RPSC 1st Grade Teacher (Paper I) key terms

Vygotsky's idea that learning is most effective in the gap between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with guidance from a more capable person.

Temporary support a teacher or peer gives a learner to complete a task just beyond independent ability; support is gradually withdrawn as competence grows.

A theory holding that learners build knowledge actively by connecting new information to prior experience, rather than receiving it passively from the teacher.

An organised mental framework of prior knowledge that helps a learner interpret, store, and recall new information in a meaningful way.

Piaget's paired processes: assimilation fits new experience into an existing mental framework, while accommodation changes the framework when new experience does not fit.

Piaget's four sequential stages - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational - describing how children's reasoning changes qualitatively with age.

The understanding that quantity, mass, or volume stays the same when appearance changes; typically mastered in the concrete operational stage.

Eight life stages, each defined by a social conflict such as industry versus inferiority in middle childhood, whose resolution shapes personality and self-confidence.

A stage theory of moral reasoning moving from obedience and self-interest, through social approval and law-and-order, to universal ethical principles.

A score expressing measured mental performance relative to age peers, commonly computed as mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by one hundred.

Gardner's proposal that people differ in several relatively independent abilities, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

An approach in which children with disabilities and other marginalised groups learn in the same regular classroom, with the curriculum and environment adapted to their needs.

A written plan for a learner with special needs setting specific goals, required support, and methods of assessment, reviewed periodically with parents and specialists.

A persistent difficulty in acquiring specific academic skills, such as reading or arithmetic, that is not explained by low intelligence, poor teaching, or sensory deficit.

The set of beliefs a learner holds about his or her own abilities, traits, and worth, which strongly influences motivation and willingness to attempt difficult tasks.

Planning lessons so that content, process, or product can be varied to match learners' readiness, interests, and learning profiles within one classroom.

Ongoing assessment during teaching, used to identify misunderstandings and adjust instruction rather than to assign final grades.

Assessment carried out at the end of a unit, term, or course to judge achievement against learning outcomes and report results.

Information given to a learner about the quality of work relative to a goal, with guidance on the next step; most useful when specific and timely.

A hierarchical classification of cognitive objectives from remembering and understanding up to analysing, evaluating, and creating, used to frame questions and outcomes.

A precise statement of what a learner should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson or course, written so that it can be observed and assessed.

Systematic inquiry by a practising teacher into a problem in his or her own classroom, cycling through planning, acting, observing, and reflecting to improve practice.

A teacher's deliberate habit of examining his or her own decisions and their effects on learners in order to improve future teaching.

Targeted reteaching for learners who have fallen behind, focusing on the specific gaps identified rather than repeating the whole lesson.

A single class containing children of two or more grade levels, requiring self-learning materials and peer tutoring so that groups can work independently.

The ability to notice and manipulate individual speech sounds in words, such as blending or deleting sounds, which underpins early reading and spelling.

Teaching reading by explicitly linking letters or letter groups to the sounds they represent, so that learners can decode unfamiliar printed words.

A view of literacy learning that emphasises meaningful whole texts, context, and children's natural language, rather than isolated drills on letters and sounds.

An approach to language teaching that organises lessons around real communication and fluency, using grammar and vocabulary as tools for meaningful interaction.

Lesson design in which learners complete purposeful tasks, such as planning a trip, and acquire language incidentally while working towards the task outcome.

The four core language abilities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, each requiring separate but connected classroom practice.

The principle that a digit's value depends on its position in a numeral, so that 5 in 507 means five hundreds and in 75 means five ones.

A progression in mathematics teaching that begins with physical objects, moves to drawings or diagrams, and only then introduces symbols and formal rules.

The process of applying mathematical ideas to unfamiliar situations, involving understanding the problem, devising a plan, carrying it out, and checking the result.

An assessment designed to locate the specific errors or misconceptions behind a learner's difficulty, so that teaching can address the precise cause.

Instruction in which learners investigate questions through observation, prediction, experimentation, and discussion, rather than only reading about conclusions.

Observable scientific abilities such as observing, classifying, measuring, inferring, and predicting that science lessons aim to develop alongside content knowledge.

Teaching that builds understanding of ecosystems and human impact, aiming at attitudes and actions such as conservation, waste reduction, and local biodiversity awareness.

Evidence created at the time of an event, such as a letter, inscription, or photograph, used by learners to construct historical interpretation.

A visual arrangement of events in chronological order that helps learners grasp sequence, duration, and cause-and-effect across periods.

Deliberate teaching of democratic and social values such as equality, justice, and respect for diversity, often through discussion of real dilemmas.

A Bronze Age urban civilisation of the north-west subcontinent, known for planned cities, drainage systems, and the undeciphered script.

In Rajasthan's context, the designation used for the seven immortal figures honoured in local devotional tradition, referenced in regional literature.

The three-tier system of local self-government in rural India - village, block, and district levels - created by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.

The field administration of a district headed by the Collector, responsible for revenue, law and order, and coordination of development programmes.

The state foundation day observed on 30 March, marking the merger of the princely states into the State of Rajasthan in 1949.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, which guarantees free schooling for ages six to fourteen and sets norms for pupil-teacher ratios and infrastructure.

An assessment scheme that spreads evaluation across the year and covers both scholastic and co-scholastic areas, using varied tools rather than only written tests.