CTET Coaching Tips: Child Development and Pedagogy

CBSE started conducting CTET in June 2011. Since then, the focus of CTET exam has been to assess whether or not the candidate appearing for it has the attributes of a teacher. Thus, the section on child development & pedagogy becomes crucial in the scheme of this exam. Therefore, as a CTET aspirant preparing for Paper-I or II, you must pay proper emphasis on child development and pedagogy.

However, it is the section which quite often proves to be the undoing of students. A lot of times, the reason for this is insufficient understanding of the syllabus for child development. Students keep groping in the dark without exactly knowing the real scope of the syllabus. In this regard, experts at CTET coaching centers in Delhi have come up with the exact syllabus for child development and pedagogy. It clearly outlines the areas which you must cover for CTET exam. These areas are:

1. Theories of Intelligence: Various psychologists have tried to explain the concept of human intelligence. They have presented various theories which have improved our understanding of our own intelligence. You must know what these theories are and how they are different from one another. Questions based on the following theories are regularly asked in the exam-

• Binet’s unifactor theory
• Spearman’s two factor theory
• Sternberg’s triarchic theory
• Thorndike’s multifactor theory
• Thurstone’s theory of primary mental abilities
• Gardener’s thoery of multiple intelligences
• Guilford’s structure of intellect theory

2. Theories of Child Development: You, as an aspiring teacher, should be knowledgeable about all aspects of child development. Theories concerning these aspects have a lot of significance in the exam and you should not neglect them at all. You can easily expect around 5-6 questions from the theories mentioned below-

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
• Kohlberg’s theory of moral devlopment
• Vygotsky’s theory of socio-cultural development
• Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual development
• Chomsky’s theory of linguistic development
• Behaviorist theory of linguistic development

3. Learning Theories: Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. Knowing how children learn is the essence of being a teacher. A teacher who has the understanding of these theories can greatly facilitate the learning of students. Therefore, it is essential that you go through these theories-

• Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning
• Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning
• Thorndike’s theory of connectionism
• Insight learning theory (Gestalt learning)
• Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs
• Bandura’s theory of social learning
• Tolman’s theory of signal learning

4. Intelligence Testing: Assessing something as abstract as intelligence requires special methods and techniques. Researchers have spent years devising and bettering the techniques of intelligence assessment. A teacher must have the awareness of intellectual potential of his/her students. Hence, it is quite common to find questions in CTET on intelligence tests such as-

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Stanford Binet IQ test
• Bayley’s intelligence scale
• Raven’s progressive matrices test

5. Personality Testing: A teacher should have adequate understanding of human personality. It is vital for you as you will be guiding and motivating students so that they can perform better. CTET will examine this by putting up questions on personality tests like-

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
• 16 Personality Factor (16 PF)
• Rorschach inkblot test
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

6. Assessment & Evaluation: Assessment and evaluation are integral aspects of teaching. In order to be effective in performance appraisal of students, you will have to be an expert in these aspects. So you must learn the nitty-gritty of assessment and evaluation. For example-

• Objectives & Principles of Assessment
• Assessment for learning
• Assessment of learning
• Assessment as learning
• Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

7. Concepts of Psychology: Awareness of certain fundamental concepts of psychology can help you empathize with students and become a better mentor. Thus, it is seen that these concepts do find a place in CTET exam. For instance-

• Motivation (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement & punishment)
• Attitude (components of attitude)
• Relationship between cognition & emotion

8. Miscellaneous Topics: The seven areas discussed above happen to be the major areas of preparation for the section on child development and pedagogy. However, even after having covered these major areas, you should not overlook certain miscellaneous topics such as-

• Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives
• Child centered & Progressive education
• Inclusive education
• Kurt Lewin’s life space theory
• Understanding gifted children
• Gender bias and its eradication
• Formal, Non-formal and Informal learning

Conclusion: At first glance, this syllabus may seem vast and difficult to cover. But each one of these topics is covered at the centre for best CTET Coaching in Delhi, which you may contact for further guidance and help.

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