TN SET flashcards

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

Formative evaluation

Assessment conducted during instruction to monitor learning and adjust teaching. It is diagnostic and low-stakes, uses feedback and informal checks, and does not usually contribute a final grade.

Summative evaluation

Assessment at the end of a course or unit that judges achievement against objectives. It is typically graded, used for certification or promotion, and summarises rather than guides learning.

Norm-referenced test

A test interpreted by comparing a candidate's score with those of a defined group. Results are reported as percentiles or standard scores, so grading depends on relative performance.

Criterion-referenced test

A test interpreted against a fixed standard of mastery rather than against other candidates. A candidate passes by meeting the preset criterion, independent of group performance.

Bloom's revised taxonomy

A hierarchy of cognitive objectives: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create. It guides writing measurable learning objectives and framing questions at the intended cognitive level.

Levels of teaching

Memory level is rote and teacher-dominated; understanding level develops explanations and questioning; reflective level promotes hypothesis testing and problem solving. Higher levels presuppose the lower ones.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with guidance. Instruction within this zone, supported by scaffolding, is most effective.

Advance organiser

Ausubel's introductory framework presented before new material to link it with existing knowledge. It supports meaningful reception learning by anchoring unfamiliar content to familiar concepts.

Probability sampling

Any sampling method where each population element has a known, non-zero chance of selection, such as simple random, stratified, cluster, or systematic sampling. It permits generalisation and error estimation.

Type I and Type II error

Type I error rejects a true null hypothesis, a false positive. Type II error fails to reject a false null hypothesis, a false negative. Lowering one generally raises the other.

Null hypothesis

A statement of no difference or no relationship between variables, assumed true for testing. Statistical tests assess whether data provide enough evidence to reject it.

Action research

A cyclical, practitioner-led inquiry into a local problem, typically planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. It aims at immediate improvement of practice rather than generalisable theory.

Reliability versus validity

Reliability is consistency of a measure across occasions or items; validity is whether it measures what it claims. A test can be reliable without being valid, but not valid without being reliable.

Classroom communication model

Teaching communication involves sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback, and noise. Feedback confirms whether the intended meaning was received, and noise may be physical or semantic.

Informed consent

A research ethics requirement that participants voluntarily agree after being told the purpose, procedures, risks, and right to withdraw. It protects autonomy and must be documented.

Plagiarism

Presenting another's words, data, or ideas as one's own, including unacknowledged paraphrasing and self-plagiarism. Proper citation and quotation distinguish borrowing from misappropriation.

Idealism in education

A philosophy holding that reality is mental and values are eternal. Education develops the mind and character through enduring ideas, and the teacher models moral and intellectual ideals.

Pragmatism in education

A philosophy judging ideas by their practical consequences. Learning proceeds through experience and problem solving, and curriculum is flexible, responsive to change, and tested by results.

Constructivism

The view that learners actively build knowledge by connecting new information to prior understanding. Teaching becomes facilitation through tasks, dialogue, and reflection rather than transmission of facts.

Fixed and variable costs

Fixed costs stay constant within a relevant range of activity, such as rent. Variable costs change in proportion to output, such as raw materials. Semi-variable costs contain both elements.

Marginal cost

The additional cost of producing one more unit, derived from variable cost changes. It underlies break-even analysis and short-run output decisions where fixed costs are unaffected.

Parametric versus non-parametric tests

Parametric tests, such as t and ANOVA, assume normally distributed interval data and estimate population parameters. Non-parametric tests, such as chi-square or Mann-Whitney, relax these distributional assumptions.

Dimensional analysis

A check that both sides of an equation carry the same base units. It detects unit and formula errors in numerical physics and engineering items without solving the problem fully.

Standard deviation

The square root of the average squared deviation from the mean, expressed in the original units. A larger value indicates greater dispersion around the mean.

Correlation and causation

Correlation measures the strength and direction of association between two variables. It does not establish causation, which requires control of confounders and a defensible causal design.

Renaissance in literature

A European movement from roughly the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries reviving classical forms and emphasising human potential. It shaped humanist prose, sonnet sequences, and Elizabethan drama.

Romanticism

A late eighteenth and early nineteenth century movement valuing imagination, emotion, nature, and the individual. It reacted against Enlightenment rationalism and neoclassical formality in poetry and prose.

Structuralism

An approach analysing cultural products as systems of interrelated signs whose meaning arises from difference and convention. It underlies linguistic and literary analysis of underlying codes.

Fundamental rights

Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms enforceable against the state, subject to reasonable restrictions. They include equality, speech, life and liberty, and remedies for their enforcement.

Directive Principles of State Policy

Non-justiciable constitutional guidelines directing the state toward social and economic welfare. They inform legislation and are read together with fundamental rights in interpretation.

Green revolution

The adoption of high-yielding seed varieties, irrigation, and fertilisers from the 1960s, raising foodgrain output. It also concentrated gains among resource-rich farmers and regions.

Primary versus secondary data

Primary data are collected firsthand for the current study through surveys or experiments. Secondary data already exist, collected for another purpose, and require assessment of relevance and reliability.