Learner and Learning Process Questions and Answers

Answer: A

For Bruner, concept formation and concept attainment are different terms.

In A Study of Thinking (Bruner, Goodnow and Austin), concept formation is the first step, in which a learner discovers that certain objects belong together and forms a new category. Concept attainment is the search for the attributes that distinguish members of an already existing category from non-members. Joyce and Weil's concept attainment model of teaching is built on this distinction.

So saying they are not different is wrong. 'Dependent' and 'independent' describe a relationship between the two processes rather than Bruner's point, which was that they are distinct.

Answer: D

Piaget's concrete operational stage runs from 7 to 11 years.

In this stage children can reason logically about concrete objects and events: they understand conservation, classification, seriation and reversibility, but not yet abstract or hypothetical reasoning, which comes with the formal operational stage from about 11 or 12.

The other ranges end too early, at 8, 9 or 10. All start at 7, so the question turns on the end of the stage, which Piaget placed at about 11.

Answer: C

The sentence fits Vygotsky's constructivist principle.

Vygotsky's social constructivism holds that learning happens first between people, through social interaction with parents, teachers and more capable peers, and only then within the individual. Concepts such as the zone of proximal development and scaffolding describe how this interaction drives learning.

Piaget's cognitive constructivism stresses the individual child's own action on the environment. Bruner emphasised discovery and modes of representation, and von Glasersfeld's radical constructivism focuses on the individual's own construction of knowledge.

Answer: B

Ramesh is likely in the pre-childhood (early childhood) stage.

Classic vocabulary norms (Madorah Smith, 1926) put a child's vocabulary at about 1,500 words at four years and about 2,000 at five. Counting objects also develops in the preschool years. A vocabulary of 1,500 to 1,900 words therefore places a child at about four to five years, in the early childhood stage.

In infancy, up to about two years, children know only a few hundred words at most. By later childhood, from about six to twelve, vocabulary grows well beyond 2,500 words, and adolescents know many thousands. So only pre-childhood fits.

Answer: B

Abstract thinking appears at the formal operational stage (12 to 15 years).

In Piaget's theory, the formal operational stage begins at about 11-12 years. The adolescent can reason about abstract and hypothetical ideas, form and test hypotheses systematically (hypothetico-deductive reasoning) and think about possibilities, not just concrete realities.

In the concrete operational stage (7 to 11) children reason logically, but only about concrete objects and events. The pre-conceptual and pre-operational years (2 to 7) are marked by symbolic play and egocentric, intuitive thought. The sensori-motor stage (0 to 2) is learning through senses and actions.

Answer: B

In Sternberg's theory, encoding is the first step in information processing.

In the componential sub-theory of Sternberg's triarchic theory, solving a problem such as an analogy proceeds through performance components in order: encoding (identifying and representing the terms), inference (finding the relation between the first pair), mapping (relating the first term to the third), application (applying the relation to find the answer) and response.

Mapping and application come in the middle of the sequence, and response is the last step, so encoding is the only option that comes first.

Answer: D

In Gagne's hierarchy, problem-solving is the last level.

Robert Gagne arranged eight types of learning from simplest to most complex, each building on the one before: signal learning, stimulus-response learning, chaining, verbal association, multiple discrimination, concept learning, rule (principle) learning and problem solving.

Signal learning is the first and simplest level, a classically conditioned response. Chain learning is the third, and concept learning the sixth. Problem solving, which combines rules to solve new problems, is the highest and last.

Answer: B

The key's answer is escape learning.

Sujit's behaviour, doing homework, is strengthened because it removes or prevents an unpleasant consequence, the teacher's punishment. This is learning through negative reinforcement, which textbooks describe as escape learning, or, when the response prevents the unpleasant event before it occurs, avoidance learning. The Indian textbook tradition groups both under escape learning.

Punishment learning would weaken a behaviour by following it with something unpleasant. Reward learning strengthens a behaviour by following it with something pleasant. Omission learning removes a pleasant consequence after a behaviour to weaken it. None describes doing homework to avoid punishment.

Answer: B

The wrong statement is that guidance is a part of counselling.

The relationship is the other way round: guidance is the broader process of helping individuals understand themselves and make choices, and counselling is one of its services, the most intensive, face-to-face part of it. Counselling is therefore a part of guidance.

The other statements are correct. Guidance is a process rather than a product, it is continuous throughout a person's education and life, and it is an integral part of education.

Answer: C

The correct sequence is (ii) (iv) (vi) (iii) (v) (i).

Kohlberg's six stages of moral development, in three levels:

1. Pre-conventional: obedience and punishment orientation (ii), then naively egoistic, instrumental orientation (iv).
2. Conventional: interpersonal concordance, the 'good boy, nice girl' orientation (vi), then authority and social order maintaining orientation (iii).
3. Post-conventional: contractual-legalistic, social contract orientation (v), then universal ethical principle orientation (i).

The other sequences start with principle orientation or the contractual stage, which are the highest stages, or place interpersonal concordance first, so they do not follow the order of development.