CTET flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's concept describing the gap between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with guidance from a more knowledgeable person.

Conservation (Piaget)

Piagetian understanding that quantity, mass or volume stays the same despite changes in appearance; typically achieved in the concrete operational stage, around age seven to eleven.

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight; it develops in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, usually by about eight to twelve months.

Inclusive education

An approach where children with and without disabilities learn together in the same classroom, with curriculum and assessment adapted to remove barriers to participation.

Formative assessment

Assessment carried out during teaching to diagnose learning gaps and guide immediate feedback; it is assessment for learning rather than grading at the end.

Kohlberg's preconventional level

The first level of moral reasoning, where right and wrong are judged by punishment and self-interest rather than by social rules or abstract principles.

RTE Act 2009

Indian law making free and compulsory education a fundamental right for children aged six to fourteen, prohibiting board exams and expulsion till elementary completion.

Chomsky's LAD

Language Acquisition Device, a hypothetical innate mechanism in children that enables them to acquire grammar rapidly from limited exposure by generating rules.

Bottom-up reading model

A reading process that starts with letters and sounds and builds up to words and meaning; it emphasises decoding rather than prediction from context.

Skimming and scanning

Skimming is fast reading for the general idea; scanning is fast reading for a specific detail such as a date, name or number.

Communicative language teaching

An approach that develops language through meaningful interaction and real tasks, prioritising fluency and communicative purpose over isolated grammar drills.

Error versus mistake

An error is a systematic deviation showing the learner's developing rule system; a mistake is a performance slip the learner can self-correct when attention is drawn to it.

Three-language formula

Indian policy recommending the regional language, Hindi and English across school stages, allowing flexibility between Hindi-speaking and non-Hindi-speaking states.

Krashen's input hypothesis

The idea that a second language is acquired when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level, described as i plus one, with meaning supported by context.

BICS and CALP

Cummins's distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills, which take about two years, and cognitive academic language proficiency, which takes five to seven years.

Interlanguage

The learner's evolving second-language system, which has its own rules and shows transfer from the first language, overgeneralisation and gradual restructuring.

Affective filter

Krashen's term for emotional factors such as anxiety or low motivation that can block language acquisition even when suitable input is available.

Grammar-translation method

A teaching method using translation, memorised vocabulary and explicit grammar rules; it emphasises reading and writing but gives little attention to spoken fluency.

Code-switching

Alternating between two languages within a conversation or sentence, often used by bilingual speakers for clarity, emphasis or social identification.

Divisibility rule for 3

A number is divisible by three if the sum of its digits is divisible by three; for nine, the same digit-sum test shows divisibility by nine.

HCF and LCM relation

For two positive integers, the product of their highest common factor and lowest common multiple equals the product of the two numbers.

Simple interest formula

Simple interest equals principal multiplied by rate per year multiplied by time in years, divided by one hundred; it is calculated only on the original principal.

Compound interest

Interest calculated on the principal plus previously earned interest; the amount equals principal times one plus rate over one hundred, raised to the time in years.

Mean, median, mode

Mean is the sum divided by the count; median is the middle value when ordered; mode is the most frequent value in a data set.

Van Hiele levels

Five levels of geometry understanding: visualisation, analysis, informal deduction, formal deduction and rigour; instruction should match the learner's current level.

Successive percentage change

For changes of a percent and b percent, the net change is a plus b plus a times b divided by one hundred; decreases are entered as negative values.

Balanced diet

A diet containing carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, water and roughage in the right proportions, supporting energy, growth, repair and protection.

Water cycle

The continuous movement of water through evaporation from surfaces, condensation into clouds, precipitation as rain or snow, and collection in water bodies and soil.

Photosynthesis

The process by which green plants use sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to make food in leaves, releasing oxygen as a by-product.

Deficiency diseases

Illnesses caused by lack of a nutrient, such as scurvy from vitamin C deficiency, rickets from vitamin D deficiency and anaemia from iron deficiency.

Herbivore, carnivore, omnivore

Herbivores eat only plants, carnivores eat other animals and omnivores eat both; tooth and gut structure usually reflect the diet.

Observation in EVS

A primary process skill where learners use senses to notice features, changes and patterns in their surroundings, forming the base for questioning and discovery.