CTET Paper 2 Mock Test - 1 (Social Science) - CTET & State TET MCQ

Special needs education is provided to individuals with disabilities or learning difficulties that make it harder for them to learn compared to others of the same age. This type of education is aimed at addressing the unique needs of children or young people with physical, cognitive, or emotional disabilities, helping them achieve their full potential.

The best approach to increasing the chances of learning-disabled students leading a full and productive life is by teaching them a variety of skills and strategies that can be applied in different contexts. By learning and practicing concepts in a variety of settings and through different methods, students have more opportunities to internalize these concepts, making their learning experience more comprehensive and applicable in real-life situations.

The first stage in the formation of concepts is the observation of an event, object or an experience. This can also be called the stage of becoming aware. Example: The child can directly see a dog and become aware of it. (Sensation and Perception)
Repeated experiences or observations of different objects result in a tendency to form a general idea. Example: A child first sees one dog, then another dog, then a third and so on and begins to form the general idea of a dog. (Generalisation)
Along with generalisation and the observation and organisation of similarities among things and objects, the child also becomes aware of the differences between them. (Differentiation)
It is this type of sequential operation of generalisation and differentiation in interaction that leads to the formation of concepts.

Erikson's (1959) theory of psychosocial development has eight distinct stages. Like Freud, Erikson assumed that a crisis occurs at each stage of development. For Erikson (1963), these crisis are of a psychosocial nature because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e. psycho) conflicting with the needs of society (i.e. social).
Industry (competence) vs. Inferiority
It is the 4th stage out of eight. It is at this stage that the child's peer group will gain greater significance and will become a major source of the child's self esteem. The child now feels the need to win approval by demonstrating specific competencies that are valued by society, and begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments.

Less restricted environment increases compassion and acceptance in students. Thus, it sensitises other children not to bully or to put the disadvantaged children down.

Cognitive abilities are brain-based skills we need to carry out any task from the simplest to the most complex. They have more to do with the mechanisms of how we learn, remember, problem-solve, reason out, and pay attention rather than with any actual knowledge.

Bandura's major premise is that we can learn by observing others. He considers vicarious experience to be the typical way that human beings change. He uses the term 'modelling' to describe Campbell's two mid-range processes of response acquisition (observation of another's response and modelling), and he claims that modelling can have as much impact as direct experience.
Social learning theory is a general theory of human behaviour, but Bandura and people concerned with mass communication have used it specifically to explain media effects. Bandura warned that "children and adults acquire attitudes, emotional responses, and new styles of conduct through filmed and televised modelling." George Gerbner was concerned that television violence would create a false climate of fear. Albert Bandura cautioned that TV might create a violent reality that was worth fearing.

Bruner's theory is a general framework for instruction based upon the study of cognition. The main aim was that instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and/or fill in the gaps.

Rigidity is often regarded as a limitation of planning. So, it is not a principle involved in lesson planning.

Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. Both of these are the examples of evaluation.

Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist, has made a systematic study of cognitive development in his theory that is categorized in four stages. 
According to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory:

• Cognitive development takes place at different rates at different stages of development.
• Cognition develops through the interaction between the child and the environment.
• Piaget’s theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge but also on understanding the nature of the child’s intelligence.

Gender sensitivity about school curriculum offerings is gaining global attention and concern because of the growing interest in equalizing access to education for the child irrespective of differences in sex structure. 

Disadvantaged Learner-

• The socially disadvantaged child is one who is from a socially and economically backward section of the community, who cannot profit from school because of deprivation of one sort or another. Such children show cumulative academic deficits, high dropout rate, and progressive decline in intellectual functioning. 

Deprived Learner-

• The term 'underprivileged' refers to the disadvantaged section of people who are economically, socially, and vocationally in an unfavorable situation compared to the rest of the population of society. Thus it is a relative term. They are underprivileged in relation to the middle-class or upper-class people of their society. 

Assessment refers to the process of obtaining information about a learner’s learning and achievement in a course, with a view to bringing improvement in his learning. Assessment is considered a part of the teaching-learning process and is often categorized as assessment of learning, assessment for learning, and assessment as learning.

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation, commonly know as 'CCE' has been introduced as a school-based system of evaluation by the CBSE in 2009 with the enactment of the Right to Education Act.

An inclusive classroom includes each and every category of children in the educational system, regardless of their differences and disabilities. In an inclusive classroom, all creative, gifted, intelligent, backward, mentally retarded children study together.

• Creativity is a cognitive ability to produce something original by offering a fresh perspective. It is the ability possessed by people who are creative, persistent, and imaginative.

Socially Disadvantaged Students are the children who have hindrances to excelling in school because of detrimental circumstances beyond their control.

• These include children from SC / ST and other socially and educationally backward categories based on cultural, economic, social, geographical, linguistic, gender, or other categories.
• It also includes financial and social hardships as well as problems within students' families.

Disadvantaged students are those belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and minority groups. The children from these categories come to school with a disadvantaged tag with them and as a result, they become easy prey to differential treatment by the teacher and their classmates.

Assistive technologies provide a human interface to the alternative text in various modalities. Assistive technologies are products used by people with disabilities to help accomplish tasks that they cannot accomplish otherwise or could not do easily otherwise.

Learning disabilities are disorders that affect brain functioning of understanding, reading, writing, spelling, reasoning or recalling ability.

Exceptional children are those who deviate from the normal population and need special education services to meet their needs. It includes children who are gifted, backward, creative, learning disabled, educationally retarded, etc.
The above-mentioned characteristic is related to 'Educationally retarded children' as a class consists of students with varying learning abilities as some learn fast and some learn slowly.
'Educationally retarded children': 

• An educationally retarded child is not mentally retarded or physically disabled.
• He may have a neurological handicap or emotional disorder which hinders their abilities.
• Appropriate training is required to make educationally retarded children learn some self-care and communication skills.
• Educationally retarded children show the inability to do the work of the class below that which is normal for their age.

So, it could be concluded that if a child 'who is in the middle of his school (that is about ten and half years) is unable to do the work of the class below that which is normal for his age" is known as 'Educationally retarded children'.
Mental retardation: It refers to an intellectual disability characterized by low Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and impairments in adaptive daily life skills. 
Moron: A child with mild intellectual disability and an IQ of (51-70).
Idiot: A child with the least intelligence on the IQ scale (0-25).

The active participation and involvement of children play a very vital role in learning and shaping the personality of a child. 
A child-centered method is one that gives primacy to children's experiences and needs and provides ample opportunities for the children.

• While investigating the problems, it is often found that children break the problem into parts and analyze it, then they try solving the parts logically, this critical thinking shapes the child to be Scientific Investigators.
• When a child is encouraged to be self-dependent, it helps in developing thoughts and rationality in them and they try multiple ways to find a solution, and doing this multiple times helps them evolve as a Problem Solver.
• Children are Active Explorers of the environment as they are excited to learn about what is this, why it is here, how it is working, etc. They ask many questions about objects and situations in their surroundings.

So, the statements about children emphasizing to be Scientific Investigators, Problem Solver, and Active Explorers of the environment are correct.

Learning is a process by which the individual acquires various habits, knowledge, and attitude that are necessary to meet the demands of life in general. There are different factors that affect learning.
These include learner-centered factors like motivation, needs, self-concept, interests, goals, level of aspiration, etc., teacher and task-related factors such as teaching style, classroom ethos, transactional skills, and methodology, etc., and environmental factors such as the physical and psychological structures in which learning occurs.
Ashok is very fond of playing cricket and he is very good at it too. He is the captain of his college team. He spends long hours playing or watching cricket and never gets tired or bored. Motivation and personal factors is affecting learning in this example.

• Ashok is intrinsically motivated i.e. he derives internal satisfaction from the game. Intrinsic motivation is closely related to one's need for self-fulfillment, and achievement.
• These needs impel us to become better by learning more, interacting with our environment, and developing ourselves.
• Learning is most effective when there is intrinsic motivation - a desire to learn from within, which finds satisfaction in the achievement itself and does not bother about other factors.

Thus, it is concluded motivation is the personal factor that affects learning in the given an example.
Maturation: A one-year-old cannot be made to write and a three months old child cannot walk. Unless the learner has 'matured' optimally, he cannot learn. In order for learning to take place, physical, intellectual, and socio-emotional maturation is essential. Also, individual variations in the process of maturation should be acknowledged and appropriately dealt with.
Self-concept: Self-concept is very important in matters of learning because it influences individual differences in learners, in their, learning orientations, cognitive styles, and the self-learning strategies which they use.
Level of aspiration: This refers to the extent to which an individual wish to strive to achieve. It emanates from the targets, goals, and ambitions that individuals construct for themselves.

According to Ross, “Thinking is a mental activity in its cognitive aspect of mental ability with regard to the psychological object.”
According to Garrett, “Thinking is behaviour which is often implicit and hidden and in which symbols (images, ideas, and concepts) are ordinarily employed.”
Critical Thinking: The ability to apply reasoning and logic to new or unfamiliar situations, ideas, and opinions. It refers to the process of judging or analyzing facts, events, etc. It requires proper analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation.

• Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way.   People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically.
• People use the intellectual tools that critical thinking offers – concepts and principles that enable them to analyze, assess, and improve their thinking.
• Thinking critically involves seeing and observing things in an open-minded way and examining an idea or concept in a way to form as many angles as possible.
• It can be enhanced by asking children to discuss among themselves in groups followed by sharing in a large group.

Abstract thinking is the ability to understand real concepts, such as freedom or vulnerability, but not directly tied to concrete physical objects and experiences.
So, self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way is called critical thinking.

According to the question girl’s parents are sportspersons and she obtained training from coaching. Both of her parents are sportspersons. So, we can say that her capabilities depend on heredity and the environment.

• The individual’s personality is the product of both heredity and environment.
• Heredity determines a child's potential, while the Environment influences the extent to which that potential is achieved.

Role of Heredity and Environment:

So, from the points, as mentioned above, it becomes clear that the girl's capabilities are most likely to be the result of an interaction between heredity and the environment.

Assertion (A) states that NEP 2020 highlights inclusive educational structures.
Reason (R) claims NEP 2020 supports curriculum adjustments with materials promoting human values.
The correct answer is B: If both Assertion and Reason are true but Reason is not the correct explanation of Assertion.

- Assertion is correct as emotional stability typically involves being calm rather than high-strung.
- Reason is correct as emotional stability is indeed linked to the ability to stay composed under pressure.
- The Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion as emotional stability inherently involves remaining calm in stressful situations.

- The Assertion is true as the NCF 2005 does advocate moving away from rote learning.
- The Reason is also true as the NCF stresses nurturing democratic values within a caring society, but it doesn't directly explain why rote learning should be avoided.

• Assertion: Teachers are pivotal in nurturing problem-solving values among children.
• Reason: Teachers aid in the cultivation of rational thinking and reasoning abilities in children.
• Explanation: By guiding children in developing rational thinking skills, teachers contribute significantly to enhancing problem-solving capabilities. The Reason aligns with the Assertion, supporting the idea that teachers play a crucial role in instilling problem-solving values in children.

Assertion: Emotional factors, including sensitivity, can indeed influence an individual's ability to acquire new skills, as emotional responses impact learning processes.

Reason: Individuals with sensitive personalities may find it challenging to grasp new concepts due to the emotional complexities and hurdles involved.

Explanation: The Reason effectively supports the Assertion by highlighting how emotional factors, especially sensitivity, can pose challenges that affect the acquisition of new skills, making Option A the correct answer.