PPSC Subject Specialist Test Pedagogy & Teaching Methodology Syllabus

What are the four domains of child development?

Physical/motor, Cognitive (intellectual), Social, and Emotional development (often expanded to include moral and language development).

Name Piaget's four stages of cognitive development with their age ranges.

Sensorimotor (0–2 yrs), Preoperational (2–7 yrs), Concrete Operational (7–11 yrs), and Formal Operational (11/12+ yrs).

What cognitive ability defines Piaget's Concrete Operational stage?

The child can perform logical operations on concrete objects, masters conservation, reversibility, classification and seriation, but cannot yet reason abstractly.

What are 'assimilation' and 'accommodation' in Piaget's theory?

Assimilation is fitting new information into existing schemas; Accommodation is modifying existing schemas (or creating new ones) to fit new information. Both produce equilibration.

Who proposed the psychosocial theory of development and what is its key feature?

Erik Erikson; it describes eight stages across the lifespan, each marked by a psychosocial crisis (e.g., Trust vs. Mistrust, Identity vs. Role Confusion in adolescence) that must be resolved.

What is the basic principle of Classical Conditioning and who discovered it?

Ivan Pavlov. Learning occurs when a neutral stimulus, paired with an unconditioned stimulus, becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response (stimulus-response association).

State the law of effect from Thorndike's Connectionism theory.

Responses followed by satisfying consequences are strengthened (more likely to recur), while responses followed by discomfort are weakened. Thorndike also gave the Laws of Readiness and Exercise (trial-and-error learning).

What is Operant Conditioning and who developed it?

B.F. Skinner. Learning in which behaviour is controlled by its consequences through reinforcement (positive/negative, which increase behaviour) and punishment (which decreases behaviour).

Differentiate positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment.

Positive reinforcement adds a pleasant stimulus to increase behaviour; Negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus to increase behaviour; Punishment adds an unpleasant or removes a pleasant stimulus to decrease behaviour.

What is the core idea of Bandura's Social Learning Theory?

People learn by observing and imitating others (observational learning/modeling). Key processes are attention, retention, reproduction and motivation; demonstrated by the Bobo doll experiment.

How does Gestalt theory explain learning?

Learning occurs through insight—a sudden perception of relationships and reorganization of the whole problem field ('the whole is greater than the sum of its parts'), as shown by Köhler's experiments with apes.

Define 'individual differences' in education.

The variations and dissimilarities among learners in physical, mental, emotional, social and cognitive traits—such as intelligence, aptitude, interests, learning styles, and pace—that distinguish one individual from another.

Give the formula for Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

IQ = (Mental Age / Chronological Age) × 100. Devised by William Stern; mental age concept from Binet.

Who proposed the theory of Multiple Intelligences, and name several of its intelligences.

Howard Gardner. Intelligences include Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalistic (and existential).

What is Spearman's theory of intelligence?

The Two-Factor Theory: a general intelligence factor 'g' common to all mental tasks, plus specific factors 's' unique to particular tasks.

What did Charles Spearman and later Sternberg contribute differently? (Triarchic theory)

Spearman gave the two-factor (g and s) theory; Robert Sternberg gave the Triarchic Theory of intelligence comprising Analytical, Creative, and Practical intelligence.

Name two widely used standardized intelligence tests.

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Wechsler scales (WISC for children, WAIS for adults).

Define motivation in the context of learning.

Motivation is the internal/external process that arouses, directs, and sustains goal-directed behaviour; in learning it energizes and maintains a student's engagement toward achieving learning goals.

Differentiate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation arises from within—doing an activity for its own satisfaction, interest or curiosity; Extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards or pressures such as grades, praise, prizes or avoidance of punishment.

What is the hierarchy of needs proposed by Maslow, from lowest to highest?

Physiological → Safety → Love/Belonging → Esteem → Self-actualization. Lower needs must be reasonably satisfied before higher ones motivate behaviour.

What is classroom management, and name its two main dimensions.

Classroom management is the set of techniques teachers use to maintain a productive, orderly learning environment. Its two dimensions are preventive (proactive: rules, routines, engagement) and corrective (reactive: responding to misbehaviour).

What is the Lecture method and one key advantage and disadvantage?

A teacher-centered method of verbally presenting information to a large group. Advantage: economical and efficient for covering much content to many students. Disadvantage: largely one-way/passive, with little student participation or feedback.

Describe the Discussion method and its main benefit.

A learner-centered method in which the teacher and students exchange ideas and opinions on a topic. Benefit: develops critical thinking, communication, and active participation; encourages multiple viewpoints.

What is the Demonstration method?

A method in which the teacher (or a student) shows/performs a process, experiment or skill while explaining it, so learners observe how something is done before practicing it themselves ('show and tell' / learning by observation).

Compare Lecture, Discussion and Demonstration methods by learner activity.

Lecture is teacher-centered and passive for students; Discussion is student-centered and highly interactive; Demonstration is teacher-led but engages students through observation and often subsequent practice.

What is Inquiry-Based Learning?

A student-centered approach in which learning begins with questions, problems or scenarios; learners investigate, gather evidence and construct their own understanding, with the teacher acting as a facilitator/guide.

What is Activity-Based Learning and on which principle is it based?

A method where students learn by doing—through hands-on activities, experiments and tasks. It is based on 'learning by doing' (Dewey) and constructivist principles, promoting active engagement and retention.

Define Cooperative Learning and name its key elements.

A structured method where students work in small groups toward a shared goal. Key elements (Johnson & Johnson): positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, social skills, and group processing.

What is the difference between Cooperative and Collaborative learning?

Cooperative learning is more teacher-structured with assigned roles and tasks divided among members; Collaborative learning is more open and learner-directed, with the group jointly negotiating and constructing knowledge with less external structure.

Name two well-known cooperative learning techniques.

Jigsaw (each member becomes expert on one part and teaches the group) and Think-Pair-Share (students think individually, discuss in pairs, then share with the class). Others: STAD, Numbered Heads Together.

List the six levels of the original (1956) Bloom's Taxonomy of the cognitive domain in order.

Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation (lowest to highest).

List the six levels of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).

Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. The terms became verbs and 'Create' replaced 'Synthesis' as the highest level.

What is the key structural change from the original to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy?

Categories changed from nouns to verbs, the top two levels were reordered (Create became highest, above Evaluate), and a two-dimensional model adding a knowledge dimension was introduced.

Name the levels of Bloom's Affective Domain (Krathwohl).

Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organization, and Characterization by a value (internalizing values).

What are the components of a well-written behavioural learning objective (ABCD model)?

Audience (the learner), Behaviour (observable action/verb), Condition (circumstances of performance), and Degree (criterion/standard of acceptable performance).

Define curriculum.

The curriculum is the total planned learning experiences—content, objectives, methods and assessment—provided by an institution to achieve its educational goals, encompassing both what is taught and how it is taught.

What are the four basic components/elements of curriculum (Tyler's model)?

Objectives (aims/purposes), Content (subject matter/learning experiences selected), Method/Organization (instructional strategies and sequencing), and Evaluation (assessment of outcomes).

What four fundamental questions did Ralph Tyler pose for curriculum development?

1) What educational purposes/objectives should be sought? 2) What learning experiences attain them? 3) How can these experiences be organized? 4) How can we evaluate whether the purposes are achieved?

Differentiate between the 'hidden curriculum' and the 'formal curriculum'.

The formal (explicit) curriculum is the officially planned, documented content and objectives; the hidden curriculum is the unintended values, attitudes, norms and behaviours students learn implicitly from the school environment and culture.

Name the main types/models of curriculum design.

Subject-centered design (organized by disciplines), Learner-centered design (organized around students' needs/interests), and Problem-centered design (organized around real-life problems and social issues).

What is the difference between curriculum and syllabus?

Curriculum is the broad, overall set of learning experiences and objectives of a program; the syllabus is a narrower document listing the specific topics, content and schedule for a particular subject or course.

What is meant by 'maturation' versus 'learning' in development?

Maturation is the natural, biologically programmed unfolding of physical and behavioural traits independent of experience; Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour resulting from experience, practice or training.

According to Vygotsky, what is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

The gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable other; learning is most effective within this zone, often supported by 'scaffolding'.

What is the difference between formative and summative evaluation in education?

Formative evaluation is ongoing assessment during instruction to monitor and improve learning (assessment FOR learning); Summative evaluation occurs at the end to judge overall achievement and assign grades (assessment OF learning).