is communism, in which classes and class-based exploitation have disappeared.

Plato described a class-divided ideal state, ruled by philosophers, with guardians and producers. Auguste Comte founded positivism and sociology, with an ordered society led by scientists. Gandhi's ideal of Sarvodaya sought a society free of exploitation by non-violent means but is not usually described as the classless society of Marx.

Answer: C

The Vedas, in the Hindu tradition, treat creation as without beginning and without end: it goes on in cycles of manifestation and dissolution (srishti and pralaya) and is not a one-time event. The key takes the third option, creation without beginning and without end.

Option A and option B each deny only one end of the cycle, so they are incomplete. Option D, a single definite beginning and end, is the view of the Abrahamic religions and goes against the cyclical Indian idea of time (yugas and kalpas).

Answer: D

In Sāṃkhya, evolution starts from the contact of Puruṣa with Prakṛti, and the first product is Mahat (buddhi, the intellect), followed by Ahaṃkāra (ego) and then the mind, senses and elements. The order given is Puruṣa, Prakṛti, Mahat, Ahaṃkāra.

Options A and B put Ahaṃkāra before Mahat, which reverses the order. Option C places Prakṛti before Puruṣa and so does not follow the pairing that the key uses. Only the fourth option has Mahat before Ahaṃkāra, so it is the key.

Answer: B

The correct matches are: Arya Satya (the Noble Truths) with sorrow in life (5), Dwadash Nidan (the twelve links of dependent origination) with Namrupa (1), Ashtanga Marga (the eightfold path) with Samyaka Vyayam (3), and Nirvana with Samādhi (2). The code is 5, 1, 3, 2.

Controlling of breath (4) is prāṇāyāma, a Yoga practice and not a Buddhist concept in the list, so it is a distractor; options A, C and D pair it or the other items wrongly. Only option B gives all four pairs correctly.

Answer: B

In Tagore's Santiniketan education, the child learns by debates and discussion (I), by dance, drama and music (III) and by travelling and interacting with nature (IV). Open-air classes, festivals and creative arts were central to his plan, which looked for harmony between the child and nature.

Formal reading, writing and speaking drills (II) are the bookish method he opposed, so statement II is not counted. Options A, C and D include II, and the key is therefore the option with I, III and IV.

Answer: A

The key is A.J. Ayer. In Language, Truth and Logic he applied logical analysis of language and the verification principle to remove meaningless metaphysical statements and reach the true meaning of propositions. Analytic philosophy treats language analysis as the main task of philosophy, and the question's wording follows the logical positivist programme.

Russell and Moore began the analytic movement, Russell with logical atomism and Moore with ordinary-language clarification, but the question takes the logical-analysis-for-meaning view from Ayer. Morris Biggie is an educational writer who summarises these schools.

Answer: A

The statement that education is man-making, forming character, strengthening the mind, expanding the intellect and letting a person stand on his own feet, is Swami Vivekananda's well-known definition of education. Tagore stressed harmony between the individual and nature and the universe, and his school at Santiniketan was built on that idea. Dayanand Saraswati emphasised Vedic learning and the Gurukul pattern, and he is not the source of this line. Since Vivekananda is the author, 'None of these' is also wrong.

Answer: B

The matching that holds is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii. Tagore held that the child matters more than any book, so he is joined with the child-centred statement. Vivekananda taught Yoga as a method of education and of self-discipline. Gandhi defined education as drawing out the best in body, mind and spirit, which is the harmonious development of personality. Buddhism rests on the doctrine of karma, the moral law of cause and effect. The doctrine of dharma (v) is left unused, which is why options A, C and D, each with a wrong pair, fail.