UTET Paper 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 zone of proximal development is the distance between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with guidance from a teacher or a more capable peer.

Conservation (Piaget)

In Piaget's theory, conservation is the understanding that amount, mass or volume stays the same when only the appearance changes; it usually develops in the concrete operational stage, around seven years.

Formative assessment

Assessment carried out during teaching to gather evidence about learning, give feedback and adjust instruction; it is low-stakes and contrasted with summative assessment at the end of a course.

Scaffolding

Temporary support such as hints, models, prompts or a partly solved example, given for a task beyond the learner's independent reach and gradually withdrawn as competence grows.

Dyscalculia

A specific learning disability affecting number sense, recall of arithmetic facts and calculation in a child of otherwise normal intelligence and adequate schooling; it is not general low ability.

Multiple intelligences (Gardner)

Howard Gardner's theory that intelligence is not one general factor but relatively independent abilities: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic.

Kohlberg's conventional level

The second of Kohlberg's three moral levels, where right action is judged by others' expectations and by maintaining law and social order, rather than by consequences or abstract principles.

Inclusive education

An arrangement in which children with disabilities and other marginalised learners are taught in regular classrooms with the needed adaptations, so that all children learn together.

Skimming

Fast reading for the gist or main idea of a text, in which the reader samples titles, headings, topic sentences and opening lines instead of reading every word.

Krashen's input hypothesis

The claim that a second language is acquired when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level (i+1) in a low-anxiety setting, with a weak affective filter.

Structural approach

A language teaching approach in which sentence patterns are selected, graded and presented in situations, then drilled orally before reading and writing are introduced; it is accuracy-first and behaviourist.

Language across the curriculum

The principle that every subject teacher is also a language teacher, because subject vocabulary, reading and writing are learned through content lessons and not only in language periods.

Diagnostic test

A test given to locate a learner's specific strengths and errors in sub-skills, used before teaching or before remediation, rather than to award marks or grades.

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning in a language, for example /p/ and /b/ in pat and bat; standard English has about forty-four phonemes.

Bound morpheme

A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word and must attach to another morpheme, such as the prefix re- in replay or the suffix -ful in helpful.

Active-to-passive transformation

Move the object to subject position, change the verb to a form of be plus the past participle, and put the original subject in a by-phrase; only transitive verbs passivise.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures the ability it claims to measure; a grammar test that really tests reading comprehension has low construct validity, however consistent its scores.

Argumentative composition

A piece of writing that states a position on a debatable issue, supports it with reasons and evidence, and acknowledges and answers opposing arguments before restating the position.

Pythagoras theorem

In any right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides, written a squared plus b squared equals c squared, where c is the hypotenuse.

HCF–LCM relation

For any two positive integers a and b, HCF(a, b) multiplied by LCM(a, b) equals a times b; the relation fails for three or more numbers.

Compound interest formula

Amount A = P(1 + R/100)^n, where P is the principal, R the annual rate per cent and n the number of years; compound interest equals A minus P.

Ohm's law

At constant temperature the current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference across it, giving V = IR, where R is resistance in ohms.

Ten per cent law

In a food chain only about ten per cent of the energy present at one trophic level passes to the next; most of the remainder is lost as heat during respiration.

Van Hiele levels

A model of how learners understand geometry: visualisation, analysis, informal deduction, formal deduction and rigour; instruction and assessment should match the learner's current level.

Mirror formula

For a spherical mirror, 1/f = 1/v + 1/u, where f is focal length, v image distance and u object distance; signs follow the Cartesian convention, and magnification m = −v/u.

Polya's four steps

The problem-solving sequence: understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan, and look back to check the answer and generalise the method used.

Harappan script

The undeciphered writing of the Indus Valley Civilisation, found mainly on seals and pottery; the inscriptions are short and no bilingual text has yet been discovered.

Ashoka's dhamma

The ethical policy promoted by Ashoka after the Kalinga war: tolerance among sects, non-violence, welfare works and respect for elders, spread through edicts on pillars and rocks.

Doctrine of Lapse

Dalhousie's policy that a princely state without a natural heir would be annexed by the British; applied to Satara, Jhansi and Nagpur, it deepened resentment before 1857.

Directive Principles

Part IV of the Indian Constitution: non-justiciable guidelines directing the state towards welfare, equality and a just social order; they cannot be enforced by the courts.

Tropic of Cancer

The parallel of latitude 23.5 degrees north of the equator; it passes through eight Indian states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Laterite soil

A leached, acidic, iron-rich soil of high-rainfall tropical regions; it hardens on exposure, is poor for most cereals, and supports tea, coffee and cashew with fertiliser.