JTET Paper 2 flashcards

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

Piaget's concrete operational stage

In Piaget's theory, children aged about 7–11 can conserve number, mass, and volume, classify objects, and reason logically about concrete events but not abstract hypotheses.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable adult or peer.

Scaffolding in learning

Temporary support provided by a teacher or peer-such as prompts, models, or hints-that is gradually removed as the learner gains competence and independence.

Kohlberg's pre-conventional level

The first level of Kohlberg's moral development, where judgments are based on punishment avoidance and personal reward rather than internalized social rules or principles.

Inclusive education

An approach where students with disabilities learn in general education classrooms with appropriate accommodations, support services, and a presumptive right to the least restrictive environment.

Formative assessment

Ongoing, low-stakes evaluation during instruction that provides feedback to adjust teaching and learning; it contrasts with summative assessment at the end of a unit.

Gardner's multiple intelligences

Howard Gardner's model proposing eight intelligences-linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic-rather than a single general intelligence.

Bruner's spiral curriculum

Jerome Bruner's idea that curriculum revisits core concepts at increasing levels of complexity, using enactive, iconic, and symbolic representations so earlier learning supports later understanding.

Language Acquisition Device

Noam Chomsky's hypothetical innate module that enables children to acquire language rapidly by extracting universal grammar from the linguistic input they hear.

Language acquisition vs learning

Krashen's distinction: acquisition is subconscious, natural, and meaning-focused; learning is conscious, formal, and rule-focused, and cannot alone produce fluent communication.

Comprehensible input hypothesis

Krashen's claim that language acquisition occurs when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level (i+1), aided by context, gestures, and prior knowledge.

Phonics instruction

Teaching reading by explicitly connecting letters or letter groups (graphemes) to the sounds they represent (phonemes), building decoding skills for unfamiliar words.

Skimming and scanning

Skimming is rapid reading for the general idea or gist; scanning is searching a text for specific information such as dates, names, or numbers.

Communicative Language Teaching

An approach that prioritizes meaningful interaction, fluency, and real-life communication over isolated grammar drills, often using pair work, role play, and authentic materials.

Interlanguage

A learner's evolving second-language system that has its own rules, transfers features from the first language, and progresses through predictable stages toward the target language.

Multilingualism as classroom resource

Using students' home languages through code-switching, translation, or translanguaging to support comprehension and identity rather than banning them from the classroom.

Process writing approach

A writing pedagogy that treats writing as recursive stages-prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing-with feedback and revision central rather than one-shot finished products.

Literal vs inferential comprehension

Literal comprehension answers questions using explicitly stated facts; inferential comprehension requires connecting clues and prior knowledge to read unstated meaning.

Figurative language

Language that departs from literal meaning for effect, including simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and irony; readers must infer intended meaning from context.

Cohesion and coherence

Cohesion is surface-level linking through pronouns, conjunctions, and repetition; coherence is the deeper logical unity that makes a text's ideas flow and make sense.

Cloze test

An assessment that deletes words from a passage at regular intervals and asks learners to restore them using context, testing grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

Prefixes and suffixes

Affixes added to a root: prefixes (un-, re-, pre-) change meaning, while suffixes (-ness, -able, -tion) often change word class; the root carries core meaning.

Reported speech

Indirect quotation that shifts tenses back, changes pronouns, and adjusts time and place expressions, unlike direct speech which quotes the speaker's exact words.

Portfolio assessment

A purposeful collection of student work-drafts, revisions, reflections, and finished pieces-used to show growth over time and support holistic evaluation.

Pythagorean theorem

In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides: a² + b² = c², where c is the hypotenuse.

Ohm's law

Current through a conductor is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance: V = I × R, where V is volts, I amperes, R ohms.

Photosynthesis equation

6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light energy → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂; chlorophyll in chloroplasts captures light to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen.

Fundamental Rights

Six categories in the Indian Constitution-equality, freedom, against exploitation, religion, cultural and educational rights, and constitutional remedies-enforceable through courts.

Indian monsoon

A seasonal reversal of wind patterns; the southwest monsoon (June–September) brings most annual rainfall, while the retreating monsoon affects October–November weather.

Mean, median, mode

Mean is the sum divided by the count; median is the middle value in ordered data; mode is the most frequent value; each measures central tendency differently.

pH scale

A 0–14 scale measuring hydrogen ion concentration: below 7 is acidic, 7 is neutral, above 7 is basic; each unit represents a tenfold change.

Panchayati Raj

India's three-tier rural local government-Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, and Zila Parishad-given constitutional status by the 73rd Amendment Act, 1992.