20 questionswith explanationsfor RPSC School Lecturer (Special Education)
According to Piaget, object permanence develops during which stage?
Answer: (1) Sensorimotor
Explanation
Object permanence is the key achievement of the sensorimotor stage (birth to about 2 years).
The concept of the 'Zone of Proximal Development' was given by:
Answer: (2) Lev Vygotsky
Explanation
ZPD, the gap between what a learner can do alone and with guidance, is Vygotsky's concept.
The theory of operant conditioning is associated with:
Answer: (3) B.F. Skinner
Explanation
B.F. Skinner developed operant conditioning using the Skinner box with rats and pigeons.
Thorndike's famous puzzle-box experiments on trial-and-error learning were done mainly on which animal?
Answer: (4) Cat
Explanation
Thorndike placed hungry cats in a puzzle box, leading to his trial-and-error theory and laws of learning.
According to Piaget, the concrete operational stage covers which age range?
Answer: (4) 7–11 years
Explanation
Piaget's concrete operational stage spans roughly 7 to 11 years, when logical thinking about concrete objects develops.
In Pavlov's experiment, after conditioning, the bell acts as the:
Answer: (2) Conditioned stimulus
Explanation
The bell was a neutral stimulus that, after pairing with food, becomes the conditioned stimulus eliciting salivation.
Which of the following is one of the intelligences in Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences?
Answer: (3) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
Explanation
Bodily-kinesthetic is one of Gardner's intelligences; emotional intelligence was popularised by Goleman, and creative/practical are from Sternberg's triarchic theory.
How many stages are there in Kohlberg's theory of moral development?
Answer: (4) 6
Explanation
Kohlberg described 3 levels (pre-conventional, conventional, post-conventional), each with 2 stages, giving 6 stages.
Which need is at the top of Maslow's original five-level hierarchy of needs?
Answer: (1) Self-actualization
Explanation
In Maslow's five-level model, physiological needs are at the base and self-actualization is at the top.
In the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), the highest level of the cognitive domain is:
Answer: (2) Creating
Explanation
The revised order is Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create; 'Creating' is at the top (in the 1956 original, Evaluation was highest).
Kohlberg's 'punishment and obedience orientation' belongs to which level of moral development?
Answer: (3) Pre-conventional
Explanation
Punishment and obedience orientation is Stage 1, the first stage of the pre-conventional level.
In Piaget's theory, fitting new information into an existing schema without changing the schema is called:
Answer: (1) Assimilation
Explanation
Assimilation incorporates new experiences into existing schemas; accommodation modifies schemas to fit new experiences.
Consider the following statements about educational psychology: 1. It is an applied branch of psychology. 2. It studies the learner, the learning process and the learning situation. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: (3) Both 1 and 2
Explanation
Educational psychology applies psychological principles to education; its scope covers the learner, the learning process and the learning situation.
A Class 11 student avoids answering in class because she feels that everyone is constantly watching and judging her looks. David Elkind called this feature of adolescent egocentrism:
Answer: (2) Imaginary audience
Explanation
Elkind (1967) described the 'imaginary audience' as the adolescent's belief that others are always watching and evaluating him or her.
Rohit, a Class 12 student, has decided to become a doctor only because his parents wanted it, without ever exploring any other career. In James Marcia's terms, his identity status is:
Answer: (4) Identity foreclosure
Explanation
Foreclosure means commitment without exploration, often by accepting parents' choices unquestioned.
A senior secondary student says, 'If plants get more light, then they will grow faster', and then tests it by changing only one factor at a time. According to Piaget, this shows:
Answer: (2) Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Explanation
Forming hypotheses and testing them systematically is hypothetico-deductive reasoning, typical of Piaget's formal operational stage (about 11 years onwards).
A student says, 'I will not copy in the exam because rules must be obeyed; if everyone broke them, order in society would collapse.' This reasoning belongs to which of Kohlberg's orientations?
Answer: (4) Law-and-order orientation
Explanation
Obeying rules to maintain social order is Stage 4 (law-and-order), part of Kohlberg's conventional level.
A teacher announces that students who submit all assignments on time will be excused from the weekly extra homework, and on-time submission increases. In Skinner's terms, this is:
Answer: (2) Negative reinforcement
Explanation
Removing an unpleasant stimulus (extra homework) to strengthen a behaviour is negative reinforcement, not punishment.
According to Bandura, which is the correct sequence of processes in observational learning?
Answer: (1) Attention → Retention → Reproduction → Motivation
Explanation
The learner first attends to the model, retains what was seen, reproduces it, and performs it when motivated.
Consider the following statements about Jerome Bruner: 1. His three modes of representation, in order of development, are enactive, iconic and symbolic. 2. He advocated a spiral curriculum in which topics are revisited at increasing levels of complexity. 3. He held that a subject can be taught only after the child reaches the formal operational stage. Which of the statements given above are correct?
Answer: (1) 1 and 2 only
Explanation
Statements 1 and 2 are Bruner's ideas; he argued that any subject can be taught in some honest form to any child at any stage, so 3 is wrong.