Assignment 01

Name
MUHAMMAD SHAN RAMZAN
Roll No
CE610220
Course
Elementary Education (8623)
Level B.ed(1.5 Years)
Semester: 2nd Autumn, 2021
Tutor Name Sir Mehboob Akhter
Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad
 Question No. #1
Discuss elementary education in Pakistan and compare it with
elementary education in India.
Answer
Elementary Education in Pakistan
Education in Pakistan is overseen by the Federal Ministry of Education and the

provincial governments whereas, the federal government mostly assists in

curriculum development, accreditation and in the financing of research and

development. Article 25-A of Constitution of Pakistan, obligates the state to

provide free and compulsory quality education to children of the age group 3 to

16 years. "The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children

of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by

law"

The education system in Pakistan is generally divided into six levels: Preschool

(for the age from 3 to 5 years); primary (grades one through five); middle

(grades six through eight); high (grades nine and ten, leading to the Secondary

School Certificate or SSC); intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to

a Higher Secondary (School) Certificate or HSC); and university programs

leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Considering the large number of seminars held by various institutions in

different capitals of the province as well as Islamabad. More than dozen

countries in our region in South and South East Asia as well as in the North and

West of Pakistan the countries have raised their literacy rate and quality of

education. Quaid-e-Azam's word of advice "character, courage, hard work and

perseverance are four pillars on which the whole super-structure of human life

can be built". Having said that it goes to the credit of the present coalition

government to initiate necessary guidelines at different levels of education. As

a case study Punjab leads in its allocation to higher education (Rs. 9,100,000

million), school education (Rs. 16,453,000 million), special education (Rs.

1,825,000 million) literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education (Rs. 1,250,000

million). A special awareness campaign for promotion of literacy and

establishment of Adult Literacy Centers and Non Formal Basic Education

Schools in jails, factories and industries.

It is mandated in the Constitution of Pakistan to provide free and compulsory

education to all children between the ages of 5-16 years and enhance adult

literacy. With the 18th constitutional amendment the concurrent list which

comprised of 47 subjects was abolished and these subjects, including education,

were transferred to federating units as a move towards provincial autonomy.

The year 2015 was important in the context that it marked the deadline for the

participants of Dakar declaration (Education for All [EFA] commitment)

including Pakistan. Education related statistics coupled with Pakistan’s

progress regarding education targets set in Vision 2030 and Pakistan’s lagging
behind in achieving EFA targets and its Millennium Development

Goals(MDGs) for education call for an analysis of the education system of

Pakistan and to look into the issues and problems it is facing so that workable

solutions could be recommended.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Pakistan

Due to the problems in education system of Pakistan, the country is lagging

behind in achieving its MDGs of education. In the MDGs goals, goal number

two and three have purely been laid down for education sector.

Goal 2: The goal 2 of MDGs was to achieve Universal Primary Education

(UPE) by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to

complete a full course of primary schooling. By the year 2014 the enrolment

statistics showed an increase in the enrolment of students of the age of 3-16

year while dropout rate decreased. But the need for increasing enrolment of

students remains high to achieve MDGs target. Punjab is leading province wise

in net primary enrolment rate with 62% enrolment. The enrolment rate in Sindh

province is 52%, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) 54% and primary enrolment

rate in Balochistan is 45%.

Goal 3: The goal 3 of MDGs was Promoting Gender Equality and Women

Empowerment. It is aimed at eliminating gender disparity in primary and

secondary education by 2005 and in all levels of education not later than 2015.

There is a stark disparity between male and female literacy rates. The national
literacy rate of male was 71% while that of female was 48% in 2012-13.

Provinces reported the same gender disparity. Punjab literacy rate in male was

71% and for females it was 54%. In Sindh literacy rate in male was 72% and

female 47%, in KPK male 70% and females 35%, while in Balochistan male

62% and female 23%.

Education for All (EFA) Commitment

The EFA goals focus on early childhood care and education including

preschooling, universal primary education and secondary education to youth,

adult literacy with gender parity and quality of education as crosscutting

thematic and programme priorities. EFA Review Report October 2014 outlined

that despite repeated policy commitments, primary education in Pakistan is

lagging behind in achieving its target of universal primary education. Currently

the primary gross enrolment rate stands at 85.9%

While Pakistan requires increasing it up to 100% by 2015-16 to fulfill EFA

goals. Of the estimated total primary school going 21.4 million children of ages

5-9 years, 68.5% are enrolled in schools, of which 8.2 million or 56% are boys

and 6.5 million or 44% are girls. Economic Survey of Pakistan confirms that

during the year 2013-14 literacy remained much higher in urban areas than in

rural areas and higher among males.

 Importance of Elementary Education and Our Future Plan

Vision 2030 of Planning Commission of Pakistan looks for an academic

environment which promotes the thinking minds. The goal under Vision 2030

is one curriculum and one national examination system under state

responsibility. The strategies charted out to achieve the goal included:

(i) Increasing public expenditure on education and skills generation from

2.7% of GDP to 5% by 2010 and 7% by 2015.

(ii) Enhance the scale and quality of education in general and the scale and

quality of scientific/technical education in Pakistan in particular.

Elementary Education in India

Free and compulsory education to all children up to the age of fourteen years is

the Constitutional commitment in India. At the time of adoption of the

Constitution in 1950, the aim was to achieve the goal of Universalisation of

Elementary Education (UEE) within the next ten years i.e. by 1960.

Significant efforts have been made in the last fifty years to universalize

elementary education. Since 1950, impressive progress has been made in every

sphere of elementary education. In 1950-51, there were about 210 thousand

primary and 14 thousand upper primary schools. Their numbers are now

increased to 627 thousand and 190 thousand respectively as in the year 1998-

99; thus showing an average annual growth of 2.30 and 5.58 per cent per

annum. As many as 83 per cent of the total 1,061 thousand habitations have
access to primary schooling facilities within 1 km and 76 per cent habitations to

upper primary schooling facilities within a distance of 3 km. About 94 and 85

per cent of the total rural population is accessed to primary and upper primary

schools/sections.

Over a period of time, enrolment, both at the primary and upper levels of

education, has increased significantly. From a low of 19 million in 1950-51, it

has increased to about 111 million in 1998-99 at the primary and from 3 to 40

million at the upper primary level. At present, the enrolment ratio (gross) is 92

and 58 per cent respectively at the primary and upper primary level of

education. The percentage of girl's enrolment to the total enrolment at the

primary and upper primary level of education in 1998-99 was about 44 and 41

per cent. Despite improvement in retention rates, the dropout rate is still high at

40 and 57 per cent respectively at the primary and elementary level of

education. The Government of India initiated a number of programmes and

projects to attain the status of universal enrolment. Despite all these significant

achievements, the goal of universal elementary education remains elusive and

far a distant dream.

Literacy Scenario

A little less than 50 per cent of the total population in 1991 was illiterate but

since then the country has made considerable progress both in terms of total

(7+ population) and adult literacy (15+) rates. Since the latest census based on
complete enumeration was conducted in 1991, beyond that year literacy

statistics in India is not available. However, the same on household sample

basis is available from a semi government organization, namely the National

Sample Survey Organization. The literacy rate (7+ Population) increased from

52 per cent in 1991 to 62 per cent in 1998, thus showing an impressive increase

of 10 percentage points in a short period of about seven years. However, no

significant improvement is noticed in male/female differential in literacy rate,

which has declined from 25 to 23 per cent during the same period. It may

however be noted that during 1991 to 1998, the increase in female literacy (11

per cent) was higher than the increase in male literacy (9 per cent).

Elementary Education

As mentioned above that free and compulsory education to all children up to

the age fourteen is constitutional commitment. In 1993, the Supreme Court of

India declared education up to fourteen years of age to be a fundamental right

of children in India. The entire school education can be divided in to four parts,

namely, primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. The

National Policy of Education (1968 & 1986) and its revised formulation (1992)

envisaged a uniform pattern of school education (10+2 pattern, 12 years of

schooling) across the states. Since education is on the concurrent list, i.e. state

subject; the States & UTs are free to evolve their own pattern of school

education. Eight years of primary education is envisaged in two stages: a junior

 stage covering a period of five years and a senior stage covering a period of 3

years. It needs to be mentioned that 8 years of compulsory education was

envisaged as one integrated unit, although there were two stages in the cycle.

Hence elementary education became the compulsory component of education

in India (Varghese and Mehta, 1999 a). It is this compulsory stage that has been

incorporated as a directive principle in the constitution in 1950. The official age

(entry) to obtain admission in Grade I is 6 years but a few States & UTs have 5

years as entry-age. The Government has recently decided to re-introduce the

Constitutional Amendment Bill, which will make elementary education a

fundamental right.

Question No. #2

Describe the cognitive and intellectual development of a child at

different levels.

Answer

Cognitive and Intellectual Development

Children not only grow physically but also mentally during early childhood

Children’s abilities to observe, understand, produce language and interact with

the world flourish in an amazing way. From birth to 4 weeks, children glance at

mother’s face. From 1 to 3 months, they smile and their attention span

increases. Between 3 and 6 months, vocalize some sounds, and start saying
"mama" or "dada" between 6 and 9 months. From 9 to 12 months, understand

basic commands and imitates sounds. During second year children begin

sorting things by shape and color. They use several words by 18 months and

several phrases by 2 years and recognize the name for many people and objects.

Over the first three years of life, children develop a spoken vocabulary of

between 300 and 1,000 words and start using sentences of up to four words.

Between 3 and 4 years children understand what counting is and know some

numbers. They can name few colors and remember some parts of stories that

are read to them. Their vocabulary reaches about 1,500 words. By the age 5

years children speak about 2,000 words, and use hundreds of words in five-to

seven-word sentences, learn to use the past tense, and tell familiar stories using

pictures as cues. They start to learn and understand grammar rules. All English-

speaking children follow a regular sequence when using these rules. They start

developing a feeling for time, have more questions than ever; enjoy rhymes and

silly sounds. According to Piaget, children in the early childhood build on skills

learned and mastered before infancy stage. Their play becomes increasingly

imaginary filled with fantasies, involving more characters and scenarios, games

with sophisticated rule. In early childhood, children master the Symbolic

thought ability to picture, remember, understand, and replicate objects in their

minds. They can talk about or draw places they visited, create new scenes and

creatures from their imagination.

Conservation

It is a person's ability to understand that certain physical characteristics of

objects remain the same, even if their appearance has changed. Children’s

ability of conservation in early childhood is not accurate in case of volume or

number. For example a child will not understand that rearranging six keys to

make a different formation (e.g., spreading them out or moving them closer

together) change the number of items present.

Transformation

It is a person's ability to understand how certain physical characteristics change

while others remain the same in a logical, cause and effect sequence. In early

childhood children do not readily understand how things can change from one

form to another. For example first children are shown two 1-inch round balls of

clay. Then, they are presented with one 1-inch round ball of clay and one 1-

inch ball of clay squished flat. They do not understand that the flat ball had

been round before and was squished to make its new shape.

Egocentrism

It is the inability to see the world by someone else's point of view. In early

childhood children have egocentrism, they explain situations from their own

perspective and understanding. They have a hard time understanding why

banging on pots and pans or playing with a musical toy could increase their

mother's headache when they're having so much fun.

 Children in early childhood are unable to group items in larger sub-groups and

smaller sub-groups based on similarities and differences. They don't have the

ability to organize things into hierarchical categories.

I. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

There are four important stages of cognitive development:

(i) Sensor motor: (birth to about age

This is the first stage in Piaget's theory, where infants have the following

basic senses: vision, hearing, and motor skills. In this stage, knowledge

of the world is limited but is constantly developing due to the child's

experiences and interactions. According to Piaget, when an infant

reaches about 7–9 months of age they begin to develop object

permanence, this means the child now has the ability to understand that

objects keep existing even when they cannot be seen. An example of this

would be hiding the child’s favorite toy under a blanket, although the

child cannot physically see it they still know to look under the blanket.

(ii) Preoperational Stage:

It (begins about the time the child starts to talk about) During this stage

of development, young children begin analyzing their environment using

mental symbols. These symbols often include words and images and the

child will begin to apply these various symbols in their everyday lives as

they come across different objects, events, and situations. However,

 Piaget named it “preoperational” stage because children at this point are

not able to apply specific cognitive operations, such as mental math. In

addition to symbolism, children start to engage in pretend play in which

they pretend to be people they are not (teachers, superheroes). Some

deficiencies in this stage of development are that children who are about

3–4 years old often display what is called egocentrism. However, at

about 7 years, thought processes of children are no longer egocentric and

are more intuitive, meaning they now think about the way something

looks instead of rational thinking.

(iii) Concrete:

It’s about first grade to early adolescence. During this stage, children

between the age of 7 and 11 use appropriate logic to develop cognitive

operations and begin applying this new thinking to different events they

may encounter. Children in this stage incorporate inductive reasoning,

which involves drawing conclusions from other observations in order to

make a generalization. Unlike the preoperational stage, children can now

change and rearrange mental images and symbols to form a logical

thought; an example of this is reversibility in which the child now has

the ability to reverse an action just by doing the opposite.

(iv) Formal operations: It’s about early adolescence to mid/late

adolescence. The final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development defines a

 child as now having the ability to “think more rationally and

systematically about abstract concepts and hypothetical events”. Some

positive aspects during this time is that child or adolescent begins

forming their identity and begin understanding why people behave the

way they behave. However, there are also some negative aspects which

include the child or adolescent developing some egocentric thoughts

which include the imaginary audience and the personal fable. An

imaginary audience is when an adolescent feels that the world is just as

concerned and judgmental of anything the adolescent does as they are,

an adolescent may feel as is they are “on stage” and everyone is a

critique and they are the ones being critiqued. A personal fable is when

the adolescent feels that he or she is a unique person and everything they

do is unique. They feel as if they are the only ones that have ever

experienced what they are experiencing and that they are invincible and

nothing bad will happen to them it will only happen to others.

II. Information processing

The Information Processing model is a way of examining and

understanding the cognitive development of children. This model,

conceptualizes children's mental processes through the metaphor of a

computer processing, encoding, storing, and decoding data. By 2 to 5

years of age, nearly all children have developed the skills to focus
 attention for extended periods, recall old information, recognize

previously encountered information and recreate it in the present.

Memory:

most children cannot remember anything in their childhood prior to age 2 or 3.

A 4-year-old child can remember what he wore at Birthday party and tell his

friend about it when he returns to school. Between the ages of 2 and 5, long-

term memory begins to form. Part of long-term memory involves storing

information about the sequence of events during familiar situations as "scripts".

Scripts help children understand, interpret, and predict what will happen in

future scenarios. For example, children understand that a visit to the grocery

store involves a series of steps: mom enters the store, gets a grocery cart,

selects items from the shelves, waits in the check-out line, pays for the

groceries, and then loads them into the car.

Attention:

Between the ages of 5 and 7, children learn how to focus and use their

cognitive abilities for paying attention and memorizing lists of words or facts.

This skill is obviously crucial for children starting school who need to learn

new information, retain it and produce it for tests and other academic activities.

They also develop the capacity to process information. This capacity allows

them to make connections between old and new information. For example,

children can use their knowledge of the alphabet and letter sounds (phonics) to
 start sounding out and reading words. During this age, children's knowledge

base also continues to grow and become better organized. Language: children's

use of language also becomes more mature and complicated with age. Between

ages 4 -5-children's ability to understand language at a more complicated level

also develops. Children develop the ability to understand that a sentence may

have meaning beyond the exact words being spoken. They start to understand

the use of basic metaphors based on very concrete ideas, tailor their speech to

the social situation; for example, children will talk more maturely to adults than

to same-age peers.

III. Factors that Affect Children Cognitive Development

(1) Biological factors

(a) Sense organs:

Sense organs are important as they receive stimuli from the environment.

Their proper development helps in receiving correct stimuli. Defective

sense organs collect defective stimuli and as a result wrong concepts can

be formed and the cognitive development will not be perfect.

(b) Intelligence:

Children with low Intelligence Quotient are unable to receive stimuli

properly thus their cognitive development lags behind.

(c) Heredity: Cognitive development is also influenced by the

hereditary traits; one gets from his parents.

 (d) Maturation:

With the maturation child gets more interaction with his environment

that is necessary for a good cognitive development.

(2) Environment factors:

External influences that affect cognitive development and are mostly

controllable. They include:

a) Learning opportunities:

The opportunity a child gets to learn affects the cognitive development.

The more opportunities he gets the better is the cognition.

b) Economic status:

Economic state of the family also helps in the development of

cognition. Children from better economic status get more opportunities

and better training and it helps in cognitive development. These

children also have better nutritional diets as compared to those who

come from poor backgrounds.

c) Play:

Play is very important in developing cognition. Through play activities,

the child interacts with the environment, receives stimuli and responds

to them. child playing with toys learns many new experiences, becomes

imaginative and does drama.

 d) Various types of stimuli (TV, books, toys):

As child grows, he gets various stimuli from environment through his

senses. Stimuli such as books, television, mobile, computer and learning

toys are important in developing cognitive abilities.

e) Family and society:

Children who interact frequently with other people tend to become

brighter and gain confidence as compared to those who relate with less

people. It is important for children to interact with others as this helps

them to build their language and speaking skills. They are also likely to

be read to which makes them learn faster.

Question No. #3

Elaborate the theories of personality development by focusing

on the role of family in the personality development of a child.

Answer

Theories of personality development

i. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

It’s also known as a developmental stage theory was created by the Swiss

developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). It is a comprehensive

theory about the nature and development of human intelligence and deals with

the nature of knowledge and how humans acquire, construct, and use this
 knowledge. Piaget believed that, cognitive development was an organization

of mental processes that result from biological maturation and environmental

experience. Children develop an understanding of the world around them,

experience discrepancies between what they already know and what they

discover in their environment and then adjust their ideas accordingly. He

claimed that cognitive development is at the center of the human organism,

and language is contingent on knowledge and understanding acquired through

cognitive development. Piaget develop four important stages of cognitive

development: sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2), preoperational stage (age 2

to 7), concrete-operational stage (ages 7 to 12), and formal-operational stage

(ages 11 to 12, and thereafter). Child-centered classrooms and "open

education" are direct applications of Piaget's theory.

ii. Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg started as a developmental psychologist and then moved

to the field of moral education. Kohlberg believed that people progressed in

their moral reasoning through a series of six stages which could be more

generally classified into three levels.

The first level of moral thinking is that generally found at the elementary

school level. In the first stage of this level, people behave according to

socially acceptable norms because they are told to do so by some authority

figure (e.g., parent or teacher). This obedience is compelled by the threat or

 application of punishment. The second stage of this level is characterized by a

view that right behavior means acting in one's own best interests.

The second level of moral thinking is that generally found in society, hence

the name "conventional." The first stage of this level (stage 3) is characterized

by an attitude which seeks to do what will gain the approval of others. The

second stage is one oriented to abiding by the law and responding to the

obligations of duty.

The third level of moral thinking is one that Kohlberg felt is not reached by

the majority of adults. Its first stage is an understanding of social mutuality

and a genuine interest in the welfare of others. The last stage is based on

respect for universal principle and the demands of individual conscience.

While Kohlberg always believed in the existence of Stage 6 and had some

nominees for it, he could never get enough subjects to define it, much less

observe their longitudinal movement to it.

iii. Sigmund Freud's Psychosexual Development Theory

Sigmund Freud (1856), was an Austrian neurologist who developed the field

of psychoanalysis and many theories including those that focus on the

unconscious, the interpretation of dreams, Id, ego, and super ego, and what is

referred to as the psychosexual development theory. Psychosexual

development is often referred to as the Oedipus Complex. The Oedipus

complex teaches that the unconscious holds repressed thoughts. Freud taught
that these unconscious thinking patterns form during several stages of

development until they are eradicated by normal, healthy sexual development.

Freud’s theory of psychosexual development is divided into five stages. These

are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

a. Oral Stage:

The oral stage occurs in an infant’s life from birth to 18 months. During

this time, an infant is focused with receiving oral pleasure. This occurs

through breast or bottle feeding, or sucking on a pacifier. It is believed that

if an infant receives too much or too little oral stimulation, they may

develop a personality trait that is fixated on oral gratification, may focus on

activities that involve the mouth such as over eating, biting the fingernails,

smoking, or drinking. The theory states that these people may develop

personality traits such as becoming extremely gullible or naive, always

following others and never taking the lead, and becoming extremely

dependent upon others.

b. Anal Stage:

The anal stage is directly related to a child’s awareness of bowel control

and gaining pleasure through the act of eliminating or retaining feces.

Freud’s theory puts the anal stage between 18 months and three years. It is

believed that when a child becomes fixated on receiving pleasure through

controlling and eliminating feces, he/she can become anal retentive or anal
 expulsive. Anal retentive children are obsessed with control, perfection,

and cleanliness while anal expulsive children are extremely disorganized,

live in chaos, and are known for making messes.

c. Phallic Stage:

Freud believes the phallic stage or the Oedipus or Electra complexes occur

during three to six years of age. The belief is that male children harbor

unconscious, sexual attraction to their mothers and rivalry feelings with

their father while female children develop a sexual attraction to their father.

These feelings naturally resolve once the child begins to identify with their

same sex parent. If a child becomes fixated during this phase, the result

could be sexual deviance or a confused sexual identity.

d. Latency Stage:

The latency stage is named so because Freud believed there weren't many

overt forms of sexual gratification displayed. This stage is said to last from

the age of six until a child enters puberty. Most children throughout this age

form same sex friendships and play in a manner that is non-sexual.

Unconscious sexual desires and thoughts remain repressed.

e. Genital Stage:

The last stage of the psychosexual development theory begins at puberty

and develops with the physiology changes. Freud believed the unconscious

sexual desires that were repressed and made dormant during the latency
 stage, awaken due to puberty. The prior stages of development result in a

focus on the genitals as a source for pleasure and teens develop and explore

attractions to the opposite sex.

Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Every person has his own unique identity composed of the different

personality traits. These personality traits can be positive or negative,

innate or acquired, and vary from person to person based on the degree of

environmental influence. Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial

Development emphasizes the sociocultural determinants of development

and presents them as eight stages of psychosocial conflicts that all

individuals must overcome or resolve successfully in order to adjust well to

the environment. According to Erikson’s theory, an individual encounters a

certain crisis that contributes to his/her psychosocial growth at each of the

eight stages of psychosocial development. Whenever an individual

experiences such crisis, he/she is left with no choice but to face it and think

of ways to resolve it. Failure to overcome such crisis may lead to

significant impact on his/her psychosocial development.

Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

Stage One – Trust versus Mistrust:

Infants must learn how to trust others, particularly those who care for their

basic needs. A newborn is like a helpless being and therefore, might view
the outside world as threatening. Depending on how he is treated by people

around him, the sense of threat can be replaced by trust. When this

happens, the infant gains a sense of security and will learn to trust people

around him. The first and most important person to teach an infant about

trust is usually the parents. Parents take good care of their children, attend

to their needs, provide them with food, shelter, and make them feel

comfortable and secure.

Stage Two – Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt:

At this stage, children should be taught the basic ways of taking care of

themselves, including changing their clothes and feeding themselves.

Stage Three – Initiative versus Guilt:

At this stage, children like to explore and do things on their own. They can

learn new concepts introduced in school and are expected to practice these

lessons in real life. They know that they can accomplish these tasks on their

own, but if they fail to do so and end up asking for assistance from others,

they may feel a sense of guilt.

Stage Four – Industry versus Inferiority:

As children grow, they mature and their level of self-awareness increases.

At this stage, children become more competitive. They want to do things

that other children of the same age can do. When they make the effort to
perform a task and succeed, they develop self-confidence. However, if they

fail, they tend to feel that they are inferior to others.

Stage Five – Identity versus Role Confusion:

During adolescence, an individual is expected to develop his or her sexual

identity. Some adolescents may feel confused and are unsure whether an

activity is age-appropriate for them. The individual may also experience

identity crisis as a result of the transition from childhood to adulthood or by

expectations from themselves and from people around them, e.g. their

parents.

Stage Six – Intimacy versus Isolation:

People in their 30s become worried about finding the right partner and fear

that if they fail to do so, they may have to spend the rest of their lives

alone. Young adults are most vulnerable to feel intimacy and loneliness

because they interact with a lot of people in this phase of their lives. It’s not

always a success story for every young adult to find someone with whom

they can share a lifelong commitment. Some may choose to spend the rest

of their lives as singles.

Stage Seven – Generativity versus Stagnation:

Adults who are in their 40s and 50s tend to find meaning in their work.

They feel like at this point in their lives, they should be able to contribute

something meaningful to the society and leave a legacy. If they fail to

 achieve this, they feel like they have been an unproductive member of the

society.

Stage Eight – Ego Integrity versus Despair:

People who are in their 60s or older are typically retirees. It is important for

them to feel a sense of fulfillment knowing that they have done something

significant during their younger years. When they look back in their life,

they feel content, as they believe that they have lived their life to the fullest.

If they feel that they haven’t done much during their life, it’s likely that

they will experience a sense of despair.

Question No. #4

Discuss the questioning technique and its contribution in

developing higher mental processes.

Answer

Question Techniques

Asking the right question is at the heart of effective communications and

information exchange. By using the right questions in a particular situation,

you can improve a whole range of communications skills: for information and

learn more; you can build stronger relationships, manage people more

effectively and help others to learn too.

Why are questions asked?

Questioning is a natural behaviour and it starts from a very early age when we

are children and continues till the end. We ask questions, simply because we

need answers. Questions are asked for various reasons in various situations

when one is searching for solutions, answers, information etc. They are basic

tools that help humans grow and develop. Questions can be asked to gain

knowledge, to clarify doubts, to know the reality or truth behind an incident,

out of curiosity, to make complicated issues simpler, to resolve issues, to start

a conversation, to share ideas, to make a plan, etc. Children persistently ask a

lot of questions all the time, and they learn and increase their knowledge that

way.

There is an old English Proverb, “He that nothing questions, nothing learns”.

There are many types of questions that can be used for questioning

techniques. A few basic ones that are important are listed below.

 Open questions

 Closed questions

 Funnel questions

 Probing questions

 Leading questions

 Rhetorical questions
 One should know all the different types of questions, when to use which type

of questions and how to combine the different techniques to arrive at the best

decision or result.

1. Open questions

Open questions ask for elaborate / explanatory answers and they begin with

what, why, how, describe, explain, where, which, when etc. It can be

questions asking someone to explain what happened at a situation or place,

asking why it happened, asking for details of an incident, history of some

happenings, explanation about their circumstances, explanation of needs,

thoughts about something, ideas and feedback. Open questions help with a

two way conversation and builds up an interest in the conversation. Some

examples are

 What happened at the conference today?

 Could you please describe your needs and current

circumstances?

 What do you think about this conclusion / discussion?

2. Closed question

Closed Questions have very short answers like “yes” or “no” or answers with

a word or two. They are usually asked to test if someone has understood

certain policies, procedures, rules, regulations, explanations, discussions,

lectures etc. Closed questions are also asked for agreements or disagreements,
 asking for how they feel, to be specific, for affirmation, etc. It is best not to

ask closed questions when a conversation is going on smoothly as it can bring

an end to the conversation and you might get into the risk of losing required

information. Some of the words used in closed questions are, are, do, did,

could, should etc. Some examples of closed questions are

 Will I get a response by tomorrow?

 Do we agree on this decision?

3. Funnel questions

Just imagine the shape of a funnel while using these type of questions. A

funnel has a wide mouth and gradually narrows at the bottom. Similarly, you

start with a lot of general questions on a situation or incident and then narrow

it down to one point to arrive at a conclusion. This type of questioning

technique is used by investigators, researchers and detectives. In cases where

investigations are involved, these types of questions can be used to gather

information and then to narrow down to arrive at a decision. You can use a lot

of closed questions at the start and then widen on to asking open questions

thereby making the people feel comfortable answering your questions. An

example can be,

 When was the call made?

 Do you know the name of the person whom you spoke to?

 What sort of behaviour did they exhibit?

4. Probing questions or Trigger questions

Probing questions are used to gather more details and information. These are

asked to clarify doubts or misunderstandings. These questions will help you

pull out information from people who are hiding information or avoiding from

telling you something. Some examples are

 What exactly is the current situation?

 Who exactly is requiring these details?

5. Leading questions or Reflective questions

Leading questions are used to lead the person whom you are talking to. This

leads the speaker to give you answers, while they know that you are giving

them a choice. One has to be careful not to be manipulative while using

leading questions. Some examples are

 What would you prefer, A or B, as they both have similar features?

6. Rhetorical questions

Rhetorical questions are asked to keep people and audience engaged. It also

helps people think, be creative and come up with ideas. Some examples are

 Isn’t this a fantastic offer?

 Isn’t this work perfect?

 Question No. #5

Discuss the techniques of questioning for the development of

higher mental process from teachers' as well as pupils' point of

view.

Answer

Questioning techniques

Asking and answering questions is a key ingredient in the learning process and

in effective teaching. Using a variety of questions in the classroom can serve

many different purposes they can be used to:

 Diagnose students’ level of understanding

 Help students retain material but putting into words otherwise unarticulated

thoughts

 Involve and engage students in their learning process, especially critical

thinking and reflection

 Test students’ knowledge

 Dispel misconceptions

 Summarize and review key points and highlighting main themes, ideas and

skills

 Stimulate creativity

 Modifying students’ perception of the subject

  Encourage students to become self-directed learners

Encourage students’ responses to your questions

If students are interested and engaged in the course content, they should be

asking a question. As TA’s and CI’s, we should welcome and encourage

questions from our students.

Hence, it is important to follow certain basic rules around student questions:

 Take questions seriously

Treat every inquiry as a genuine attempt at intellectual curiosity, probing and

exploration

 Be positive and encouraging

Promote the idea that every student question is useful, important and

appreciated.

 Draw all class members into the conversation

Whenever you field a question, repeat it to the entire class and answer to the

entire class

 Avoid embarrassing students who have asking problematic questions

Avoid making the questioner feel foolish especially when a question reveals the

individual student’s lack of awareness or knowledge

 Create an atmosphere of inquiry by continuously eliciting questions

If you get a question during a break, before or after class, or during your office

hours, raise it with the whole class

 Be a good listener

Good questioning technique is as much about listening as it is about

How can you motivate students to ask questions?

You should encourage your students to create their own questions about course

content.

Ask students to:

 Suggest and submit quiz, mid-term or exam questions

 Get student to quiz each other on the tutorial/lesson/lecture content

 Get students to write down one or two remaining questions at the end of the

tutorial.

Avoid the “are there any questions?”

Turn these reflective moments into opportunities for students to demonstrate

their understanding as a check of their learning:

 “now, i am sure you have some questions?”

 “that was complicated. What did i leave out?”

How should you respond to students’ questions?

Responding to student questions about content also requires some basic rules:

 Reinforce good questions and answers

Reinforce participation on a continuous basis and in a variety of direct and

indirect ways by praising students for asking or answering a question

 Answer as pointedly and briefly as possible

 Be straightforward in your answer and avoid providing all information that you

know about the topic

 Answer questions immediately

Always provide a response to avoid discouraging students; however, you

can ask other students to respond or postpone the question (if it is too divergent

or complex) until after class

 Relate questions to the course content, even if they are tangential

Remind students of how a seemingly unrelated question does pertain to course

content as every question if a learning opportunity

 Ask for comments or answers from other students

You can redirect a question from one student to the entire class

 Avoid implicit discouragement

Especially if a question pertains to a topic already covered or diverges towards

a tangential topic

 Be aware of your teaching presence

Be mindful of your tone of voice and nonverbal cues (e.g., facial expressions,

nodding, gestures, etc.)

 If absolutely necessary, tactfully correct wrong answers

Correct the answer, not the student: “i don’t believe that answer is correct”

instead of “you are wrong”

 Look beyond the answer, to the thought process

Even if incorrect, unpack the student’s answer to identify correct and incorrect

steps to dispel misconceptions (adapted from boyle and rothstein, 2008; davis,

1993).

How can you manage student responses to your questions?

You can vary your response to a student’s answer in a variety of ways:

 Restate:

Paraphrase or restate what the student sad to reinforce the key points, ideas or

concepts

 Ask for clarification:

“could you be more specific about”

 Invite the student to elaborate:

“we would like to hear more about”

 Expand the student’s contribution:

“that’s absolutely correct, and follow up on what you said”

Integrating other subjects into physical education classes

Integration strategies form

This form allows teachers to provide you with information about what they are

teaching so you can integrate it into your lessons. You can give this form to

teachers on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis, or based on their planning

schedule. For example, some teachers meet each week to plan, so you would
leave the form for them to fill out in their planning meetings and return to you

in time for you to use when you plan.

The alphabet workout

Now that you have used the strategies form to learn what your fellow teachers

are teaching, you can find small ways to fit that subject into your lessons. For

example, i use music and visual aids, such as the alphabet workout to assist

primary elementary students in learning sounds. This program teaches letter

and word sounds through various motor movements. It also incorporates

visuals and comes with a workbook. So, it uses different modalities to meet

different learners' needs. I use this as a warm-up to a lesson or as a transition

between activities.

Math tag

In this example, i know, based on my strategies, that the teachers are teaching

addition to second graders. To incorporate addition into my class, i would use a

chasing and fleeing math-focused tag game during a warm-up or other part of a

lesson. In math tag, students pair off and each pair shakes one hand three times.

On the third shake, they put out as many fingers on that hand as they want.

Both partners add the total number of fingers together. Whoever shouts out the

total first flees as the other partner chases.

Other ideas
 Some other ideas for integrating subject areas into your physical education

class are listed below. Get creative!

 Play games from different countries and highlight important information about

the country (social studies).

 Create a map of the school and have students do a scavenger hunt for different

plant life (science).

 Have students do an obstacle course based on a story they have to read

(reading).

 Work with the music teacher in your school to put on a rhythm and dance show

(music).

Health education in the curriculum

While health education can be taught as a separate subject it may also be

integrated into other subjects such as science, technology, physical education,

home economics, and social studies.

The advantages of offering health education as a separate subject may be

that:

 Pupils are conscious of addressing health knowledge, skills and attitudes in

designated health education lessons

 Health education is allotted its own space in the time-table

The advantages of integrating health education across the curriculum

include:
 Making the curriculum contemporary, meaningful and relevant to the pupil

 Providing action-oriented foci to the unit.

References

 Waqar, S. (2000), Allied material Elementary Education, Islamabad, Allama

Iqbal Open university press

 Blume,L.B.& Zembar,M.J.(2010). Peer Relations in Middle Childhood.

Middle childhood to middle adolescence: Development from Ages 8 to 18,
Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall

 Oswalt, A., (2010). Attention, Memory and Meta-Cognition. Child

Development Theory: Middle Childhood. mental help.net

 Piaget, J. (1983). Piaget's theory. In P. Mussen (ed). Handbook of Child

Psychology. 4th edition.Vol. 1. New York: Wiley

 Oswalt, A. (2010). Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. Child

development theory: middle childhood. Mental help.net