General Teaching Aptitude and Educational Psychology
General Teaching Aptitude and Educational Psychology tests how well a candidate understands learners, learning, classroom assessment and instructional decisions. Expect questions on development, learning theories, motivation, individual differences, inclusive education and classroom management. Aptitude items often use a short classroom incident and ask for the best response; the best response is developmentally appropriate and evidence-based.
Core concepts
- Piaget: cognitive development in stages; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.
- Vygotsky: social learning, zone of proximal development and scaffolding.
- Bloom: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create.
- Assessment: formative feedback during learning; summative judgement at the end.
- Motivation: intrinsic comes from interest; extrinsic from rewards or pressure.
Worked example
A child insists that a taller, narrower glass holds more water than a short, wide glass with the same volume. Reasoning: the child focuses on height and ignores width, showing lack of conservation. This is typical of Piaget’s preoperational stage, not concrete operational thinking. The teaching response is hands-on pouring and comparison, not verbal punishment.
Traps
Confusing preoperational with concrete operational; labelling formative as summative; reducing inclusive education to seating arrangement; confusing reinforcement with punishment; choosing a theory name without matching its classroom implication.