REET Level 2 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 term for the range of tasks a learner can complete with guidance but not yet alone. Instruction is most effective when targeted within this range, using temporary scaffolding.

Conservation (Piaget)

Understanding that quantity, mass, or volume stays the same when appearance changes, e.g., water poured into a taller glass. Typically achieved in the concrete operational stage, around seven to eleven years.

Operant reinforcement schedules

Patterns determining when a response is reinforced. Variable-ratio schedules, where reinforcement follows an unpredictable number of responses, produce the highest and most extinction-resistant response rates.

Formative versus summative assessment

Formative assessment is ongoing and used to adjust teaching while learning is in progress. Summative assessment occurs at the end of a period to judge achievement against outcomes.

Anusvara and Chandrabindu

Hindi diacritics: anusvara (ं) nasalises with a dot above, chandrabindu (ँ) marks stronger nasalisation of the vowel. Both are ayogavaha, not full consonants in the varnamala.

Tatpurush samas

A Hindi compound in which the final member carries the main meaning and the first modifies it, as in राजपुत्र (king's son). Contrast dvandva, where both members are equally primary.

Sanskrit vibhakti

Case endings in Sanskrit: prathama (nominative, agent), dvitiya (accusative, object), tritiya (instrumental), chaturthi (dative), panchami (ablative), shashthi (genitive), saptami (locative).

Minimal pair

Two words differing in only one phoneme, such as पल and बल. A minimal pair demonstrates that the differing sounds are separate phonemes in that language.

Third conditional

Structure: if + past perfect, would have + past participle. It describes an unreal past situation and its imagined result, as in 'If I had studied, I would have passed'.

Reported speech backshift

When reporting speech, present tense usually becomes past, past becomes past perfect, and will becomes would. Time and place words shift, e.g., today becomes that day.

Cohesion versus coherence

Cohesion is surface linking through pronouns, conjunctions, substitution, and lexical repetition. Coherence is the overall logical unity of ideas that makes a text understandable.

Relative clause

A clause introduced by who, which, that, whose, or where, modifying a noun. Restrictive clauses identify the noun; non-restrictive clauses add extra information and take commas.

HCF-LCM relationship

For two positive integers, HCF multiplied by LCM equals the product of the two numbers. This lets you find one value when the other, plus both numbers, are known.

Compound interest formula

Amount A = P(1 + R/100)^T, where P is principal, R the annual rate, and T the time in years. Compound interest equals A minus P.

Ohm's law

Current through a conductor is directly proportional to potential difference when temperature is constant: V = IR. Resistance R is measured in ohms.

Photosynthesis equation

6CO₂ + 6H₂O, in the presence of light and chlorophyll, yields C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂. Carbon dioxide is reduced and water is oxidised; oxygen is released.

Fundamental Duties

Article 51A, Part IVA, added by the 42nd Amendment in 1976, lists eleven duties of citizens. They are non-justiciable and complement Fundamental Rights.

Money Bill

A bill dealing only with taxation, borrowing, or the Consolidated Fund. It can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, with the President's recommendation, and the Rajya Sabha cannot amend it.

Dandi March

Gandhi's 1930 march to Dandi to make salt in defiance of the salt law, launching the Civil Disobedience Movement. It made the independence struggle a mass movement.

Item difficulty index

The proportion of candidates answering an item correctly, ranging from 0 to 1. Values between about 0.30 and 0.70 give the best discrimination among candidates.

Validity versus reliability

Reliability is consistency of measurement across occasions or raters. Validity is whether the test measures the intended construct. A reliable test may still be invalid.

RTE Act 2009

Indian law guaranteeing free and compulsory education for ages six to fourteen. It bars detention and expulsion until elementary completion and sets pupil-teacher ratios and infrastructure norms.

Skimming and scanning

Skimming is rapid reading for the general idea; scanning is searching for a specific detail such as a date or name. Both are sub-skills of reading, not substitutes for close reading.

Communicative Language Teaching

An approach prioritising meaningful interaction and authentic tasks over explicit rule study. Fluency and communicative competence are goals; grammar is taught in service of use.

Polya's problem-solving steps

Understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan, and look back to check the result. The final reflection step builds transferable reasoning habits.

Concrete to abstract sequence

Instruction moves from physical manipulatives to pictorial representations to symbolic notation. This progression grounds algorithms in meaning before procedural drill begins.

Control in fair test

In an experiment, only the independent variable is changed while all other conditions are held constant. A control group receives no treatment, enabling causal inference.

5E instructional model

Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate. Learners explore phenomena before the teacher explains, so concepts are grounded in their own observations and questions.

Growth mindset

Dweck's view that ability is malleable through effort and strategy. Praising process sustains persistence, whereas praising fixed intelligence can increase helplessness after failure.

Working memory limit

Working memory holds only about seven plus or minus two chunks at once. Chunking information and spacing practice reduce overload and improve long-term retention.

Muhavara versus Lokokti

A muhavara is an idiom whose figurative meaning differs from its literal words and functions like a verb phrase. A lokokti is a complete proverb expressing a general truth.

Subject-verb agreement traps

Each, every, either, and neither take singular verbs. 'A number of' takes a plural verb, while 'the number of' takes a singular verb.