Educational Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The philosophy is Buddhism.

The second Noble Truth of Buddhism traces dukkha, suffering, to craving (trishna) and to the cravings and impressions (vasana) that bind a person to repeated rebirth. Removing the craving, by the eightfold path, ends the suffering.

Jainism locates bondage in the attachment of karmic matter to the soul. Vedanta blames ignorance of the identity of the self and Brahman, and Samkhya blames failure to distinguish purusha from prakriti. Craving is not the central cause in any of these.

Answer: C

Ottaway is the one who said that education follows social change.

Ottaway, in his sociological study of education, argued that education is not the cause of social change but reflects and follows it: the school adapts its aims and curriculum after society has changed.

Durkheim saw education mainly as the means of socialising the young generation, and Dewey saw it as a means of social reconstruction, which is closer to the opposite claim. The key therefore keeps Ottaway, whose view the statement states.

Answer: B

The statement that is not a purpose of educational philosophy is increasing the teacher's love of and control over the students.

Philosophy of education is a reflective discipline. It examines the assumptions behind practice (option C), clarifies the values and aims that teaching should serve (option D), and, by giving teaching a body of principles and a sense of vocation, helps to professionalize it (option A).

Raising the teacher's affection for, and control over, learners is a matter of classroom management and personal temperament. No branch of philosophy sets it as an aim, so option B is the exception the question asks for.

Answer: D

All three statements are correct, so the answer is that all the above are correct.

Naturalists such as Rousseau urged a return to the natural rather than the artificial in life (option A). Educating according to nature also means following the natural laws of human development, which are the stages of growth of the child (option B). To do that one must study those laws and apply them in the educational process (option C).

Since each of the first three describes a part of the naturalist position, none can be singled out as the only right one, and option D, which combines them, is the keyed answer.

Answer: D

All of the listed beliefs were part of Froebel's teaching, so all the above answers are correct.

Froebel held that education aims at self realization, the unfolding of the inner nature of the child. He saw a spiritual unity behind all phenomena, which is why he gave play a deep meaning as the child's way of expressing the divine within. His method rested on self-activity, learning by doing and creative expression, as in his kindergarten gifts and occupations.

Because options A, B and C each state one of these ideas, none alone is the full answer, and option D is correct.

Answer: C

In Dewey's account of how we think, the ideas produced by any method must be tested in experience.

Dewey described reflective thinking as a sequence: a felt difficulty, defining the problem, suggesting possible solutions, reasoning out their consequences and then testing them by action or observation. Whatever the method that produces an idea, it counts as knowledge only once experience has confirmed it.

Options A and B are wrong because they claim that a single method, experimental or logical, is used exclusively, while Dewey combined both. Option D is wrong because option C is a core statement of his pragmatism.

Answer: D

The correct statement is that the pragmatist says man is a product of biological evolution.

Pragmatism, shaped by Darwin's thought, treats the human being as a living organism that has evolved and keeps adapting to its environment, and treats knowledge as a tool for that adaptation.

Option A mixes the positions: the naturalist stress on objectivity is about method, not a statement about the source of truth. Option B misattributes to the idealist a view that fits the naturalist, since idealists place mind or spirit above nature. Option C is wrong because truth through logical contemplation and revelation belongs to the idealist, not the realist, who relies on observation of an independent world.

Answer: B

Madhyama Pratipada, the middle path, is a cardinal principle of Buddhism.

The Buddha taught it as the way between the extremes of self-indulgence and severe self-mortification, and it underlies the Eightfold Path that leads to the end of suffering.

Jainism (option A) stresses strict asceticism and the doctrine of non-violence. Vedanta (option C) centres on the knowledge of Brahman and Atman. Sankhya (option D) is a dualist system of Purusha and Prakriti. None of them takes the middle path as its defining principle.

Answer: A

Integral education is a concept given by Sri Aurobindo.

Aurobindo held that education should develop the whole person, physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual, rather than the intellect alone. The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry follows this idea.

J. Krishnamurti (option B) is known for his views on freedom from conditioning and the right kind of education. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (option C) was India's first Education Minister, and Annie Besant (option D) worked for national education and the Central Hindu College. None of them proposed integral education.

Answer: C

The Jain order of the five kinds of knowledge is Mati, Shruti, Avadhi, Manahparyaya and Kevala (Kaivalya).

Mati is knowledge through the senses and mind, Shruti is knowledge gained from testimony and scripture, Avadhi is clairvoyant knowledge of distant or hidden objects, Manahparyaya is direct knowledge of the thoughts of others, and Kevala is perfect, complete knowledge.

Option A puts Manahparyaya before Avadhi, which reverses the usual order. Option B swaps the first two. Option D lists the sequence in reverse, ending with Mati.