Model answers are given below.
Weightage may be given to related points too.
- What are the broad aims of education identified in NCF-2005? List any three.
(i) Independence of thought and action,
(ii) Sensitivity to others’ well-being and feelings,
(iii) Learning to respond to new situations in a flexible and creative manner,
(iv) Predisposition towards participation in democratic processes, and
(v) The ability to work towards and contribute to economic processes and social change.
- List any three guiding principles for curriculum development proposed by NCF-2005.
(i) Connecting knowledge to life outside the school;
(ii) Ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods;
(iii) Enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks;
(iv) Making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life;
(v) Nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country.
- What specific measures (with reference to examinations) are suggested by NCF-2005 to find a remedy for the growing problem of psychological pressure that children and their parents’ experience?
Specific measures include changing the typology of the question paper so that reasoning and creative abilities replace memorization as the basis of evaluation, and integration of examinations with classroom life by encouraging transparency and internal assessment
- Why does NCF-2005 say that “we need to give our children some taste of understanding”?
They would be able to learn and create their own versions of knowledge as they go out to meet the world of bits, images and transactions of life. Such a taste would make the present of our children wholesome, creative and enjoyable; they would not be traumatized by the excessive burden of information that is required merely for a short time before the examination
- In addition to languages, mathematics, science and social sciences, NCF-2005 draws attention to four other curricular areas. List these areas.
2. The arts and heritage crafts,
3. Health and physical education, and
- Why should we link learning with work from the primary stage upwards?
Work transforms knowledge into experience and generates important personal and social values, such as self-reliance, creativity and cooperation. It also inspires new forms of knowledge and creativity.
7. According to NCF-2005 what should be the goal of art education?
The goal of art education is to promote
- Aesthetic and personal awareness and
- The ability to express oneself in different forms.
- Appreciate the importance of India’s heritage crafts, both in terms of their economic and aesthetic values
8. NCF-2005 recommended inclusion of Peace education as an area of study in the curriculum for teacher education. Comment.
Peace as a precondition for national development and as a social temper is proposed as a comprehensive value framework that has immense relevance today in view of the growing tendency across the world towards intolerance and violence as a way of resolving conflicts. The potential of peace education for socializing children into a democratic and just culture can be actualized through appropriate activities and a judicious choice of topics in all subjects and at all stages.
9. NCF-2005 opens with a quotation from an essay by Rabindranath Tagore. Analyze this quotation in about 50 words.
The poet reminds us that a ‘creative spirit’ and ‘generous joy’ are keys in
childhood, both of which can be distorted by an unthinking adult world.
10. List any six position papers which form part of NCF-2005
(i) Teaching of Science
(ii) Teaching of English
(iii) Teaching of Mathematics
(iv) Teaching of social sciences
(v)Teaching of languages
(vi)Curriculum, syllabus and text books
Or any 6 of the remaining position papers.
11. What, according to NCF-2005, is ‘Child centered’ pedagogy?
Giving primacy to children’s experiences, their voices and their active participation.
12. What is learning from the perspective of Constructivism?
Learning is a process of construction of knowledge. Learners actively construct their own knowledge by connecting new ideas to existing ideas on the basis of materials / activities presented to them as experience.
13. What is the role of teacher in relation to the process of knowledge construction by children?
(i) Allowing children to ask questions.
(ii) Helping / guiding children to relate what they are learning in school to things happening outside.
(iii) Encouraging children to answer in their own words and from their own experiences.
(iv) Encouraging intelligent guessing as a valid pedagogic tool.
14. What steps should be taken to make classroom activities effective?
Establish class room culture for activities.
Establish rules that govern the use of space and use of materials.
Planning in advance.
15. What are the capabilities that children possess that form the broad basis for the development and understanding of values and skills?
Language, forming and relating shapes, capability for work and action.
16. What guidelines are given for the teaching of languages in schools by NCF-2005?
Language teaching needs to be multilingual not only in terms of the number of languages offered to children but also in terms of evolving strategies that would use the multilingual classroom as a resource.
Home language(s) of children should be the medium of learning in schools.
If a school does not have provisions for teaching in the child’s home language(s) at the higher levels, primary school education must still be covered through the home language(s).
The three-language formula needs to be implemented in its spirit, promoting multilingual communicative abilities for a multilingual country.
In the non-Hindi-speaking states, children learn Hindi. In the case of Hindi speaking states, children learn a language not spoken in their area. Sanskrit may also be studied as a Modern Indian Language (MIL) in addition to these languages.
17. What are the recommendations (by NCF-2005) with reference to language evaluation?
Language evaluation need not be tied to “achievement” with respect to particular syllabi, but must be reoriented to the measurement of language proficiency. Evaluation is to be made an enabling factor for learning rather than an impediment.
18. What life skills need to be developed in children for dealing with the demands and challenges of everyday life?
Development of life skills such as critical thinking skills, interpersonal communication skills, negotiation/ refusal skills, decision making/ problem-solving skills, coping and self-management skills are very critical for dealing with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
19. List out the suggestions given by NCF-2005 for encouraging reading.
The classroom needs to provide a print-rich environment, displaying signs,
charts, work-organizing notices, etc. that promote ‘iconic’ recognition of the written symbols, in addition to teaching letter-sound correspondences.
There is a need for imaginative input that is read by a competent reader with appropriate gestures, dramatization, etc.
Writing down experiences narrated by children, and then having them read the written account.
Reading of additional material: stories, poems, etc.
First-generation school goers must be given opportunities to construct their own texts and contribute self-selected texts to the classroom.
20. Enumerate some problems in school Mathematics education.
1. A majority of children have a sense of fear and failure regarding Mathematics. Hence, they give up early on, and drop out of serious mathematical learning.
2. The curriculum is disappointing not only to this non-participating majority, but also to the talented minority by offering them no challenges.
3. Problems, exercises and methods of evaluation are mechanical and repetitive, with too much emphasis on computation. Areas of Mathematics such as spatial thinking are not developed enough in the curriculum.
4. Teachers lack confidence, preparation and support.
21. What are ‘narrow’ and ‘higher’ aims of school mathematics?
The narrow aim of school mathematics is to develop ‘useful’ capabilities, particularly those relating to numeracy–numbers, number operations, measurements, decimals and percentages. The higher aim is to develop the child’s resources to think and reason mathematically, to pursue assumptions to their logical conclusion and to handle abstraction. It includes a way of doing things, and the ability and the attitude to formulate and solve problems.
22. What should be the vision for school Mathematics?
Children learn to enjoy mathematics rather than fear it.
• Children learn important mathematics: Mathematics is more than formulas and mechanical procedures.
• Children see mathematics as something to talk about, to communicate through, to discuss among them, to work together on.
• Children pose and solve meaningful problems.
Children use abstractions to perceive relation-ships, to see structures, to reason out things, to argue the truth or falsity of statements.
• Children understand the basic structure of Mathematics: Arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, the basic content areas of school Mathematics, all offer a methodology for abstraction, structuration and generalization.
• Teachers engage every child in class with the conviction that everyone can learn mathematics.
23. What are the challenges that we face in the implementation of IT / CS curricula in schools?
The paucity of technology resources for computer science. It is absurd to teach computer science (let alone computer usage) without access to computing resources.
Providing computer access and connectivity for all children is a tremendous technological and economic challenge.
we need to address this infrastructure challenge seriously and explore viable and innovative alternatives with regard to hardware, software and connectivity technologies appropriate for rural and urban Indian schools.
23. What are the recommendations of NCF-2005 regarding the physical environment of the school?
A place that is colourful, friendly, and peaceful, with lots of open space offering with small nooks and corners, animals, plants, flowers, trees, and toys. In order to attract and retain children, the school environment must have all these elements in and around them.
Classrooms can be brightened up by first ensuring adequate natural light inside and then made lively by displaying children’s work on the classroom walls as well as in different parts of the school.
Drawings, art and craftwork put up on the walls and shelves send out a powerful message to children and their parents that their work is appreciated. These must be displayed at locations and heights that are physically and visually comfortably accessible to children of various ages.
All schools must have playgrounds for outdoor learning activities
24. ‘Good science education is true to the child, true to life and true to science’. This simple observation led to some basic criteria of validity of a science curriculum:. Outline some of these.
1. Cognitive validity requires that the content, process, language and pedagogical practices of the curriculum are age appropriate, and within the cognitive reach of the child.
2. Content validity requires that the curriculum must convey significant and correct scientific information. Simplification of content, which is necessary for adapting the curriculum to the cognitive level of the learner, must not be so trivialized as to convey something basically flawed and/or meaningless.
3. Process validity requires that the curriculum should engage the learner in acquiring the methods and processes that lead to the generation and validation of scientific knowledge and nurture the natural curiosity and creativity of the child in science. Process validity is an important criterion since it helps the student in ‘learning to learn’ science.
4. Historical validity requires that the science curriculum be informed by a historical perspective, enabling the learner to appreciate how the concepts of science evolve over time. It also helps the learner to view science as a social enterprise and to understand how social factors influence the development of science.
5. Environmental validity requires that science be placed in the wider context of the learner’s environment, local and global, enabling him/her to appreciate the issues at the interface of science, technology and society, and equipping him/her with the requisite knowledge and skills to enter the world of work.
6. Ethical validity requires that the curriculum promote the values of honesty, objectivity,
cooperation, and freedom from fear and prejudice, and inculcate in the learner a concern for life and preservation of the environment.
24. What should be the objectives, content, pedagogy and assessment for different stages of the curriculum for teaching of science / evs ?
At the primary stage, the child should be engaged in joyfully exploring the world around and harmonizing with it. The objectives at this stage are to nurture the curiosity of the child about the world (natural environment, artifacts and people), to have the child engage in exploratory and hands-on activities for acquiring the basic cognitive and psychomotor skills through observation, classification, inference, etc.; to emphasize design and fabrication, estimation and measurement as a prelude to the development of
technological and quantitative skills at later stages; and to develop basic language skills: speaking, reading and writing not only for science but also through science. Science and social science should be integrated as ‘environmental studies’ as at present, with health as an important component. Throughout the primary stage, there should be no formal periodic tests, no awarding of grades or marks, and no detention.
At the upper primary stage, the child should be engaged in learning the principles of science through familiar experiences, working with hands to design simple technological units and modules (e.g. designing and making a working model of a windmill to lift weights) and continuing to learn more about the environment and health, including reproductive and sexual health, through activities and surveys. Scientific concepts are to be arrived at mainly from activities and experiments. Science content at this stage is not to be regarded as a diluted version of secondary school science. Group activities, discussions with peers and teachers, surveys, organisation of data and their display through exhibitions, etc. in schools and the neighbourhood should be important components of pedagogy. There should be continuous as well as periodic assessment (unit tests, term-end tests). The system of ‘direct’ grades should be adopted. There should be no detention.
At the secondary stage, students should be engaged in learning science as a composite discipline, in working with hands and tools to design more advanced technological modules than at the upper primary stage, and in activities and analyses on issues concerning the environment and health, including reproductive and sexual health. Systematic experimentation as a tool to discover/verify theoretical principles, and working on locally significant projects involving science and technology, are to be important parts of the curriculum at this stage. At the higher secondary stage, science should be introduced as separate disciplines, with emphasis on experiments/technology and problem solving The curriculum load should be rationalised to avoid the steep gradient between secondary and higher secondary syllabi. At this stage, the core topics of a discipline, taking into account recent advances in the field, should be identified carefully and treated with appropriate rigour and depth. The tendency to cover a large number of topics of the discipline superficially should be avoided.
25. What did the National Focus Group on the Teaching of the Social Sciences propose?
Textbooks themselves should be seen as opening up avenues for further enquiry, and students should be encouraged to go beyond the textbook to further reading and observation
25. What kind of methods should be adopted in the teaching of social sciences?
methods that promote creativity, aesthetics, and critical perspectives,
methods that enable children to draw relationships between past and present, to understand changes taking place in society.
Problem solving, dramatisation and role play are some hitherto underexplored strategies that could be employed.