Test: Teaching Aptitude (Nature & Characteristics of Teaching) - Software Development MCQ

Teaching refers to the actions of someone who is trying to assist others to reach their fullest potential in all aspects of development. Teaching would result when the teacher indulges in any activity with the intention that pupils would learn something as a consequence of it. It is the processes meant for bringing about changes in the cognitive structure (structure of knowledge in one’s mind i.e. thinking power) in those who are being taught.

Objectives of Teaching:

• Developing self-confidence in students.
• Provide opportunity where the student constructs their knowledge on their own.
• Addressing the diverse needs of all students.
• Use various innovative teaching method to encourage them to discover new knowledge. For example, the project method of teaching.
• Improving life long learning skills in students.
• Fostering potential of students to grow and bloom.
• Transmission of new knowledge of facts, concepts, theories, laws, principles

Key Points

• In the case of classroom instructions, the teacher is concerned about bringing changes in the behaviour of learners and we call that specific objective as behavioural objective. Behavioural objectives are the objectives written in behavioural terms.
• It explains the change in the state of the behaviour of an individual on completion of a learning activity. So, Stimulate curiosity of students to discover knowledge is one of the chief objectives of Teaching.

The teacher is seen as a facilitator of learning. The progress of learning varies from individual to individual. Knowledge and values are reasoned and inquiry is the preferred mode of learning.

Key Points

•  A teacher’s duty is to help students develop intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, and morally so as to bring about their all-round development. 
• Teachers should be learning facilitators rather than didactic instructors or preachers and in order to be successful as learning facilitators, they should be trained to be sensitive and caring, genuine and empathetic.
•  A good teacher must be resourceful and participative.
• Effective teachers emphasize healthy social and interpersonal development and test-oriented approaches to the subject matter. 
• Effective teachers are found to have more elaborate systems of knowledge for analyzing problems in teaching. 
• Content mastery or deep knowledge of the subject that the teacher is to teach is an important trait of an ideal teacher.
• Teachers who are firmly rooted in their subject knowledge make clearer presentations and recognize students' difficulties readily. They can handle the queries of their students effectively

Thus, it is concluded that a good teacher must be resourceful and participative.

Teachers are the most important resources in educational settings. They are the key figures for any changes required in the educational field.

A good teacher is one who teaches in an interesting manner so that children enjoy learning because when a teacher makes learning interesting and enjoyable, it helps learners in the:

• participating willingly and happily.
• retaining information for a longer period.
• assimilating concepts easily and effectively.
• nurturing their curiosity in the learning process.
• enhancing skills and understanding of the concept.

Hence, it could be concluded that a good teacher is one who teaches in an interesting manner so that children enjoy learning.

Effective teaching occurs when a teacher is successful in keeping the students actively involved in learning. There are certain principles that a good teacher would follow to facilitate learning in students. A few of these principles are:

• Principle of encouraging creativity and self-expression
• Principle of motivation and interest
• Principle of recreation
• Principle of repetition and exercise
• Principle of sympathy and cooperation
• Principle of imparting training to senses
• Principle of remedial teaching

According to the first principle, the long term goal of the teachers is to help their students do their tasks independently and efficiently with a focus on their holistic development. So, when a student makes an effort to do things on their own, his/her effort needs to be acknowledged and appreciated.

Effective teacher: An effective teacher is one who is more than just an expertise in the academic field. Effective teaching happens when a teacher is successful in keeping the students actively involved in learning by providing a variety of learning experiences.

Important Points

He/she must fulfill the following characteristics to produce the highest learning outcome. 

• An effective teacher should focus on how well the students have understood a particular topic and motivate them to learn.
• Learning should go beyond the book and should be focused on instilling curiosity and inquisitiveness.
• An effective classroom is one where the < />teacher is a facilitator and a role model and not merely an instructor. It is a place where there is a lively and healthy interaction between students and teachers.
• The teacher can provide real-life examples to inspire students to learn and to connect the concepts with daily life.

Therefore, an Effective teacher provides a variety of learning experiences.

• One of the characteristics of an effective teacher is that he/she allows students to ask questions with respect to the subject matter.
• Complete the whole syllabus doesn't mean it could be effective
• The effective teacher should be punctual. They wouldn't like to pay the maximum time of the day to discuss the previous matter only for a few students. They would only recall the keywords and may arrange some extra classes for the absent students.

Assertion and reasoning-type questions have one assertion (A) and one reason (R). We must first determine whether the statement is true. If the statement is true, we must next determine whether the reason correctly explains the assertion. 

First, we will consider the statement of Assertion:

All teaching implies learning because teaching and learning take place simultaneously, if the teaching process if going on that means the knowledge is being imparted and the learner will definitely gain the knowledge. learning depends on the quality of teaching to a great extent. Students pay attention to what they are taught.

Hence, The statement in assertion is true.

Now we will consider the statement of Reason:

​Learning to be useful must be derived from teaching is not the correct statement because of all learning outcomes from Personal characteristics, Academic characteristics, Social/emotional characteristics, and Cognitive characteristics. A learner can learn by himself/herself through the internet, online lessons, books, etc, so all learning is not the result of teaching only. So, it does not like that the learning must be derived from teaching only.

Hence, the statement provided in the reason is false.

Hence, we conclude that (A) is true, but (R) is false.

Teaching aptitude refers to have a deep interest in transferring knowledge and making students learn specific skills by giving primacy to their needs and experiences.

Key Points

Generally speaking, teaching implies:

• keen desire to teach.
• dedication towards teaching.
• possessing an ability to teach.
• interest in the teaching work orientation.
• specific ability and potentiality in teaching profession.
• intrinsic motivation towards the teaching-learning process.

Hence, it could be concluded that all options are true in the context of teaching aptitude.

Learners Characteristics:

• The concept of learner's characteristics is used in the science of learning and cognition to designate a target group of learners and define those aspects of their persona, the academic, social, or cognitive self that may influence how and what they learn.
• Learners' Characteristics are important for an instructional designer as they allow them to design and create tailored instruction for a target group. It is expected by taking into account of the characteristics of learners, more efficient, effective, and/or motivating instructional materials can be designed and developed.
• Learners' Characteristics can be: Personal, Academic, Social and emotional, and Cognitive.

Important Points

One of the important characteristics that is highly related to the effectiveness of teaching is

1. Prior experience of the learner:

• Prior experience of the learner is based on the learner's Academic characteristics. 
• To facilitate learning, one of the fundamental principles instructors employ is understanding students' prior knowledge.
• It is also important to assess prior knowledge and skills early since such information could be used to help foster student engagement and critical thinking in the course.

​Key Points

Other characteristics that affect the learning experience of the learner are:

1. Educational status of the parents of the learner:

• This is based on the learner's characteristics.
•  Parents play an important role in their children's learning.
• Aside from being actively involved in their children's education, parents also provide a home environment that can affect learning.

​2. Peer groups of the learner: 

• The term peer learning refers to situations where peers support each other in learning processes.
• Peer learning occurs among peers from similar social groupings, who are not professional teachers, helping each other to learn and in doing so, learning themselves.

​3.  Family size from which the learner comes:  

• Large numbered families whether rich or poor are difficult to maintain, they are characterized by a high number of children this does not create convenience for learning.
• They also create in the upbringing of children some identified problems such as feeding, poor clothing, insufficient funds, lack of proper attention for children, disciplinary problems, and malnutrition which impact negatively children's academic performance.​

Therefore, the prior experience of the learner is highly related to the effectiveness of teaching.

Teachers play the most crucial role in moulding the behaviour of learners. This shaping of behaviour is achieved through planning and dedication.

The Primary duties of a teacher include:

• to achieve all-round development of students by guiding the students in their learning process.
• to provide motivation for learning.
• to stimulate learners in order to realize their optimum potential.
• to plan the teaching and learning process to suit the needs of the students.
• to promote learning by providing a conducive environment.
• to encourage learners to become active learners.

​Although imparting knowledge and values into the students are important duties of a teacher. However all round development of students is the most important and vital duty of a teacher.

Thus, the primary duty of the teacher is to help in all round development of the students.

The indicators of quality of teaching:

• Quality teaching is focused on student achievement (including social outcomes) and facilitates high standards of student outcomes for heterogeneous groups of students.
• Pedagogical practices enable classes and another learning grouping to work as caring, inclusive, and cohesive learning communities.
• Effective links are created between school and other cultural contexts in which students are socialized, to facilitate learning.
• Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes.
• The opportunity to learn is effective and sufficient.
• Multiple task contexts support learning cycles.
• Curriculum goals, resources including ICT usage, task design, teaching, and school practices are effectively aligned.
• Pedagogy scaffolds and provides appropriate feedback on students’ task engagement.
• Pedagogy promotes learning orientations, student self-regulation, metacognitive strategies, and thoughtful student discourse.
• Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-orientated assessment.

Hence, learning outcomes and student achievements are the main indicators of the quality of teaching.

• Knowledge and qualification of the teacher is an indicator of the educational background of the teacher, not a reflection of the quality of teaching.
• A student's family background is not that effective for quality education.
• The active students are always interested to participate in all classroom activities.