Educational Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The definition is Ottaway's.

A.K.C. Ottaway, in Education and Society (1953), one of the first books on the sociology of education, described education as an activity that goes on in a society, whose aims and methods depend on the nature of that society. The point is that education is shaped by the social order around it.

Ross, Brown and Harington are not the source of this definition.

Answer: C

The founder of existentialism is Soren Kierkegaard.

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is regarded as the father of existentialism. He stressed individual existence, freedom, choice and the anxiety of personal responsibility, themes later developed by Heidegger and Sartre.

William James and John Dewey are pragmatists, and John Ruskin was a Victorian art and social critic, so none of them founded existentialism.

Answer: B

The definition is S. Radhakrishnan's.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher and later President of India, described philosophy as a logical inquiry into the nature of reality, which is the definition quoted in Indian texts on the philosophy of education.

J. Krishnamurti rejected systematic philosophy in favour of direct self-awareness, Sri Aurobindo's integral philosophy and Gandhi's ideas are not summed up in this definition.

Answer: C

Satyartha Prakash was written by Swami Dayanand.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj in 1875, published Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) in 1875. It sets out his call to return to the Vedas, his criticism of idol worship and caste by birth, and his views on education, including the gurukul.

Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj, Sri Aurobindo The Life Divine, and Vivekananda is known for his lectures on the Yogas, not for this book.

Answer: D

A Nirgrantha is a person free from worldly bonds.

Nirgrantha literally means 'without knots' or 'without bonds'. In Jainism it describes the ascetic who has cut the ties of possessions and attachment, and the early Jains were called Nirgranthas; Mahavira himself is known as Nigantha Nataputta.

Fasting and austerity, reading scriptures (the word grantha also means a book, which is the trap) and giving discourses are activities, not the meaning of the term.

Answer: D

Education for caring was propounded by Nel Noddings.

Nel Noddings, in Caring (1984) and The Challenge to Care in Schools (1992), argued that schools should be organised around caring relationships, for self, others, animals, plants and ideas, and that the teacher's first task is to care for students.

Paulo Freire's work is on critical pedagogy, Mary Wollstonecraft's on women's education, and Aurobindo's on integral education.

Answer: C

The source is the Upnishad (Upanishad).

'Vidyaya amritam ashnute', by knowledge one attains immortality, comes from the Isha Upanishad (verse 11), where it is said that one crosses death through avidya and attains immortality through vidya. It is widely used as a motto by Indian educational institutions.

The Nyaya philosophy, the Bhagavata and the Gita are not the source of this phrase.

Answer: B

The key's answer is Communism.

Communist theory, following Marx, makes productive labour the basis of human life and of education: Marx's 'polytechnical education' combined study with productive work so that no class would be above manual labour. Dignity of labour is therefore a central principle of communist education.

Democracy values labour too but centres on freedom and equality, while dictatorship and monarchy are forms of rule that have no such central educational principle.

Answer: B

The book is by Wollstonecraft.

Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Men in 1790 as a reply to Edmund Burke's attack on the French Revolution. Two years later she followed it with A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which argued that women appear inferior only because they are denied education, and which made her a founding figure of feminist thought on education.

The other writers are known for different books: Gandhi for Hind Swaraj and his scheme of basic education, J. Krishnamurti for Education and the Significance of Life, and Paulo Freire for Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Answer: B

Buddha means Enlightened.

The word comes from the Sanskrit and Pali root budh, to wake up or to know, so Buddha is 'the awakened one' or 'the enlightened one'. It is a title, given to Siddhartha Gautama after he attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, not a personal name.

'Conqueror' translates Jina, the title of Mahavira from which the word Jain comes, so it is the nearest trap. Counsellor and motivator are not meanings of the word.