Sikkim TET key terms

Theoretical knowledge of how children grow physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally, plus the teaching methods that follow from that knowledge. It forms the first paper of the Sikkim TET for both primary and upper primary levels.

A view of learning holding that learners build new understanding by connecting new information to what they already know, rather than receiving knowledge passively. Teaching under this view uses questioning, activity and prior-knowledge probes.

An organised mental framework a learner uses to interpret and store information. Existing schemas shape how new material is understood, so teachers activate and, where needed, revise them before introducing a topic.

Fitting new experience into an existing mental framework without changing that framework. It contrasts with accommodation, where the framework itself must be altered because the new information does not fit.

Modifying an existing mental framework so that new, conflicting information can be understood. Together with assimilation it describes how cognitive structures develop through repeated interaction with the environment.

The gap between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with guidance from a more capable person. Instruction is most effective when pitched inside this gap.

Temporary support a teacher or peer gives a learner to complete a task just beyond independent ability, withdrawn gradually as competence grows. Supports include prompts, models, worked examples and structured steps.

Progressive change in thinking, memory, reasoning and problem-solving across childhood. Stage accounts, including Piaget's sensorimotor to formal-operational sequence, describe broad shifts in how children reason.

Piaget's stage from roughly seven to eleven years, when children reason logically about tangible objects and events but struggle with abstract or hypothetical problems. Conservation and classification become possible.

The understanding that quantity, mass or volume stays the same despite changes in appearance or arrangement. Its absence in preoperational children is shown in classic beaker-and-clay tasks.

Vygotsky's account holding that learning is first social and then internalised, with language and cultural tools mediating thought. Talk, collaboration and adult guidance are therefore central to classroom learning.

The internal or external force that starts, directs and sustains effort toward a goal. Intrinsic motivation arises from interest and satisfaction; extrinsic motivation depends on rewards, praise or fear of punishment.

Any consequence that increases the likelihood a behaviour recurs. Positive reinforcement adds a pleasant stimulus, negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant one; both strengthen behaviour, unlike punishment.

Skinner's principle that behaviour is shaped by its consequences. Reinforced responses become more frequent, unreinforced ones fade, which underpins token systems, praise schedules and behaviour contracts.

Gardner's proposal that intelligence is not a single score but a set of relatively independent capacities such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. It supports varied classroom activities.

Variation among learners in ability, pace, interest, language background, temperament and home context. Recognising these differences justifies differentiated tasks, flexible grouping and varied assessment modes.

Schooling in which all children, including those with disabilities or disadvantaged backgrounds, learn together in mainstream classrooms with the support they need. It rejects segregation and treats diversity as ordinary.

An assessment approach that judges learning throughout the year and covers scholastic and co-scholastic areas, using observation, projects, oral work and tests. It reduces dependence on a single terminal examination.

Assessment carried out during teaching to reveal what learners understand and to adjust instruction immediately. Feedback is descriptive and forward-looking rather than a final grade.

Assessment at the end of a unit, term or course that judges achievement against expected learning outcomes. Results are typically reported as grades or marks and inform progression decisions.

Planned re-teaching for learners who have not mastered earlier content, targeting the specific gap rather than repeating the whole lesson. It usually follows diagnostic assessment and uses smaller steps and more practice.

Assessment used to locate the precise nature of a learning difficulty, such as a specific error pattern in reading or computation. Its purpose is to plan remediation, not to grade.

The tendency to seek success, set moderately challenging goals and persist at tasks. Learners high in achievement motivation attribute outcomes to effort and strategy rather than to fixed ability.

The explanation a learner gives for success or failure, such as effort, ability, luck or task difficulty. Effort attributions sustain persistence; ability attributions after failure often reduce it.

The ability to notice and manipulate individual sounds within spoken words, for example blending or deleting phonemes. It is a strong early predictor of later reading success and precedes phonics instruction.

Teaching the correspondences between letters or letter groups and the sounds they represent, so learners can decode unfamiliar printed words. It is systematic when correspondences are introduced in a planned sequence.

Awareness of the sound structure of spoken language at the level of syllables, rhymes and individual phonemes. It is broader than phonemic awareness, which concerns phonemes alone.

Converting printed letters into spoken sounds and blending them into recognisable words. Fluent decoding frees attention for comprehension, so weak decoding limits overall reading progress.

Reading accurately, at a reasonable pace and with appropriate expression, so that meaning is grasped without conscious effort. It bridges word recognition and comprehension.

Constructing meaning from text by combining word knowledge, background knowledge, inference and monitoring of one's own understanding. It includes literal, inferential and evaluative levels.

Deriving unstated meaning from clues in a text and from prior knowledge. Skilled readers infer causes, motives and implied outcomes, which literal questioning alone does not develop.

The ability to use a language appropriately as well as grammatically, adapting to audience, purpose and setting. It covers grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic knowledge.

Chomsky's hypothesised innate capacity that enables children to acquire language from exposure, given a rich linguistic environment. It supports the idea that language learning is not mere imitation.

The process of learning a language after the first, in school or a natural setting. It is shaped by exposure, motivation, age, first-language literacy and opportunities to use the language meaningfully.

Transfer of first-language patterns, such as word order, sounds or idiom, into the second language, producing characteristic errors. Some transfer helps learning; other instances cause persistent mistakes.

The principle that a digit's value depends on its position, each place being ten times the place to its right. It underlies regrouping, decimal notation and all written calculation algorithms.

Exchanging ten units of one place for one unit of the next place, or the reverse, when adding or subtracting. It is the mechanism behind carrying and borrowing.

A line on which numbers are marked at equal intervals, used to model order, addition, subtraction and later fractions and negative numbers. It builds mental magnitude and estimation.

Numbers expressing part of a whole or part of a set, written as one integer over another. Key ideas include equivalence, comparison and the meaning of the denominator as the number of equal parts.

Perimeter is the distance around a closed figure; area is the amount of surface it covers, measured in square units. Confusing the two, or using linear units for area, is a common pupil error.

Assigning a number and unit to a quantity such as length, mass, capacity or time using a standard instrument. Teaching stresses unit choice, estimation and conversion between units.

Collecting, organising, representing and interpreting information using tables, pictographs and bar graphs. At primary level it develops questions, tallies and simple comparison of categories.

An integrated primary subject combining science, social studies and environmental awareness around the child's immediate surroundings. It emphasises observation, questioning and activity rather than rote recall.

The variety of living things in a place, including differences within and between species and among ecosystems. Local examples such as Sikkim's orchids, rhododendrons and Himalayan fauna make it concrete.

A community of living things interacting with one another and with non-living surroundings such as soil, water and air. Food chains, energy flow and interdependence are its core school-level ideas.

Protecting natural resources and living things from wasteful use or destruction. School treatment covers water, soil, forests and wildlife, and links personal habits to community action.

Noticing features of objects or organisms and grouping them by shared criteria. It is the basic process skill in Environmental Studies and underpins later hypothesis and inference work.