Pedagogy and Teaching Aptitude
What is tested
Pedagogy and Teaching Aptitude covers child development, learning theories, classroom assessment, and inclusive teaching. Questions ask you to identify a stage, theory, or assessment type from a classroom description, not just recite definitions.
Core rules
- Piaget: sensorimotor (0–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), formal operational (11+). Conservation appears in concrete operational.
- Vygotsky: the Zone of Proximal Development is the gap between independent and assisted performance; scaffolding should be temporary.
- Kohlberg: preconventional (punishment/obedience), conventional (social approval/law and order), postconventional (social contract/universal principles).
- Assessment: formative is during learning and diagnostic; summative is after learning and judgmental. Reliability means consistency; validity means measuring the intended construct.
Worked example
A Class V child cannot solve 2x + 3 = 7 alone but solves it when the teacher asks, 'What must you remove first?' This is ZPD, not a Piagetian stage failure. The prompt is scaffolding; the child's independent score does not capture the assisted performance.
Traps
- Confusing concrete operational with formal operational reasoning.
- Calling any short test formative; formative depends on purpose and feedback, not length.
- Mixing reliability (same result on retest) with validity (correct construct).
- Reducing inclusive education to physical access only.