MAHA TET Paper 2: Child Development and Pedagogy Test - 4 (Social Science) - MAHA TET MCQ

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.

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.

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.

Scanning is reading a text quickly in order to find specific information, e.g. figures or names. This technique is employed to locate terms and references in an index or thesaurus.

Intelligence involves a number of abilities together. It is the ability to understand the incoming information and make sense of it. It is the ability to acquire new skills and use the existing knowledge to complete a task or deal with a situation. 

Gender:

• Gender is what we make of boys and girls.
• It is about the opportunities we give them to develop.
• It has got to do with their upbringing, socialization, culture and the role models we present for them.
• Gender is what a society and culture make of boys and girls.

Sex:

• Sex of a person indicates a boy or girl, a male or female, a man or woman.
• This distinction is based on the natural differences that exist in the body of males and females.
• These differences are biological and do not generally change.

However, if we talk about it in the Indian context, For three decades gender has been accepted as a category in the formulation of policy and curricula frameworks in India. “Gender”, “Equality” and “Empowerment” of girls have also been used as keywords in educational documents for a long as it is evident from the policy review section. “Gender” has primarily been viewed:

• As concerning only girls and women (a biological category) where
• As an isolated category, not related to other issues
• In terms of provision of equal facilities

So, we conclude that all the above-mentioned statements are correct.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development. Children with ADHD may be hyperactive and unable control their impulses. Or they may have trouble paying attention. These behaviors interfere with school and home life.
Reducing the time allotted to complete an assignment to make it coincide with time of attention, and increasing this time in a phased manner will be best suited to deal with attention deficit hyperactivity.

Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable aim and may be viewed as the opposite of success. There are many cognitive, physical, intellectual, scholastical, emotional, and cultural causes for the failure of students.

Learning refers to the modification of behavioral patterns. It is a comprehensive process which refers to a change in behavior, knowledge, and skill as a result of practice and experience.

• Learning of children will be most effective when development of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of children will take place.
• These domains are proposed by Benjamin Bloom's in his taxonomy. It is a set of three hierarchical models that refers to the classification of educational learning objectives.

Let's Understand these domains in the context of child's learning:

• Cognitive domains: In this domain, a child deals with knowledge and hence, learns to create, evaluate, analyze, etc.
• Affective domains: This domain comes into play when child grows in emotional areas such as feelings, attitudes, etc.
• Psychomotor domains: It is concerned with acquiring skills that require the integration of mental and physical movements.

So, it could be concluded that the learning of children will be most effective when development of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of children will take place.

Insight, in learning theory, immediate and clear learning or understanding that takes place without overt trial-and-error testing. Insight occurs in human learning when people recognise relationships or make novel associations between objects or actions that can help them solve new problems.

Lev Vygotsky states that the child’s mental strength grows when assisted by a more advanced and competent individual.

Assumptions of Vygotsky’s theory:

• The first assumption is that through informal and formal conversations and education, the competent individual can guide the children the way their culture interprets and responds to the world.
• The second assumption is that thought and language become increasingly independent in the first few years of life.
• The third assumption explains that mental strength increases when the children begin to involve them in social activities. When children grow, their internalize process increases and they begin to use them independently. This internalize process allows the children to transform ideas and process to make them unique.
• The children can do more challenging tasks when assisted by a competent individual. Vygotsky identified two levels of development are:
  • The actual development is the maximum ability of the child to perform individually and
  • Potential development is the maximum ability of the child to perform with the assistance of an experienced individual.
• The final assumption is that play allows children to stretch themselves cognitively. 

Hence, we can conclude that according to Lev Vygotsky, the primary cause of cognitive development is social interaction.

In pre-childhood, the tendency of children to explore new and move around greatly increases.
Pre-childhood covers the period from 2 to 6 years. It is also known as the preschool stage. The characteristics of pre-childhood are:

• Some parents feel that behavioral problems of the childhood period are more troublesome than physical care of infants.
• Some behavioral problems occur during this period such as obstinacy, stubbornness, disobedience, and antagonistic.
• It is a toy age because most of the time children are engaged with their toys. These toys are also helpful to educate the children. Toys are an important element of their play activities.
• The tendency of children to explore new and move around greatly increases.
• This is a period when a child is considered physically and mentally independent. This is also a school-going age.
• Children become more self-sufficient, and independent, and develop self-esteem.
• This is the age of foundations of social behavior. They are a more organized social life they will be required to adjust to when they enter first grade.
• Develop physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Classification of students in different groups on the basis of their IQ tends to decrease their self-esteem and has no effect on their academic performance.

Diversity means variety. For all practical purposes, it means a variety of groups and cultures. We have such a variety in abundance in India. We have here a variety of races, of religions, languages, castes, and of cultures. For the same reason, India is known for its sociocultural diversity.

Identify a child with a learning disability by conducting an IQ test.

• Learning Disability is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of specific kinds of learning problems. 
• Children with learning disabilities experience difficulty in learning and using certain skills namely reading, writing, listening reasoning, and mathematics.

Student-centred learning, also known as learner-centred education, broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student. Question-answer method is based on teacher's own discretion and does not put learner first.

Constructivism is centered on the idea that human knowledge and learning are actively constructed by the teacher, not passively received from the environment. It is based on the theory of constructivism which holds that learning always builds upon the knowledge that a student already has.

Error: When a learner can’t master a topic, he/she is vulnerable to make errors. Errors are nothing but incorrectness made by a child during learning. 
Misconceptions: It takes place due to the mismatch in previously assimilated and newly accommodated knowledge. 
Children’s errors and misconceptions:

• are significant steps in the teaching-learning process.
• are necessary in the learning process to give insight into children's thinking.
• help the teacher to be aware of learners' learning styles, to cater them according to their needs.
• are considered as a part of the teaching-learning process as it helps to understand the child.

So, it could be concluded that children’s errors and misconceptions are a significant step in the teaching-learning process.

The theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs basically talks about how all humans have different levels of needs for survival and they work to make money to fulfill those needs. Thus, the news of 'a woman selling her child to obtain food' may be understood best on the basis of theory of hierarchical needs.

A child always sympathizes with other children, is an emotional habit. Sympathy is an emotional response characterized by feelings of compassion, concern, or sorrow for someone else's situation or emotions. It involves understanding and sharing the emotions of others, which is a key aspect of empathy.

The knowledge of individual differences helps teachers in assessing the individual needs of all students and teaching them accordingly.
Individual differences, as the term suggests, refer to how individuals differ from each other.

• Different people have different interests; and their behavior is influenced by these interests, likings, dislikings, values and beliefs, etc.
• Understanding of individual differences helps in planning course material and training programmes. 
• Understanding of individual differences of the teachers and the taught can help in matching teaching and learning styles for better- academic results. 
• To take care of individual differences you should design your instructional activities to suit the mental level of each student.

Right to Education Act (RTE) is an act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4th August, 2009, which describes the modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution.
After the implementation of RTE Act 2009, the classrooms are age-wise more homogeneous.

Assessment is done to determine the outcomes (what students have learned), process (the way they learned), and their approach to the learning before, during, or after the program or course.

• During instruction, the assessment can be used to determine what students are learning so that if there is a need, the teacher can adjust their teacher.
• It is a process-oriented approach that is used to identify the areas for improvement in the learning process.

In concrete operational stage, the child responds to inferred reality. Children are much less egocentric in the concrete operational stage. It falls between the ages of 7 to 11 years old and is marked by more logical and methodical manipulation of symbols. The main goal at this stage is for a child to start working things out inside their head.

In a culturally and linguistically diverse classroom, before deciding whether a student comes under special education category, a teacher should evaluate student on his/her mother language to establish disability.

Learning disability refers to a neurological disorder that causes cognitive impairment. Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, etc are the most common learning disability.
Learning disability:

• Learning disability is intrinsic and due to central nervous system dysfunction.
• It is a variable state which can be addressed by appropriate comprehensible input.
• It can't be attributed to cultural deprivation as it can present in children of any culture.

Heredity is the primary determinant of how far we can go this describes the extent of the effect of heredity upon development best.
Heredity provides a basis or potential for the development of any personality trait. Heredity influences physique, motor-sensory equipment and level of intelligence, certain diseases, and temperamental characteristics.

• Heredity is the primary determinant of how far we can go to develop the basis or potential of a child
• The bad environment can suppress good inheritance but the good environment is not a substitute for bad heredity
• Heredity sets the limit of the maximum development of a characteristic, which cannot be crossed by providing the best environment. 
• Heredity is represented by ‘genes’ and the environment is represented by any stimulation minus genes. Thus we find that our body size, the color of skin and the ceiling of our intellectual capacities are all genetically determined but the final shape of our personalities emerges through our interactions with varied physical, geographical, social, and cultural environments that envelope us. Thus the development of personality is a dynamic process.

Industry versus Inferiority Stage is emphasised by psycho social theory.

Intelligence is a key construct employed to know how individuals differ from one another. It also provides an understanding of how people adapt their behaviour according to the environment they live in. Intelligence as the ability to judge well, understand well, and reason well.

A child sees that a classmate has gotten into trouble by hitting another child. They learn by observing this interaction that they should not kill others. This is a classic example of learning by observation.
Learning style refers to a range of principles that aim to take into account differences in individuals' learning. Many theories share the proposition that humans can be classified according to their 'style' of learning, but differ in how the proposed styles should be defined, classified and assessed. A general concept is that individuals differ in the way they learn.