Development:

Development is the process of quantitative and qualitative growth of the child and the emergence and
differentiation of capabilities over time. It is the function of maturity as well as interaction with the environment.

Difference between Growth and Development

The terms growth and development are often used interchangeably. Actually they are conceptually different.
Neither growth nor development takes place all by itself.

Growth refers to quantitative changes in size which include physical changes in height, weight, size, internal organs,
etc. As an individual develops, old features like baby fat, hair and teeth, etc., disappear and new features like facial
hair etc.. are acquired. When maturity comes, the second set of teeth, primary and secondary sex characteristics,
etc., appear. Similar changes occur in all aspects of the personality.

Development, by contrast, refers to qualitative changes taking place simultaneously with quantitative changes of
growth. It may be defined as a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes. The term progressive signifies that
changes are directional, that they lead forward rather than backward. Orderly and coherent suggest that there is a
definite relationship between the changes taking place and those that precede or will follow them. Development
represents changes in an organism from its origin to its death, but more particularly the progressive changes which
take place from origin to maturity.

All children progress in a definite order through these stages and they all follow similar basic patterns. These stages
along with the corresponding ages of the child have been identified by developmental psychologists as follows.

Stage Time frame

prenatal before birth
infancy Birth to 1 year
early childhood 1-3 years
preschool 3-6 years
school childhood 6-12 years
adolescence 12-20 years
young adulthood 20-30 years
adulthood 30-50 years
mature adult 50-65 years
aging adult 65+

1. Prenatal Period (before birth)

Life begins at the time of conception. When the child is in the mother’s womb the particular period spent there is
known as prenatal period. All important external and internal feelings start to develop at this stage.

2. Infancy (Birth to 3 years)

From birth up to the third year of life, the stage is known as infancy. Babies grow very rapidly in size during their
first three years. The acquisition of motor skills like holding things, crawling, walking proceeds from simple to
complex.

3. Pre-school childhood (3-6 years)

The growth in height is not as rapid during this stage as it is in infancy. Children improve eye, hand and small muscle
coordination. For example they can draw a circle, pour fluids into a bowl, button and unbutton clothes, and
language development is rapid.
4. School childhood (6-12 years - Primary school years)

School children between the age of 6 to 12 years look much taller and thinner. Children exhibit rapid gains in
strength and swiftness. They achieve new motor skills and their competence becomes more pronounced in all
areas of development.

5. Adolescence (12-20 years)

It is the span of year between childhood and adulthood which begins at puberty. This is the period of rapid
physiological growth. There are a number of psychological changes which also take place. Children jump rope,
bicycle, ride horses, dance and indulge in all possible games. Cognitively they are more agile and social relationships
become important. But the hallmark of this stage is the search for identity. A number of psychological changes also
take place. Given sex-role expectations, girls attach greater importance to good interpersonal relationships and the
family while boys emphasize the importance of their own social prestige and career.

6. Adulthood (20-65+ years)

For better understanding, adulthood can be divided into three stages. These are:

(a) Young adulthood (20-50 years)

(b) Mature adulthood or the Middle years (50-65 years)

(c) Aging adulthood (65+ years)

Strength and energy characterize this time of life from the middle twenties when most bodily functions are fully
developed, until about the age of 50. Thereafter there is gradual decline in energy level.

Aspects or Areas of Development

 Physical development
 Emotional development
 3.Cognitive (mental) development
 4.Language Development
 5.Moral Development

Relation to learning

According to psychologist's view-point, the organism, from the moment of birth rather from the time of conception,
is surrounded by some kind of environment. The organism does not simply live in the environment but is also acted
upon by it. In turn the organism also acts upon the environment. All such action-reaction behaviors involves changes
and modifications in the organism. This kind of change or modification is termed 'learning'. These changes can be
intentional deliberate and controlled, or may take place without intention.

The Principles of Growth and Development

(i) Development follows a pattern or a sequence:

Development tends to proceed from the head downward. This is called the cephalocaudal principle. According to
this principle, the child first gains control of the head, then the arms, then the legs. Infants gain control of head and
face movements within the first two months after birth. In the next few months, they are able to lift themselves up
using their arms. By 6 to 12 months of age, infants start to gain leg control and may be able to crawl, stand, or walk.
Development also proceeds from the center of the body outward according to the proximodistal principle.
Accordingly, the spinal cord develops before other parts of the body. The child’s arms develop before the hands, and
the hands and feet develop before the fingers and toes. Fingers and toes are the last to develop.

(ii) Development proceeds from general to specific responses:

It moves from a generalized to localized behavior. The newborn infant moves its whole body at one time instead of
moving only one part of it. It makes random kicking with its legs before it can coordinate the leg muscles well
enough to crawl or to walk.

(iii) Development is a continuous process:

Development does not occur in spurts. Growth continues from the moments of conception until the individual
reaches maturity. It takes place at slow regular pace rather than by ‘leaps and bounds’. Although development is a
continuous process, yet the tempo of growth is not even, during infancy and early years growth moves swiftly and
later it slacken.

(iv) Different aspects of growth develop at different rates

Neither all parts of the body grow at the same rate nor do all aspects of mental growth proceed equally. They reach
maturity at different times. Development also depends on maturation. Maturation refers to the sequence of
biological changes in children. These orderly changes give children new abilities. Much of the maturation depends on
changes in the brain and the nervous system. These changes assist children to improve their thinking abilities and
motor skills. A rich learning environment helps children develop to their potential.

Children must mature to a certain point before they can gain some skills. For instance, the brain of a four-month-old
has not matured enough to allow the child to use words. A four-month-old will babble and coo. However, by two
years of age, with the help of others, the child will be able to say and understand many words. This is an example of
how cognitive development occurs from simple tasks to more tasks that are complex. Likewise, physical skills
develop from general to specific movements. For example, think about the way an infant waves its arms and legs. In
a young infant, these movements are random. In several months, the infant will likely be able to grab a block with his
or her whole hand. In a little more time, the same infant will grasp a block with the thumb and forefinger.

(v) Most traits are correlated in development:

Generally, it is seen that the child whose intellectual development is above average is so in health size, sociability
and special aptitudes.

(vi) Growth is complex:

All of its aspects are closely interrelated. The child’s mental development is intimately related to his physical growth
and its needs.

(vii) Growth is a product of the interaction of the organism and environment:

Among the environmental factors one can mention nutrition, climate the conditions in the home, the type of social
organization in which individual moves and lives.

(viii) There are wide individual differences in growth:

Individual differences in growth are caused by differences in heredity and environment.

(ix) Growth is both quantitative and qualitative:

These two aspects are inseparable. The child not only grows in ‘size’; he grows up or matures in structure and
function too.

(x) Development is predictable:

It is possible for us to predict at an early age the range within which the mature development of the child is likely to
fall. However, mental development cannot be predicted with the same degree of accuracy.

Heredity & Environment

Really speaking, a human being's personality is a product of his/her genetic endowment and cultural environment.

As Cole and Bruce described, "from the moment of conception it grows 'whole', having within itself possibilities of
developing into a dynamic, active, walking, talking, thinking, feeling human being, provided that the environment
furnishes the raw materials and the appropriate conditions of stimulation."

Guilford charted the magnitude of similarity of pairs of children with respects of intelligence (IQ). Similarity in
heredity varied from the same child (tested twice), to identical twins to only chance similarity in a pair of unrelated
children.

Genetics, or the science of heredity. is a discipline contributing specific details of the impact of heredity on living
beings. Baller and Charles have compiles some general statements about the inheritance of character that are
relevant to behaviour of personality. Basically, we inherit "a tendency toward a certain structure" and "a tendency to
function in certain ways". Specially these include the following:

 A tendency to achieve a certain body-weight.

 A tendency towards a general body-type (i.e. skeletal structure, proportion of fat and muscle-tissue, and the
length of limbs).
 Sex
 Appearance, i.e., skin, hair texture and colour, eye shape and colour, nose shape, ear shape, head shape.
 Internal structure, for example the size of the heart and lungs in proportion to the body, determining the
capacity for prolonged physical effort.
 Tendency to function in certain ways includes the following behaviours :
 Natural response i.e. functioning of the nervous system, intelligence, predisposition to react slow or quickly.
 Sensory efficiency i.e. keenness of vision, range of hearing, sensitivity of touch and smell,
 Operation of the "vegetative system" i.e., heart and circulatory system, digestive system, reproductory
system, etc.
 Functioning of the endocrine system, is., glandular secretions, e.g., the thyroids control the metabolic rate,
the pituitary controlling growth, gonads controlling the sex-drive and sex characteristics and the adrenals
controlling emotional "stir-ups".
 Rate of physical growth
 Predisposition to certain characteristics.

Environmental Factors:

Technically, environmental factors start exerting their influence through the uterine environment during the
prenatal stage. The dietary habits, the health of the mother, etc., may cause prenatal "insult" or damage to the
developing organism. Some disabilities arc inflicted upon the child by uterine environmental factors.
During the first month or so, varying cultural patterns can be seen to shape the physical appearance of the child. For
example, tough-shaping by a strong message of the infant's body in the northern states of India and tender-shaping
of the nose of the girl-child by strong- pressing in the southern states of India.

Let us discuss some of the environmental factors to see how they affect the growing personality of an individual.

 Rearing patterns: Interactions between the infant and mother for satisfaction of biological needs play a
significant role in personality development.
o Care and affection develop a sense of security.
o Over-indulgence or under-indulgence of the mother in breast-feeding would determine the "oral"
personality
o Severity in toilet-training is the "anal" personality.
o Regularity in feeding practices would develop in the child "basic trust" in the world,
o Irregularity would yield "mistrust".
o Toilet-mining severity may cause the child to grow into a doubting and shameful person, training "at
ease" develops autonomy.
 Parent-child interaction: Once the child grows free of the needs of the mother, parent-child interactions
assume social dimensions. Through the interactions, both the individual psyche and the social psyche are
communicated to the child and the child develops in him/her "individuous" (individual self and "socius"
(social self).

Socialization processes:

Socialization is the process by which children and adults learn from others. We begin learning from others during the
early days of life; and most people continue their social learning all through life. Socialization occurs throughout our
life, but some of the most important socialization occurs in childhood. So let's talk about the most influential agents
of socialization. These are the people or groups responsible for our socialization during childhood - including family,
school, peers, and mass media.

Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

Piaget : constructs and critical perspectives

Cognitive development deals with studying how human beings think, reason and form concepts. In other words, it
deals with the development of the mind. According to a leading psychologist, Piaget, the mind like the body also has
structures.

 Schema: The basic unit or structure of mind is called ‘schema’. A schema is an abstract representation of the
original elements in an object. For example the infant’s schema for a face is likely to emphasize an oval
frame containing two horizontally placed circular shapes (the eyes). It is likely that a schema is not an exact
copy of any particular object or event. This complex concept involves both mental organization (a child’s
conceptualization of a specific situation), and observable behaviour. A schema is known by the behaviour it
involves, e.g., the schema of sucking implies that a baby recognizes the schema of hunger and therefore
sucks. Here hunger is the schema and the effort to get food or sucking is the behaviour which is observable

 Schemata: Schemata (plural of schema) are intellectual structures that organize events as they are perceived
by the organism into groups according to common characteristics. For example, in the schema of face the
child perceives common characteristics that are organized in a particular way in all human faces. They are
repeatable psychological events in the sense that a child will repeatedly classify stimuli in a consistent
manner.

Cognitive development is influenced throughout by two general principles:

  Organization: Organization involves the integration of all processes into one overall system. Initially an
infant’s schema of looking and of grasping is quite different, resulting in faulty hand-eye coordination.
Eventually the baby organizes these schemata in order to hold and look at the object at the same time.

 Adaptation: Adaptation is a twofold process through which children create new structures to deal effectively
with their surroundings. It involves both assimilation and accommodation, which are the essence of
intelligent behaviour.

o Assimilation: Assimilation is the taking in of a new object, experience or concept into an existing set
of schemata. When children use them to respond to a new stimulus, they are assimilating. In this,
the child interprets the meaning of an object in relation to an existing schema. For example, a child
of 8 or 9 months who sees a ball will probably try to put it in his mouth. In Piagetian terms, the child
is assimilating the ball into his sucking schema.
o Accommodation: In the process of accommodation, the child changes his schema so that his
response is better tailored to the object. The process by which children change their actions to
manage new objects and situations is called accommodation. The example of accomodation is
imitation of others. In the process of imitation child suppresses his/her available schema and strives
to establish new schema.
o Equilibrium: Assimilation and accommodation are necessary for cognitive growth and development
and constantly work together to produce changes in a child’s conceptualization of the world and
reactions to it. The state of balance between assimilation and accommodation is called equilibrium.

Stages of Mental Development:

According to Piaget, cognitive development progresses through four major stages:

(i) Sensory motor (birth to 2 years): Sensory motor stage is characterized by reflex actions of the infants. Children are
using their physical or motor skills and their senses to explore their world and develop their cognitive
understandings.

(ii) Preoperational (2 to 7 years): Two stages (a) Preoperational (2-4) and (b) Intuitive (4-7)

In this stage children are less reliant upon senses and physical exploration and, according to Piaget, are 'illogical
thinkers'. During this stage, for example, children can be shown that two balls of dough are exactly the same size,
and they will agree that the balls are the same size, but when one is flattened, they will usually tell you that one of
them is now bigger. This inability to conserve is a feature of the preoperational stage.
(iii) Concrete operations (7 to 12 years): In this stage, which aligns with middle childhood, children are beginning to
be able to demonstrate much more logical thinking, although they need concrete materials to help them reach the
correct conclusions. Thus in this stage you will see children working on mathematical problems but using blocks,
counters or even their fingers to help them work out the answer. Children of this age are able to differentiate
themselves from the environment, learn about the object permanence, and do goal-directed behaviours. They can
arrange things or objects in a sequence.

(iv) Formal operations (12+years)

This final stage encompasses the rest of our lives. Piaget believed that once we reached the age of 12 we were
capable of much more abstract thinking and able to solve problems in our 'heads'. We can deal with much more
complex issues. During this period, children are able to do abstract reasoning and are able to think like adults.

Piaget's views on Moral Development

Stage 1- Heteronomous Morality (4 – 10 years old)

 From 4 to 7 years of age, children display heteronomous morality. Children think of justice and rules as
unchangeable proper- ties of the world, remove from the control of people.
 From 7 to 10 years of age, children are in transition showing some features of the first stage of moral
reasoning and some features of the second stage, autonomous morality.
 Because young children are heteronomous moralist, they judge the rightness or goodness of behaviour
by considering its consequences, not the intentions of the actor.

Stage 2 - Autonomous Morality (10 years and above)

 From about 10 years of age and older, children show autonomous morality. They became aware that rules
and laws are created by people, and in judging an action. They consider the actor’s intentions as well as the
consequences.
 The older children, moral autonomist, accept change in rules example accept change in new rules of
playing marbles suggested by Piaget, contrast with younger children, they resist change because they
believes that rules are unchangeable.
 So older children accept change in rules and recognize that rules are merely convenient conventions,
subjects to change.

Kohlberg's stages of Moral Development

  Pre-conventional level: This level of moral reasoning includes the rules set down by others and the children
follow them. Morality at this stage is determined by the consequences of an action rather than by the
inherent goodness or badness of an act. That is, they reason that an act is moral if the consequence of
obeying a rule results in their obtaining something positive. A child reasoning at this hedonistic stage may
argue that Heinz was right in stealing the drug if he left a note promising to do a favor for the druggist. At
the Pre-conventional level of moral reasoning, children simply obey authority figures to avoid being
punished. There are two stages of this level:
o Stage one - punishment and obedience orientation: At the first stage physical consequences of an
action determine whether it is good or bad.
o Stage two - instrumental relativist orientation: What's right satisfies one's own needs and
occasionally the needs of others. Elements of fairness and reciprocity are present, but they are
mostly interpreted in a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" fashion.

 Conventional level: At this level the individual adopts rules, and sometimes subordinates his own needs to
the needs of the group. The expectations of the family, the group, or The nation from adolescents are seen
to be valuable in their own right, regardless of immediate and obvious consequences.
o Stage three - good boy-good girl orientation: Good behavior is what pleases others and is approved
by them. One earns approval by being nice.
o Stage four - law and order orientation: Law and order orientation means performing one's own duty
properly, showing respect for authority, and maintaining the given social, order for its own sake.

 Post-conventional level: People define their own values in terms of ethical principles they have chosen to
follow.
o Stage five - social contract orientation: What's right is defined in terms of both the general individual
rights and in terms of the standards that have been agreed upon by the whole society. In contrast to
the stage four, laws are not frozen; they can be changed for the good of society.
o Stage six - universal ethical principle orientation: What's right is defined by the decision of the
conscience according to self-chosen ethical principles. These principles are abstract and ethical (such
as the golden rule), not specific moral prescriptions.

Lev Vygotsky’s Zone Of Proximal Development

Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory relates to both cognitive and social development. While this Russian theorist died
in 1934, his work only found a broader audience in the 1990s. Vygotsky developed his theories around the same
time as Jean Piaget yet he emphasised the importance of relationships and interactions between children and more
knowledgeable peers and adults.

Scaffolding:

He believed that children’s cognitive understanding was ‘scaffolded’ by parents, teachers or peers (Berk, 1996).
Unlike Piaget, Vygotsky did not see the child as a solitary discoverer of knowledge, but as learning within social
interactions that involve communicating. Vygotsky therefore also emphasized the role of language in the
development of thinking processes. Like Piaget, he saw children as active partners in their own learning, and
increasingly so as their ability to interact with others develops. He therefore emphasised the importance of language
development, learning and teaching to the child’s cognitive development.

It was Vygotsky’s view that thinking in concepts was not possible without verbal thinking. While thought and
language initially develop independently, they are merged once language is developed to create verbal thought.
Speech and thought change over time and become more internalised. Vygotsky saw the adult as vital to the process
of ‘scaffolding’ the child’s behavior. When you scaffold a building, you support it structurally while internal
 developments occur. It is a common sight on building sites. We scaffold children’s development almost without
thinking.

Vygotsky also saw the child’s ability to think logically as developing in stages. He outlined four different stages of
conceptual development, as in Table below.

Stage Characteristics
• Preschool stage of development
• Beginnings of conceptual thought
1. Thinking in unordered heaps • Children use trial and error
• Children use problem-solving techniques
• Three sub-phases

2.Thinking in complex stage • Children begin to make connections between objects, but not in a consistent manner
• Five sub-phases

3.Thinking in concepts stage • Children are able to think in more abstract

• concepts and make associations Cannot see two associations simultaneously

4. Thinking in true concepts stage • Mature thinking

• Children can manipulate a number of abstract concepts

While Piaget felt there was no use in presenting materials and problems to children beyond their developmental
capacity, Vygotsky saw an important role for adults in extending children’s learning beyond areas in which they are
independently capable. Vygotsky used the term Zone of Proximal Development to describe the extension of skills a
child is capable of with adult help.

Child Centered and Progressive Education

As the public increasingly views children as persons with rights, educators are implementing more child-centered
approaches. Our discussion of the rights of children fits in nicely with the topic of child-centered Education.

 All children have a right to an education that helps them grow and develop to their fullest; this basic promise
is at the heart of our understanding of child-centered education. Therefore, daily interactions with children
should be based on the fundamental question, Am I teaching and supporting all children in their growth and
development across all domains – social, emotional, physical, linguistic, and intellectual? Such teaching is at
the heart of developmentally appropriate practice.
 Every child is a unique and special individual. Consequently, we have to teach individual children and be
respectful of and account for their individual uniqueness of age, gender, culture, temperament, and learning
style.
 Children are active participants in their own education and development. This means that they should be
mentally involved and physically active in learning what they need to know and do.
 Children’s Ideas, preferences, learning styles, and interests are considered in the planning for and
implementation of instructional practices.
 Child-centered education has been an important foundation of early childhood education since the time of
Froebel. As a professional, you will want to make your teaching and practice child centered. In addition, you
will want to advocate for the inherent right of every child to a child-centered education.
 A reemphasis on child- centered education is occurring as society in general is becoming more interested in
the whole child and efforts to address all of children’s needs, not just their academic needs. As a result,
there is much more concern for encouraging children to be healthy and lead healthy lifestyles. Providing
children with medical immunizations and seeing that all children are fully immunized by age two have
received a lot of attention, and programs to help children be free of drugs are common in early childhood
 and primary programs. Concern for the welfare of children in all areas of their growth and development is
evident and attests to the public’s growing awareness of their basic rights.
 All great educators have believed in the basic goodness of children; the teacher is to provide the
environment for this goodness to manifest itself. A central theme of Luther, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel,
Montessori, and Dewey is that we must do our work as educators well, and we must really care about those
whom we have been called to serve. This indeed is the essence of child-centered education.

“Meaningful learning” means that we link what is being learned (the topic or content) and how it is taught to the
everyday lives of children and their families. As we all know, teaching is a complex activity. We must consider many
things when preparing for meaningful learning. Above all, no one can make children. Children will learn when they
are motivated to learn. They will learn when given opportunities to learn effectively and when they feel that the
skills they have will lead to success. They will learn when they receive positive feedback from friends, teachers, and
parents who compliment them on how well they are learning. How can we prepare for meaningful learning? Here
are some questions to ask yourself in preparing your lessons

 Motivation. Is the topic meaningful and relevant to the children? Are they interested in what they are
expected to learn?
 Opportunities. Are the opportunities suited to the development level of the children? For instance, is the
topic too hard or too easy for many of the children? Are the activities appropriate for both girls and boys?
Are they appropriate for children with diverse backgrounds and abilities?
 Skills. Do the children have the skills to achieve the expected result?
 Feedback. Is the type of assessment and feedback given to the children designed to increase motivation to
continue learning?

Many schools are working to become “child-friendly,” where children have the right to learn to their fullest potential
within a safe and welcoming environment. The aim is to improve every child’s participation and learning in school,
rather than concentrating on the subject matter and examinations. Being “child-friendly” is very important, but it is
not complete.

Children come to school to learn, but as teachers, we are always learning, too. We learn new things about the world
to teach our students. We learn to teach more effectively –and joyfully – so that all students learn how to read or do
mathematics, and we learn new things from our students as well.

A “learning-friendly” environment is “child-friendly” and “teacher-friendly.” It stresses on the importance of

students and teachers learning together as a learning community. It places children at the centre of learning and
encourages their active participation in learning. It also fulfils our needs and interests as teachers, so that we
become capable of, giving children the best education possible.

It is the child who has to learn. The teacher only helps him to learn. Therefore, what the child has to learn, the
teacher is only to help him in learning that. But, what child has to learn, should be judged according to the ability,
interest, capacity and previous experience of the child. Is he mature enough to understand the new material or do
the assigned task? Does he possess necessary skills and abilities for doing the present task?
According to NCF 2005 Major Shifts

Form To
 Teacher centric, stable designs  Learner centric, flexible process
 Teacher direction and decisions  Learner autonomy
 Teacher guidance and monitoring  Facilitates, supports and encourages learning
 Passive reception in learning  Active participation in learning
 Learning without the four walls of the classroom  Learning in the wider social context
 Knowledge as "given" and fixed  Knowledge as it evolves and is focus
 Disciplinary force  Multi-disciplinary, educational focus
 Linear Exposures  Multiple and divergent exposure
 Appraisal, short, few  Multifarious continuous

Is he mentally prepared for the present learning? These are some of the questions which should be kept in mind
while asking the child to learn something new or problem some assigned task. The learning material or experiences
should always be assigned according to the needs, interest and abilities of the child.

Theories of Intelligence

Charles Spearman - General Intelligence:

 British psychologist Charles Spearman (1863-1945) described a concept he referred to as general

intelligence, or the g factor. After using a technique known as factor analysis to examine a number of mental
aptitude tests, Spearman concluded that scores on these tests were remarkably similar. People who
performed well on one cognitive test tended to perform well on other tests, while those who scored badly
on one test tended to score badly on others. He concluded that intelligence is general cognitive ability that
could be measured and numerically expressed.

Louis L. Thurstone - Primary Mental Abilities

 Psychologist Louis L. Thurstone (1887-1955) offered a differing theory of intelligence. Instead of viewing
intelligence as a single, general ability, Thurstone's theory focused on seven different "primary mental
abilities." The abilities that he described were:
o Verbal comprehension
o Reasoning
o Perceptual speed
o Numerical ability
o Word fluency
o Associative memory
o Spatial visualization

Robert Sternberg - Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

 Psychologist Robert Sternberg defined intelligence as "mental activity directed toward purposive adaptation
to, selection and shaping of, real-world environments relevant to one’s life." While he agreed with Gardner
that intelligence is much broader than a single, general ability, he instead suggested some of Gardner's
intelligences are better viewed as individual talents.
 Sternberg proposed what he refers to as 'successful intelligence,' which is comprised of three different
factors:
o Analytical intelligence: This component refers to problem-solving abilities.
 o Creative intelligence: This aspect of intelligence involves the ability to deal with new situations using
past experiences and current skills.
o Practical intelligence: This element refers to the ability to adapt to a changing environment.

Howard Gardner - Multiple Intelligence Theory

This theory was propounded by Howard Gardner of Harvard University. Through his theory he challenged the notion
of general intelligence. According to him it is not possible to capture an individual‘s intellectual capacities in a single
measure of intelligence. Therefore he tried to give a broad base to the concept of intelligence and it‘s measurement
by providing a multiple frame. He asserted that human intelligence or cognitive competence can be better described
as a set of an individual‘s multiple abilities, talents and mental skills related to a multiple number of domains of
knowledge in a particular cultural setting. He concluded that there are seven independent types of intelligence that
grow and develop differently in different people depending upon their hereditary characteristics or environmental
experiences. According to Gardner independent intelligence means that each intelligence is a relatively autonomous
intellectual potential, which is capable of functioning independently of others. These different types are –

 Linguistic intelligence
 Logical-Mathematical intelligence
 Spatial intelligence --- ability to comprehend three-dimensional images and shapes. This is a primary function
of the right side of the brain and is used when solving puzzles, figuring out maps and taking part in any type
of construction or engineering project.
 Musical intelligence
 Bodily kinesthetic intelligence
 Intra-personal intelligence
 Inter personal intelligence

Measurement of Intelligence & Types of Intelligence Test

General (or abstract) Intelligence test: The general intelligence test was first designed by psychologists for use in
schools. These were intended to serve primarily as tools in determining a child’s ability to carry on schools work, to
use symbols and numbers quickly and accurately and to read with comprehension. It is for this reason that tests
designed to measure abstract abilities came to be known as general intelligence tests. Another purpose of designing
such tests was to measure the abilities that distinguish the bright child from the dull. Since this distinction is
significant for schools and vocational success and also for social adjustment, the intelligence test is an important tool
in psychology.

Types of Intelligence Test

 Individual Test: The individual intelligence test is administered to only one individual at a time. A trained
psychologist is expected to administer the test for a definite period of time and interpret the result. These
tests cover age group from 2 years to 18 years. These are (i0 The Binet simon tests, (ii) Revised tests by
Terman, (iii) Mental scholastic tests of Burt and (d) Weschler test.
 Group Test: The group intelligence tests are meant for assessing the intelligence of a large number of
individuals in one sitting. There are two kinds of group intelligence tests verbal and nonverabal.
 Verbal: The verbal group test requires individuals to read out certain problems and write out solutions of
these problems.
 Non-Verbal: The non-verbal group tests present similar problems as the verbal test but in a different way.
The problems are presented in the form of pictures, diagrams, puzzles and mazes. If does not require the
individual to read or write, but only to be able to make a mark with a pencil.
 Performance Test: Performance tests are designed to test problem solving ability using certain objects such
as pictures and blocks, instead of words. These tests are especially useful with young children, illiterates,
 persons with speech defects and persons who do not have proficiency in language. Some of the famous tests
are (i) Koh’s Block design test (ii) The cube construction tests and (iii) The Pass Along tests.

CONCEPT ON INTELLIGENCE

 Ability to Adjust: general mental adaptability to new problems and new situations of life
 Ability to Learn
 Ability to do abstract reasoning

NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE

 Intelligence is inherited
 Intelligence is influenced by environment factors
 Intelligence has no sex differences
 Intelligence has no racial or cultural differences

According to Thurstone intelligent behaviour can be recognized in three broad areas.

 Abstract Intelligence: Abstract intelligence is the ability to understand and manage ideas and symbols. Such
as words, numbers etc.
 Mechanical Intelligence: Mechanical intelligence is the ability to clean, understand and manage things and
mechanisms, such as a knife, a gun, a moving machine and automobile etc.
 Social Intelligence: social intelligence is the ability to understand and mange men and women, boys and girls,
to act wisely in human relations.

Functions of Intelligence:

 Intelligence directs one’s behavior towards a goal.

 It helps one to adjust to new situations.
 It helps an individual to adapt to physical and social environment.
 It helps to learn new things and to solve new problems.
 It directs the individual to think rationally and act purposefully.

Concept of Mental Age (M.A) and Intelligence Quotient (I.Q)

Mental Age: In categorizing children of different abilities Binet developed a scale of units he called mental age. A
Child’s intelligence was determined by the mental age level which he could attain on the test. A ten years old child
who was able to all the tests meant for ten years old children was said to be normal or average. If he could do the
test meant for a higher age level his mental age was said to be more than his chronological age and he was described
as a bright child. If he was unable to do the tests meant for his own age level, the child’s “mental age” was said to be
lower than his chronological age and he was described as slow or retarded. Mental age is a simple and useful
concept. You can easily interpret it, when deal with children differing in metal ability.

Chronological Age: (C. A.): Chronological age is nothing but the actual calendar age of the child. The real age of the
child in mental into consideration for test is called chronological age.

Intelligent Quotient ( I.Q.): The intelligent quotient represents the degree of brightness possessed by an individual. It
expresses intelligent as the ratio of the metal age of the chronological age. When the mental age is divided by the
chronological age and the quotient is multiplied by 100 the result is I. Q. So the formula of finding out I. Q is below.
I.Q. =

Or I.Q =

The fraction is multiplied by 100 in order to remove the decimal point and to give the I. Q. a value of 100 when
mental age is equal with chronological age. This if the M. A. is above the C. A.

I.Q. will be above 100. If the M. A. is less than the C. A. the resulting I. Q. will be less than 100. thus the scale has the
same meaning from one age to another. I. Q, may also be regarded as an index of brightness. The following table
shows the relationship between I.Q. and the degree of brightness given by Dr. Merrily based on the studies by
Terman Merely Revision.

What is Language?

Language Development: When the child is learning to walk he puts a lot of effort into it, seemingly ignoring verbal
communication. But improvement seems to come rapidly in language once walking has become a well-mastered
habit.

The Sequence of Language Development:

Birth to 6 The infant period - The child produces such sounds as grunts as grunts, cries, gasps, shrieks, chuckling
month and cooing (at 4 month)
The babbling Period - The child produces units of utterances called babbling that differ from one
6 month to
situation to another. These units begin to be acoustically similar to adult utterances because the child
6 months
slough off the irrelevant phonemes rather than acquiring new phonemes.
The jargon Perios - Stresses and intonation patterns in strings of utterance units clearly correspond to
9 months those of the adult. some imitation of general language- like patterns can be identifed. specific
morphermes cannot be distinguished easily by the listener.
The quiet period- The decrease in vocalization during this periiod of development is interesting.
9 months
Language habits continue to development between the previous stage and next state, a transition
to 1 years
occurs from the usse of jargon to use of words at the adult knows them.
The holophastic stage- The child single words to indicate whole phrases. He can use base structure but
transformational rules to produce the surface structure have not been acquired. The single words is the
start of the child's vocabulary. Pre conventional "words" are considered words by the parent because a
given sound pattern is used consistently in similar situations ( for example using"muk" for milk). Thes
1 years to 2
cocalization sound like words and may be considered words by the pridful parents.The child
years
understands much of what he is told. He demonstrates his comprehension by responding in a way that
is meaningful to the asult - he may obey a command or point to an object.
At the end of this period the child produces from 20 words( at bout 18 months) to 200 words words ( at
about 21 months)
The spurt in word development – Many conventional words appear in the child’s vocabulary, which
increases from 300 to 400 words at 24 to 27 months to 1000 words at 36 months. He produces two –
and three-word utterances, phrases, and sentences in which the pivot-open structure is well
2 years
established.
A given word can be used with a number of intonations: specifically, declarative (“doll,”) emphatics
(“doll!”), and interrogative (“doll?”).
 The sentence period – At 36 to 39 months, the child can use 1000 words; he uses sentences containing
grammatical features that anticipate the adult’s use of language rules. He uses functionally complete
3 years
sentences – that is, sentences that clearly designate an idea as in the sentences, “This one riding horse.”
– that are grammatically incomplete.
The child uses sentences of all types: non-understandable sentences, functionally complete but
3 to 5 years grammatically incomplete sentences, simple sentences, simple sentences with phrases, compound
sentences, complex sentences, and compound-complex sentences.
5 years to The individual’s language system shows more frequent use of sentences with complex structure,
maturity increase in the variety of types of sentences, and increases in the length of sentences.

Characteristics of Language Development

 Semanticity : The quality of language in which words are used as symbols for objects, events or ideas.
 Syntax : The rules in a language for placing words in proper order to form meaningful sentences.
 Productivity : The capacity to combine words into original sentences.
 Displacement : The quality of language that makes one communicate information about objects and events
in another time and place. Language makes possible the efficient transmission of large amounts of complex
knowledge from one person to another, and from one generation to another. Displacement permits parents
to warn children of their own mistakes. Displacement allows children to tell their parents what the) did in
school.

Functions of Language

 Instrumental : Language performs an instrumental function the way an individual satisfies the need by asking
for something (May I drink some water?).
 Regulatory : It performs a regulatory function controlling another's behaviour (e.g. Teacher asks the student,
"Stay quiet, please").
 Interactional : It performs an interactional function-used for maintaining interpersonal (eg. wishing a friend a
happy birthday).
 Personal : Language performs a personal function - where one talks about oneself (e.g. I am feeling very
elated today).
 Heuristic : It performs a heuristic function to find out about the world in general eg. Is there a drug to cure
AIDS?)
 Imaginative : It performs an imaginative function where one talks about one's imagination (e.g. write an
essay on the topic "you are on the clouds").
 Informational : It also performs an informational function - to seek and give varied types of information (e.g.
What is the current rate of population growth in our country. ?)

Problems of Language Development

 Lack of initial listening and speaking opportunities.

 Inability to express through the spoken or written medium.
 Blocks due to genetic impairment of emotional problems of an impoverished environment.
 Ambiguities in comprehension such as phonological, lexical or deep structural ambiguities, etc.
 Inadequate cognition of word meanings.
 Poor concept development.
 Over emphasis on writing prematurely.

Implications for Teachers

The effective teacher should be aware of the problems faced by students in the classroom. He should create a
homely environment in his class where students feel free to express and share their feelings, opinions and
viewpoints with their teacher. Such an environment will facilitate the acquisition of language competency.

 Language is learned and developed in a social context for functional purposes.

 For older children, one should provide ample scope to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
 One should create settings where language may be used for various purposes.
 One should be cognisant of multilingual interferences, identify them and provide remedies.
 One should encourage students creative efforts.
 One should de-emphasise excessive writing or rote repetition, provide a relaxed environment for free
expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings, provide structural and semi-structural setting to express verbal
and non-verbal ideas, organise debates, class discussions and displays, etc.
 One should help students develop early reading habits and enable them to do book reviews.

Role Of Language In Human Society

This central role of communication through natural language in human social life is made possible by the fact that all
human individuals are able to handle or operate the language (or languages) of their societies.

This is so obvious that we simply take it for granted. But it is useful to note that there is an important principle here.
Nearly everyone in any society is a competent and effective language user. This applies to all normal human beings.
Only that tiny proportion of the population of any country with major physiological handicaps (brain damage, mental
retardation. deafness and dumbness) remain unable to use language.

The learning of the mother tongue or first language (L1) is a slow and long drawn-out process. It is difficult to say
when a person has fully mastered his/her L1 and so has finished learning it. Further many people learn more than
one language. This is especially true of multilingual societies like ours; and with modern communication breaking
down national/linguistic boundaries, learning foreign languages is also becoming increasingly common.

These additional languages are learned slowly (even if there is a crash course) and like the L1, complete mastery is
never attained. Thus it is possible to say that for practical purposes, everyone is a language learner.

Theories of Language Acquisition

Receptive Language before Expressive Language: Children’s ability to understand language develops faster than their
ability to speak it. Receptive language is the ability to understand language, and expressive language is the ability to
use language to communicate. If a mother tells her fifteen-month-old child to put the toy back in the toy chest, he
may follow her instructions even though he can’t repeat them himself.

Environmental Influences on Language Acquisition: A major proponent of the idea that language depends largely on
environment was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner (see pages 145 and 276 for more information on Skinner). He believed
that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement.

According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events. They also learn
words and syntax by imitating others. Adults enable children to learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct
speech. Critics of this idea argue that a behaviorist explanation is inadequate. They maintain several arguments:

 Learning cannot account for the rapid rate at which children acquire language.
 There can be an infinite number of sentences in a language. All these sentences cannot be learned by
imitation.
  Children make errors, such as overregularizing verbs. For example, a child may say Billy hitted me, incorrectly
adding the usual past tense suffix -ed to hit. Errors like these can’t result from imitation, since adults
generally use correct verb forms.
 Children acquire language skills even though adults do not consistently correct their syntax.

Neural Networks

Some cognitive neuroscientists have created neural networks, or computer models, that can acquire some aspects of
language. These neural networks are not preprogrammed with any rules. Instead, they are exposed to many
examples of a language. Using these examples, the neural networks have been able to learn the language’s statistical
structure and accurately make the past tense forms of verbs. The developers of these networks speculate that
children may acquire language in a similar way, through exposure to multiple examples.

Biological Influences on Language Acquisition: The main proponent of the view that biological influences bring about
language development is the well-known linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky argues that human brains have a
language acquisition device (LAD), an innate mechanism or process that allows children to develop language skills.
According to this view, all children are born with a universal grammar, which makes them receptive to the common
features of all languages. Because of this hard-wired background in grammar, children easily pick up a language
when they are exposed to its particular grammar.

Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire language skills comes from the following observations:

 The stages of language development occur at about the same ages in most children, even though different
children experience very different environments.
 Children’s language development follows a similar pattern across cultures.
 Children generally acquire language skills quickly and effortlessly.
 Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language may make up their own language. These new
languages resemble each other in sentence structure, even when they are created in different cultures.

Concept of Thinking:

Thinking is a complex process which involves manipulation of information as we form concepts. It also engages in
problem solving, reasoning and making decisions. Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking
processes is part of cognitive psychology. Thinking is a pattern of behaviour in which we make use of internal
representations (symbols, signs etc.) of things and events for the solution of some specific, purposeful problem.

Definitions of Thinking:

 Ross: Thinking is a mental activity in its cognitive aspect.

 Kolesnik: Thinking is the reorganization of concepts.
 Woodworth: Thinking is mental exploration for finding out the solution of a problem.

Characteristics of Thinking:

 one of the most important aspects of ones cognitive behavior.

 It depends on both – perception and memory.
 Thinking is a mental process which starts with a problem and concludes with its solution.
 It involves trail and error; analysis and synthesis; foresight and hindsight.
 It is a symbolic behavior.
 It is a cognitive activity.
 It is always directed to achieve some purpose.
  It is different from day-dreaming and imagination.
 It is a problem-solving behavior.
 Thinking is a symbolic activity. (e.g.: engineers use mental symbols to design the plan for buildings)
 There is mental exploration instead of motor exploration.

Tools of Thinking:

 Percepts: A mental impression of something perceived by the senses, viewed as the basic component in the
formation of concepts is called percepts. Percepts are recognition and interpretation of sensory stimuli
based chiefly on memory. Thus, the percept is a perceived form of external stimuli. The percept also binds
sensations from all of the senses in a whole.
 Images / Objects: Often images are used as an instrument of thinking. These images may be images of
personal experiences of objects, persons or scenes actually seen, heard or felt. These mental pictures
symbolize actual objects, experiences and activities.
 Concepts: A concept is a ‘general idea’ that stands for a general class and represents the common
characteristic of all objects or events of this general class. The concept formation saves our efforts in
thinking. E.g. ‘Man is mortal’; you do not perceive a particular man but mankind in general i.e. including
women. Thus the generalized ‘man’ is a concept.
 Symbols & signs: These represent & stand for a substitute for actual subjects, experiences and activities. e.g.
Traffic lights, railway signals, school bells, songs, slogans etc stand for symbolic expression. Thus symbols and
signs stimulate & economize thinking. They tell us at once what to do or how to act.
 Language: It serves not only as a link for intercommunication but also acts as a tool for thinking. It consists of
words therefore uses symbols; sometimes we use gestures in our language. When one is listening, reading or
writing, one is stimulated to think. Language is a most effective & developed tool for the process of thinking.

Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice

Every individual is unique. This uniqueness of the individual is one of the most fundamental characteristics of life.
Even children in the same family differ from one another. At all periods of human history, attempts have been made
to observe and describe differences between individuals and among various groups of individuals. Educationlists,
politicians. planners. sociologists and administrators have felt a need for some way of organizing or systematizing
the many-faceted complexity of individual differences. Both philosophers and psychologists have attempted to
produce such system.

Gender Issues : The Concept

Variability among individuals is a universal phenomenon. This fact gives rise to a question about the characteristics in
terms of which these differences are found. Such differences have been measured in both physiological as well as
psychological terms. Differences in intelligence and the more narrowly defined intellectual processes such as
memory, judgement and problem solving have been demonstrated a number of times.

Nature of Gender Issues :

 Society perceives a female child as different from a male child. As such it assigns stereotyped roles to the
female child.
 It is seen that some teachers in the school, while teaching, give examples and use teaching strategies which
are biased against girl students. Such teachers opine that girls should have a different type of education
which may be helpful for them to develop as a good housewife and a mother.
Implications for Teachers

The researches have established that various individual differences are found between two sets of individuals i.e.
boys and girls. However, reformers and planners have attempted to bring girls at par with boys. In such a situation, it
becomes very difficult for a teacher to accommodate two view points in over to deal with the individual girl children
in the classroom. Indian girls tend to be timid and take a lot of time to open up and participate in the learning
process. To encourage them for participate learning and in performing various curricular and co-curricular activities
results in better self-image. For this a teacher may develop specific activities for girls which may bring them at par
with boys. This parity may be in terms of all the competencies supposed to be acquired by children studying in the
same educational setting.

Individual Differences:

Causes of Individual Differences:

 Heredity: Some heretical traits bring a change from one individual to other. An individual’s height, size,
shape and color of hair, shape of face, nose, hands and legs so to say the entire structure of the body is
determined by his heretical qualities. Intellectual differences are also to a great extent influenced by
hereditary factor.
 Environment: Environment brings individual differences in behaviour, activities, attitude, and style of life
characteristics. Personality etc. Environment does not refer only physical surroundings but also it refers the
different types of people, society, their culture, customs, traditions, social heritage, ideas and ideals.
 Race and Nationality: Race and Nationality is one cause of individual difference. Indians are very peace
loving, Chinese are cruel; Americans are very frank due to race and nationality.
 Sex: Due to sex variation one individual differs from other. Men are strong in mental power. On the other
hand women on the average show small superiority over men in memory, language and aesthetic sense.
Women excel the men in shouldering social responsibilities and have a better control over their emotions.
 Age: Age is another factor which is responsible in bringing individual differences. Learning ability and
adjustment capacity naturally grow with age. When one grows in age can acquire better control over our
emotions and better social responsibilities. When a child grows then this maturity and development goes
side by side.
 Education: Education is one major factor which brings individual differences. There is a wide gap in the
behaviors of educated and uneducated persons. All traits of human beings like social, emotional and
intellectual are controlled and modifies through proper education. This education brings a change in our
attitude, behaviour, appreciations, Personality. It is seen that uneducated persons are guided by their
instinct and emotions where as the educated persons are guided by their reasoning power.

Educational implications of Individual differences:

 Aims of education, curriculum, method of teaching should be linked with individual differences considering
the different abilities and traits individual.
  Curriculum should be designed as per the interest, abilities and needs of different students.
 The teacher has to adopt different types of methods of teaching considering individual difference related to
interest, need, etc.
 Some co-curricular activities such as Drama, music, literary activities (Essay & Debate Competition) should be
assigned to children according to their interest.
 Teacher uses certain specific teaching aids which will attract the children towards teaching considering their
interest and need.
 Various methods such as playing method, project method, Montessori method, story telling methods are to
be used considering/discovering how different children respond to a task or a problem.
 The division of pupils into classes should not be based only on the mental age or chronological age of
children but the physical, social and emotional maturity should be given due consideration.
 In case of vocational guidance the counselor is to plan the guidance technique keeping in view the needs and
requirements of the students.

Types & Characteristics of a Good Evaluation Process

Evaluation:

Evaluation, particularly educational evaluation, is a series of activities that are designed to measure the effectiveness
of the teaching-learning system as a whole. We’ are already familiar with the fact that the teaching-learning process
involves interaction of three major elements i.e., Objectives, learning experiences and learner appraisal. Evaluation
takes care of all the interactive aspects of three major elements i.e.., the whole teaching-learning system.

Assessment:

By assessment, we mean the processes and instruments that are designed to measure the learner’s achievement,
when learner are engaged in an instructional programme of one sort or another. It is concerned with ascertaining
the extent to which the objectives of the programme have been met. The term assessment/is often used
interchangeably with the terms evaluation and measurement. However, assessment has a narrower meaning than
evaluation but a broader meaning than measurement. In its derivation, the word assess means “to sit beside” or “to
assist the judge”. It, therefore, seems appropriate in evaluation studies to limit the term assessment to the process
of gathering the data and fashioning them into an interpretable form; judgement can then be made on the basis of
this assessment.

Evaluation,Assessment, Measurement, Types of Evaluation, Summative and Formative Evaluation, Continuous and
Comprehensive Evaluation, CDP Notes, CTET Exam Notes, Child Development & Pedagogy Study Material

Assessment as we define it, precedes the final decision-making stage in evaluation e.g., the decision to continue,
modify, or terminate an educational programme.

Measurement:

It is mainly concerned with collection or gathering of data e.g., students scores in an examination. It is an act or
process of measuring physical properties of objects such as length and mass. Similarly, in behavioural sciences, it is
concerned with measurement of psychological characteristics such as neuroticism, and attitudes towards various
phenomena.

Evaluation involves assessment and measurement it is a and more inclusive term than assessment and
measurement.

Hence evaluation process is quite comprehensive and it is very much desired for effective teaching and learning.
Types of Evaluation

Formative Evaluation

The goal of formative Evaluation is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by
instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. More specifically, formative
Evaluations:

 help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work
 help faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

Examples of formative Evaluations:

 draw a concept map in class to represent their understanding of a topic

 submit one or two sentences identifying the main point of a lecture
 turn in a research proposal for early feedback

Summative Evaluation

The goal of summative Evaluationt is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it
against some standard or benchmark.

Summative Evaluations are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of
summative Evaluations include:

 a midterm exam
 a final project
 a paper
 a senior recita

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation is an education system newly introduced by Central Board of Secondary
Education in India, for students of sixth to tenth grades. The main aim of CCE is to evaluate every aspect of the child
during their presence at the school. This is believed to help reduce the pressure on the child during/before
examinations as the student will have to sit for multiple tests throughout the year, of which no test or the syllabus
covered will be repeated at the end of the year, whatsoever. The CCE method is claimed to bring enormous changes
from the traditional chalk and talk method of teaching, provided it is implemented accurately.

Characteristics of a good evaluation process

 Validity: A valid evaluation is one which actually tests what is sets out to test i.e., one which actually
measures that behaviour described by the objective(s), under scrutiny. Obviously, no one would deliberately.
Construct an evaluation item to test irrelevant material but very often non-valid test items are in fact used
e.g., questions that are intended to test recall of factual material but which actually test the candidate’s
powers of reasoning, or questions which assume a level of pre-knowledge that the candidates do not
necessarily possess.
 Reliability: The reliability is a measure of the consistency with which the question, test or examination
produces the same result under different but comparable conditions. A reliable evaluation item gives
reproduciable scores with similar populations of students. It is therefore, independent of the characteristics
of individual evaluations. In order to maintain reliability, one evaluative question should test only one thing
 at a time and give the candidates no other option. The evaluation should also adequately reflect the
objectives of the teaching unit.
 Practicability: Evaluation procedure should be realistic, practical and efficient in terms of their cost, time
taken and case of application. It may be an ideal procedure of evaluation but may not be put into practice,
 Fairness: Evaluation must be fair to all students. This can be possible by accurate reflecting of range of
expected behaviours as desired by the course objectives. To keep fairness in evaluation, it is also desired
that students should know exactly how they are to be evaluated. This means that students should be
provided information about evaluation such as nature of the materials on which they are to be examined
(i.e., Context and Objectives), the form and structure of the examination, length of the examination and the
value (in terms of marks) of each component of the course.
 Usefulness: Evaluation should also be useful for students. Feedback from evaluation must be made available
to the students and weakness. By knowing their strength and weakness, Students can think of further
improvement. Evaluation should suggest all the needful requirements for their improvement.
 Interpretation of Results: Another factor which must be considered in the choice of a test is the ease of
interpretation of test results. A test score is not meaningful unless the teacher or counselor is able to decide
what significance or importance should be attached to it and to make some judgment concerning its
relationship to other kind of information about the student. Nearly all test publishers produce manuals
designed to aid the teacher in interpreting test results. But these manuals very greatly on quality and in the
thoroughness with which they do this importance job. From the point of view of the teacher, principal, or
counselor, the quality of the test manual should be just as important a factor in the choice of a test as the
quality of the test itself.

Achievement Test

Teachers teach and help the learners to learn. The learning that takes place is assessed or evaluated not only for the
learner's benefit but also for the teacher to evaluate his /her own work. At the end of a lesson or a group of lessons,
the teacher needs to get feedback on what the learner has achieved, as a result of the teacher's efforts and also,
indirectly to assess his/her own achievement as a teacher. This feedback comes with the help of a tool, generally an
achievement test. An achievement test is designed to evaluate a unit during the teaching-learning process.

Purpose Of Achievement Tests:

 To measure whether students possess the pre-requisite skills needed to succeed in any unit or whether the
students have achieved the objective of the planned instruction.
 To monitor students' learning and to provide ongoing feedback to both students and teachers during the
teaching-learning process.
 To identify the students' learning difficulties- whether persistent or recurring.
 To assign grades.

Types Of Questions

 Essay Type
 Short Answer Questions
 Objective Type Questions

Inclusive Education

Inclusive in education is an approach once thought only necessary for educating students with special educational
needs. Now it is crucial that all teachers ensure inclusive practice for all students in their classroom and the wider
school. Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled
students. Implementation of these practices varies. Schools most frequently use them for selected students with
mild to severe special needs.

This “disorder” often puts the victims into a very disadvantageous position, not merely because of the “disorder” but
due to lack of proper understanding by the others/all. Education for all, means, the system should bring all the
category of the children in the age group of 6-14 years into the school fold. No one can be denied. In this context,
efforts are being made to integrate children with the “disorders” into the school system and facilitate learning by
making curriculum adaptation.

This “facilitation” calls for a systematic planning with regard to children teachers, teaching learning material,
classroom management and material management, starting from classroom to state level. The training institute
(DIET) at the district level plays a prominent role in promoting elementary education in terms of quantity, quality
and equity.

 Type and levels of Disabilities and Identification

 Strategies and Role of Teachers In Inclusive Education
 Understanding Children With Special Needs: Gifted and Talented Children
 Understanding Children With Special Needs: Creative Children
 Slow Learners and Underachievers
 Socially and Culturally Disadvantaged Children

Children With Special Needs:

Children with special needs are often also referred to as ‘exceptional children’. These children may either be ‘special’
because of their innate characteristics or the environment in which they have grown.Children with exceptional
talents are called gifted and have their special needs. Similarly, children coming from materially deprived and socio-
culturally disadvantaged backgrounds have their own special needs.

Traditionally, children with special needs (except the gifted, who are ignored) are labeled as defective and kept away
from regular classrooms. ‘Labeling’ children under special categories, many people argue helps in identifying their
specific problems and arranging special programmes for them. On the other hand, the disadvantages of labeling,
many people believe, are overwhelming. Labeling often is an incomplete description of a human being, focusing on
the negative and lowering one’s self image. Second, incorrect labeling or over generalization may lead to incorrect
treatment.

Gifted and Talented Children

Understanding Children With Special Needs: Gifted and Talented Children & Creative Children, How to promote
creativity amongst children, CDP Notes, CTET Exam Notes, Child Development & Pedagogy Study Material

Gifted, talented, able, geniuses, bright are terms associated with a group of people who have extraordinary abilities
in one or more areas of performance. According to Purcell (1918) the terms gifted and talented refer to children and
youth who are identified as possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that show evidence of high performance
capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, specific academic or leadership ability or in performing and visual
arts. Ramos-Ford and Gardner (1991) defined intelligence or giftedness as “an ability or set of abilities that permit an
individual to solve problems or fashion products”. This perspective of giftedness is referred to the theory of multiple
intelligence. Intelligence manifests itself in linguistics, logical mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
interpersonal and intrapersonal behaviours.

Children with IQ of 140 and above are considered to be gifted. Gifted children often begin reading earlyand read
above their grade level. They have unusually large vocabulary and wide ranging interest. They display a thirst for
knowledge, excellent memory and the ability to transfer information from one topic to another.They are able to
learn rapidly and easily and retain what they learn. They usually ask a lot of questions and demonstrate mature
reading ability. They often enjoy the company of older children and show interest in humanity and the universe at a
very early age. Besides academic accomplishment, they are socially well adjusted and have superior physical ability
and moral attitudes in comparison to average children. Often, they excel in every subject.

Gifted children may be identified through screening. During this process school teachers, psychologistsand other
school personnel attempt to identify all potentially gifted children. Formal measures of identification include taking
intelligence tests and achievement tests. Often however, such tests have a restricted range of topics on which
questions are asked. Therefore they are not considered a full proof method of identifying gifted children.

Gifted children are above average in their abilities and therefore require special treatment at school to make full use
of their potential. Two ways of providing support are ‘acceleration’ and ‘enrichment’.Acceleration refers to allowing
children to take up courses of more than one year in the same year or skipping grades. This means, that a class VIII
child would either do courses of both classes VIII and IX in the same year or skip one year and take admission in class
X directly after VIII. Enrichment refers to providing a more enriched curriculum, with a wider range of educational
experiences. It is greater in depth or broader than the regular curriculum. This may involve providing mini courses or
special programmes including mentorship with an expert.

It is important to note that the number of gifted girls appears to decline with age. Girls during elementary years of
schooling have been reported to show higher achievement than boys, but by adolescence,their achievement levels
tend to decline. One of the reasons for this decline is the gender role socailisationthat girls receive where behaviours
associated with competition and independence are generally discouraged.Without independence, opportunities of
high levels of creativity, achievement and leadership considerably reduce. It is therefore important to pay adequate
attention to girls and encourage them to work towards realizing their potential.

Slow Learners

Slow learners are often called dull normals. These are students who have trouble mastering learning tasks and
keeping up with the classroom. As a result, many of these learners drop out of school. Their IQ levels usually
liebetween 70 and 85.

 Pathological-genetic reasons include problems like mongolism, cretinism etc.

 Pathological-environmental reasons include pre and/or post natal exposure to radiation, oxygen deficiency
at the time of birth etc.
 Subcultural-genetic reasons include being born to parents who were themselves slow learners.
 Subcultural-environmental reasons refer to belonging to poor socio-economic background and facing protein
deficiency.

Cognitive development among slow learners is between half and three fourth of normal children. In Piagetian terms,
most slow learners would stop at the concrete operational stage. Cognitive development would be slower and stop
earlier. Apart from cognitive development, all their other (physical, social and emotional) needs would be the same
as other children.

Teaching of Slow Learner

Diverse methods need to be used for teaching in the classroom. Stimuli through multiple sources –auditory and
visual- would help in increasing attention span and improving learning. In areas of interest, slow learners have been
seen to perform beyond their expected capabilities. Such areas of interest should be identified and learning
organized around these areas. Educational of slow learners should not focus on the same career goals as average
children. Instead, focus should be on helping them attain personal, social and professional adequacy so that they
learn to live independently in their lives. Curriculum should therefore be modified to suit their needs. Basic
understanding of all subjects presented in an integrated fashion to revolve around their areas of interest should be
provided.
Underachievers

Underachievers are children with IQ levels 85 and above but performing poorly in the classroom. IQ levels showthat
they are capable of average or above average levels of achievement. However, in the classroom, such levels are not
achieved, i.e. they are performing below their mental capabilities. At most times, such children are labeled as poor
performers and ignored. It is assumed that they are incapable of doing well in studies.

 Reasons for underachievement:

 Changing schools too often,
 not liking the teacher,
 general dislike for school,
 belonging to a group of underachievers,
 frequent illness resulting in absence from school
 disturbance at home

Developmental patterns in children’s thinking and learning

Most children tend to develop skills for thinking and learning in a predictable sequence (eg children start to tell
stories by looking at pictures in a book before they learn to recognise words). However, it is important to remember
that each child develops at a different rate and that individual differences are common. Differences may be due to
children’s inherited tendencies, the experiences and opportunities they are exposed to, or a combination of both. As
children learn to use language in increasingly complex ways it supports further learning and development. Language
helps to organise children’s thinking. It allows them to use basic logic and gradually develops their capacities for
thinking through situations, solving problems and developing their own ideas.

How and Why Children ‘Fail’ To Achieve Success In School Performance.

 Poor time management skills and procrastination.

 An inability to complete tasks.
 Fear of failure and lack of self confidence.
 Reliance on others.
 Lack of desire.
 Lack of parental involvement
 Lack of Organizational skill
 Lack of Motivation
 Low self esteem
 Poor Reading comprehension
 Hunger, thirst, lack of sleep and other physical reasons
 Other factors: peer pressure, lack of social, over protection of parents, high expectations of parents and
conversational skills, and absenteeism.

Social Learning Theory of Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura is noted as one of the exponents of theory of social learning and observational learning. Social
learning theory explains human behaviour from the point of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive,
behavioural and environmental influences. For social learning theory to take place, there are four factors which must
be present. These are observers (learners), teacher (model), learners’ attention and proximity or nearness. The
process of learning is influenced by the extent of identifications and imitations by the learners to the other three
factors (Bandura, 1978).
The newer version of social learning theory is called the social cognitive theory. The change is due to a greater
emphasis on cognitive processes in learning.

There are 4 processes involved in observational learning.

Process 1- Attention

Before students can imitate a model’s behavior, they must pay attention to what the model is doing or saying. For
example, seeing a teacher writing from the same perspective as the student see their own makes observational
learning easier.

Process 2- Retention

To produce a model’s action, students must be able to store the model’s action in their memory for future retrieval.
Students’ retention will be improved when a teacher gives vivid, logical, and clear demonstrations.

Process 3- Production

To attending and remembering, students must be physically capable of reproducing the model’s action. Here, the
students need a lot of practice, feedback, and coaching before they can reproduce the model’s action.

Process 4 - Motivation

The students must be motivated to demonstrate the model’s action. Reinforcement can be use to encourage
observational learning. For example, a teacher can use direct reinforcement such as saying “Good work!”
Alternatively, a teacher may want to use vicarious reinforcement. In this case, a student may simply see other
students being reinforced for a particular behavior and then he increases his own production of that behavior.

In social learning theory, reinforcement is not a prerequisite for a learning to occur, but this increases the chance
that what has been learnt will definitely be performed. This theory is therefore rested on the fact that an action or
behaviour can be performed if the model is pleasantly rewarded. It is also believed that there is probability that an
observer might drop a behaviour if he found out that the model has received a negative reinforcement for practicing
such a behaviour.

Classroom Implications of Social Learning Theory

 The teacher is a model for students in his/her classroom, and he/she has a profound effect on students’
attitudes, beliefs and behaviour (Crowl, Kaminsiky and Podell, 1997). In this case, the teacher should be a
good model.
 The teacher should always make sure that he/she does not condone any irrational behaviour from his/her
students. Any offending student should be appropriately dealt with, so as to serve as a deterrent to other
members of the classroom.
 The teacher should not forget to give complimentary remarks such as “well done”, excellent”, “good
boy/girl,” “keep it up”, as a way of encouraging other students to imitate a good behaviour.
  Teacher/parents should discourage their students/children from watching violent films or keeping friends of
doubtful characters.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is directed thinking focused towards dealing with a specific problem. This thinking has three
elements: the problem, the goal, and the steps to reach the goal. There are two methods which are used
prominently in problem solving. These are- “Means-end-analysis” and “Algorithms”. In the case of Means-end-
analysis a specific step-by-step procedure is followed for solving certain types of problems. In the case of ‘heuristics’
the individual is free to go for any kind of possible rules or ideas to reach the solution. It is also called rule of thumb.

Problem Solving and Mental Set:

A mental set is a tendency on the part of an individual to respond to a new problem in the same manner that he or
she has used earlier to solve a problem. Previous success with a particular rule produces a kind of mental
rigidity/fixedness/set, which hinders the process of generating new ideas to solve a new problem. A mental set
inhibits or affects the quality of our mental activities. However, in solving our real life problems we often rely on past
learning and experience with similar or related problems.

Steps for Solving Problems

 Defining the problem

 Working on the problem
 Coming to conclusion
 Carrying out the conclusion
 Learning.

Improving Problem Solving Skills in Childrens :

 Use blocks, Models, and other objects to teach mathematics, which taps into children’s fine motor skills and
their visual understanding;
 Invite children to talk about (or write about) ideas and process in mathematics, Which links their verbal
thinking to understanding mathematics concepts,
 Ask children to draw pictures for the stories that we read to them, which connects their visual thinking to
the words and events in the story; and
 Guide children in making maps of the area around school, which links their experience of movement in space
to visual and mathematical concepts. When children survey their community, identify problems within it,
and use their skills cooperatively to suggest solutions to these problems, they are learning how to apply
what they learn in school. A part from imparting good education, this process helps the community to
understand the work of the school, and they may be more motivated to support the work of teachers.
 For your classroom to be fully inclusive, you need to make sure that the curriculum is accessible to and
relevant for all children in terms of what you teach (content), how you teach it, how the children learn best
(process), and how it relates to the environment in which the children are living and learning.

LEARNING: CONCEPT, NATURE, CHARACTERISTICS, PROCESS

Meaning and Definitions of learning: Learning, in psychology, the process by which a relatively lasting change in
potential behaviour occurs because of practice or experience. Learning is also a process of acquiring modifications in
existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience, practice, or exercise.
Four attributes of learning...

 As Process: the first is that learning is permanent change in behaviour.

 It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of intoxicant.
 The learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the individual.
 Learning depends on practice and experience.

Nature of Learning:

 Learning is adaptation or adjustment: All persons continuously interact with their environment. We often
make adjustment and adapt to our social environment. Through a process of continuous learning, the
individual prepares himself for necessary adjustment or adaptation. That is why learning is also described as
a process of progressive adjustment to ever changing conditions, which one encounters.
 Learning is improvement: Learning is often considered as a process of improvement with practice or training.
We learn many things, which help us to improve our performance.
 Learning is organizing experience: Learning is not mere addition of knowledge. It is the reorganization of
experience.
 Learning brings behavioural changes: Whatever the direction of the changes may be, learning brings
progressive changes in the behaviour of an individual. That is why he is able to adjust to changing situations.
 Learning is active: Learning does not take place without a purpose and self-activity. In any teaching learning
process, the activity of the learner counts more than the activity of a teacher.
 Learning is goal directed: When the aim and purpose of learning is clear, an individual learns immediately. It
is the purpose or goal, which determines what, the learner sees in the learning situations and how he acts. If
there is no purpose or goal, learning can hardly be seen.
 Learning is universal and continuous: All living creatures learn. Every moment the individual engages himself
to learn more and more. Right from the birth of a child till the death, learning continues.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING

Yoakum & Simpson:

 Learning is growth,
 adjustment,
 organisation of experience,
 purposeful,
 both individual and social product of the environment.

W.R McLaw

 continuous modification of behaviour which continues throughout life

 Learning is pervasive. It reaches into all aspects of human life.
 Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually.
 Learning is often a change in the organisation of behaviour.
 Learning is development. Time is one of its dimensions.
 Learning is responsive to incentives. In most cases positive incentives such as rewards are most effective
than negative incentives such as punishments.
 Learning is always concerned with goals. These goals can be expressed in terms of observable behaviour.
 Interest & learning are positively related. The individual learns best those things, which he is interested in
learning. Most boys find learning to play football easier than learning to add fractions.
 Learning depends on maturation and motivation.

Cognition
  The term cognition is used in several loosely related ways to refer to a faculty for the human-like processing
of information, applying knowledge and changing preferences. Cognition or cognitive processes can be
natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives
and in different contexts, in anesthesia, neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science.
 The term "cognition" is also used in a wider sense to mean the act of knowing or knowledge, and may be
interpreted in a social or cultural sense to describe the emergent development of knowledge and concepts
within a group that culminate in both thought and action.

Emotion has three basic aspects.

 Cognitive aspect: It involves thoughts, beliefs and expectations that are involved when we experience
emotions. For example – your friend may find a novel rich in descriptions of people and places whereas you
may find it unrealistic.
 Physiological aspect: It involves physiological activation. When you experience emotions such as fear or
anger, you experience an increase in pulse rate, blood pressure and respiration. You may also perspire.
 Behavioural aspect: It includes various forms of emotional expressions. If you observe your father or mother
during anger and happiness you will notice that facial expressions, bodily postures and tone of voice vary
with anger, joy and other emotions.

Although the general ability to respond emotionally is present at birth, emotional development is due to maturation
and learning. Infants show emotional responses like crying, smiling etc. With the growth of imagination and
understanding a child is able to differentiate family members from strangers and the fear of strangers develops.
Children learn to express their emotions by imitating their parents, siblings and other family members.

Motivation and Learning: Motivation refers to the factors which move or activate the organism. Motivation can be
defined as the process of activating, maintaining and directing behaviour towards a particular goal. The process is
usually terminated once the desired goal is attained by the person.

Types of Motivation

 Intrinsic Motivation
 Extrinsic Motivation

Concepts of Motivation

 Needs and Motives

 Goals
 Incentives
 Instincts

Motivation has several effects on students’ learning and behavior.

 Motivation directs behavior toward particular goals.

 Motivation leads to increased effort and energy.
 Motivation increases initiation of and persistence in activities.
 Motivation affects cognitive processes.
 Motivation determines which consequences are reinforcing and punishing.
 Motivation often enhances performance.

Personal Factors Influencing Learning

 Sensation and Perception

 Fatigue and Boredom
  Age and Maturation
 Emotional Conditions
 Needs
 Interests
 Motivation
 Intelligence
 Aptitude
 Attitude

Environmental Factors Influencing Learning

 Surroundings : Natural, Social and Cultural

 Relationship with Teachers, Parents and Peers
 Media Influence on Learning