Course: Elementary Education (826)

Semester: Autumn 2020

ASSIGNMENT No. 1
Q.1 Explain elementary education in Pakistan. Compare the elementary education system of Republic of
Korea with Japan.
Elementary education In Pakistan: Trends and needs
There has been much talk and debate regarding quality education in Pakistan. Ironically, they all revolve
around mostly the types, sources and content of education instead of stages, particularly the most crucial and
decisive stage i.e., elementary education.
There has been little progress in recent years in developing new and existing programmers for adolescent
learners in government schools at elementary level.
Exploratory programmers, counseling programmers and health and physical education programmers are being
cut back in government schools. The education has been narrowed down to teaching of rote-skills and
transmission of knowledge. This mere imitation and content-centered elementary education has shortchanged
the area of personnel development of the learners. This fact of failure of government elementary education has
been put in the back burner in the face of doing what is easier and less costly, but the negation of various
ongoing sustained social changes experienced by the emerging learners has become the practice of the day.
These social changes are:
1. The family pattern of a mother at home and a father working is increasingly changing.
2. The suicide rate in teenagers are increasing due to different pressures.
3. It is estimated that pre and early adolescents spend one third of their waking hours in watching television,
surfing social websites on internet and playing online games.
4. 75 per cent of all advertising is aimed at promoting mobile brands, mobile networks and mobile packages.
5. Lack of a stable home is a big contributor to delinquency.
The elementary level is comprised of the students with most impressionable age group where various social
changes make indelible prints on their minds. These years represent the last chance for the students to master
basic skills, lasting attitude towards learning and assertion of self and individualistic differences. Success at
elementary school, or the future life, can be determined and predicted for this age group.
The associations such as The National Middle School Association, Pakistan Montessori Council, and Pakistan
Elementary Teachers Association are striving for a balanced elementary curriculum by organizing frequent
conferences and workshops for the educators who are engaged in imparting basic education. However, the
government should patronize the associations and educational organizations by allocating a large part of
budget. Moreover, the government educationist and administrative authorities should make sure that the
content is cognitive learning oriented.
It must be diversified and exploratory based on real life situations and indigenous experiences. Consequently,
it could enhance the development of problem solving skills and reflective thinking process among the
students. This would also help the students to acknowledge and appraise their own interests and talents.
 Course: Elementary Education (826)
Semester: Autumn 2020

Education in South Korea is provided by both public schools and private schools. Both types of schools
receive funding from the government, although the amount that the private schools receive is less than the
amount of the state schools.[8]
South Korea is one of the top-performing OECD countries in reading literacy, mathematics and sciences with
the average student scoring about 519, compared with the OECD average of 493, placing it ninth in the world. [9]
[10]
 The country has one of the world's highest-educated labour forces among OECD countries. [11][12] The country
is well known for its obsession with education, which has come to be called "education fever". [13][14][15] The
resource-poor nation is consistently ranked amongst the top for global education.
Higher education is an overwhelmingly serious issue in South Korean society, where it is viewed as one of the
fundamental cornerstones of South Korean life. Education is regarded as a high priority for South Korean
families, as success in education is necessary for improving one's socioeconomic position in South Korean
society.[16][17] Academic success is often a source of pride for families and within South Korean society at large.
South Koreans view education as the main propeller of social mobility for themselves and their family as a
gateway to the South Korean middle class. Graduating from a top university is the ultimate marker of prestige,
high socioeconomic status, promising marriage prospects, and a prestigious and respectable white collar career
path.[18] An average South Korean child's life revolves around education as pressure to succeed academically is
deeply ingrained in South Korean children from an early age. South Korean students are faced with immense
pressure to succeed academically from their parents, teachers, peers and society. This is largely a result of a
society that has long placed a great amount of importance on higher education as those who lack formal
university education often face social prejudice as well as face significant life-long consequences such as a
stagnant and lower socioeconomic status, diminishing marriage prospects, as well as possibilities of securing a
respectable white collar and professional career path.[19]
In 2016, the country spent 5.4% of its GDP on all levels of education – roughly 0.4 percentage points above the
OECD average.[4] A strong investment in education, a militant drive for success, as well as the passion for
excellence has helped the resource poor country rapidly grow its economy over the past 60 years from the
effects of the Korean War.[20] South Korea's zeal for education and its students' desires to get into a prestigious
university is one of the highest in the world, as the entrance into a top tier higher educational institution leads to
a prestigious, secure and well-paid professional white collar job with the government, banks, or a major South
Korean conglomerate such as Samsung, Hyundai and LG Electronics.[21] With incredible pressure on high
school students to secure places at the nation's best universities, its institutional reputation, campus facilities and
equipment, endowment, faculty, and alumni networks are strong predictors of future career prospects. The top
three universities in South Korea, often referred to as "SKY", are Seoul National University, Korea University
and Yonsei University.[2][22][23] Intense competition and pressure to earn the highest grades is deeply ingrained in
the psyche of South Korean students at a young age. [23] Yet with only so many places at universities and even
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fewer places at top-tier companies, many young people remain disappointed and are often unwilling to lower
their sights with the result of many feeling as underachievers. There is a major cultural taboo in South Korean
society attached to those who have not achieved formal university education, where those who don't hold
university degrees face social prejudice and are often looked down by others as second-class citizens, resulting
fewer opportunities for employment, improvement of one's socioeconomic position and prospects for marriage.
[24]

International reception on the South Korean education system has been divided. It has been praised for various
reasons, including its comparatively high test results and its major role in ushering South Korea's economic
development while creating one of the world's most educated workforces.[25] South Korea's highly enviable
academic performance has gotten British education ministers actively remodeling their own curriculum's and
exams to try to emulate Korea's militant drive and passion for excellence and high educational achievement.
[25]
 U.S. President Barack Obama has also praised the country's rigorous school system, where over 80 percent
of South Korean high school graduates go on to university.[26] The nation's high university entrance rate has
created a highly skilled workforce making South Korea among the most highly educated countries in the world
with the one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. [3][4] Large majorities of
South Korean students go on to enroll in some form of tertiary education and leave higher education with a
tertiary qualification. In 2017, the country ranked fifth for the percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds that have
attained tertiary education with 47.7 percent.[3] 69.8 percent of South Koreans aged 25 to 34 years old have
completed some form of tertiary education with 34.2 percent of South Koreans aged 25 to 64 having attained a
bachelor's degree which is one of the highest among OECD countries.[3][4]
The system's rigid and hierarchical structure has been criticized for stifling creativity and innovation; [27]
[28]
 described as intensely and "brutally" competitive,[29] The system is often blamed for the high suicide rate in
South Korea, particularly the growing rates among those aged 10–19. Various media outlets attribute the
nations high suicide rate on the nationwide anxiety around the country's college entrance exams, which
determine the trajectory of students' entire lives and careers,[30][31] though teenage suicide rates (ages 15–19) still
remain below those of the United States and Canada. [32] Former South Korean hagwon teacher Se-Woong Koo
wrote that the South Korean education system amounts to child abuse and that it should be "reformed and
restructured without delay."[33] The system has also been criticized for producing an excess supply of university
graduates creating an overeducated and underemployed labor force; in the first quarter of 2013 alone, nearly 3.3
million South Korean university graduates were jobless, leading many graduates overqualified for jobs
requiring less education.[34] Further criticism has been stemmed for causing labor shortages in various skilled
blue collar labor and vocational occupations, where many go unfilled as the negative social stigma associated
with vocational careers and not having a university degree continues to remain deep-rooted in South Korean
society.
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The basic school system in Japan is composed of elementary school (lasting six years), middle school (three
years), high school (three years), and university (four years). Education is compulsory only for the nine years of
elementary and middle school, but 98.8% of students go on to high school. Students usually have to take exams
in order to enter high schools and universities. Recently some middle and high schools have joined together to
form single, six-year schools.

What Children Learn

Japanese children enter the first grade of elementary school in the April after their sixth birthday. There are
around 30 to 40 students in a typical elementary school class. The subjects they study include Japanese,
mathematics, science, social studies, music, crafts, physical education, and home economics (to learn simple
cooking and sewing skills). More and more elementary schools have started teaching English, too. Information
technology is increasingly being used to enhance education, and most schools have access to the Internet.
Students also learn traditional Japanese arts like shodo (calligraphy) and haiku. Shodo involves dipping a brush
in ink and using it to write kanji (characters that are used in several East Asian countries and have their own
meanings) and kana (phonetic characters derived from kanji) in an artistic style. Haiku is a form of poetry
developed in Japan about 400 years ago. A haiku is a short verse of 17 syllables, divided into units of five,
seven, and five syllables. Haiku uses simple expressions to convey deep emotions to readers.
School Life
In Japanese elementary schools, classes are divided into small teams for many activities. For example, as part of
their education, every day the students clean the classrooms, halls, and yards of their school in these teams. In
many elementary schools, the students eat lunch together in their classrooms, enjoying meals prepared by the
school or by a local "school lunch center." Small teams of students take turns to serve lunch to their classmates.
School lunches contain a rich variety of healthy and nutritious foods, and students look forward to lunchtime.

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There are many school events during the year, such as sports day when students compete in events like tug-of-
war and relay races, excursions to historical sites, and arts and culture festivals featuring dancing and other
performances by children. Students in the highest grades of elementary, middle, and high schools also take trips
lasting up to several days to culturally important cities like Kyoto and Nara, ski resorts, or other places.
Most middle and high schools require students to wear uniforms. Boys generally wear pants and jackets with
stand-up collars, and girls wear two-piece suit with sailor collar or blazers and skirts.
Club Activities
Baseball clubs are very popular among boys. Soccer (football) clubs are also gaining popularity. Judo clubs,
where kids train in this traditional martial art, attract boys and girls. They may be inspired by the many great
Japanese judo athletes, both male and female, who have won medals at the World Judo Championships and the
Olympic Games. Other popular sports clubs include tennis, basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball. In every
sport, many games are held between schools and at the regional level, so students have plenty of opportunities
to compete.
Among cultural clubs, meanwhile, one that has lately gained popularity is the go club. Go is a strategic board
game played with black and white stones. After a manga (comic book) about the game was published, more and
more schoolchildren started enjoying go. Other options for students include choir and art clubs. Brass band, tea
ceremony, and flower arrangement clubs are also popular.
Q.2 Describe in the light of Paget's theory the congnitive and intellectual development of a child at
different levels.
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of
mental development. His theory focuses not only on understanding how children acquire knowledge, but also
on understanding the nature of intelligence. Piaget's stages are:
 Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
 Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7
 Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11
 Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up
Piaget believed that children take an active role in the learning process, acting much like little scientists as they
perform experiments, make observations, and learn about the world. As kids interact with the world around
them, they continually add new knowledge, build upon existing knowledge, and adapt previously held ideas to
accommodate new information.
Piaget was born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and was a precocious student, publishing his first scientific
paper when he was just 11 years old. His early exposure to the intellectual development of children came when
he worked as an assistant to Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon as they worked to standardize their famous IQ
test.
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Much of Piaget's interest in the cognitive development of children was inspired by his observations of his own
nephew and daughter. These observations reinforced his budding hypothesis that children's minds were not
merely smaller versions of adult minds.
Up until this point in history, children were largely treated simply as smaller versions of adults. Piaget was one
of the first to identify that the way that children think is different from the way adults think.
Instead, he proposed, intelligence is something that grows and develops through a series of stages. Older
children do not just think more quickly than younger children, he suggested. Instead, there are both qualitative
and quantitative differences between the thinking of young children versus older children.
Based on his observations, he concluded that children were not less intelligent than adults, they simply think
differently. Albert Einstein called Piaget's discovery "so simple only a genius could have thought of it."
Piaget's stage theory describes the cognitive development of children. Cognitive development involves changes
in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon
actions and later progresses to changes in mental operations.
The Sensorimotor Stage
Ages: Birth to 2 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations
 Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening
 Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object permanence)
 They are separate beings from the people and objects around them
 They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them
During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory
experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs
through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.
It is during the sensorimotor stage that children go through a period of dramatic growth and learning. As kids
interact with their environment, they are continually making new discoveries about how the world works.
The cognitive development that occurs during this period takes place over a relatively short period of time and
involves a great deal of growth. Children not only learn how to perform physical actions such as crawling and
walking; they also learn a great deal about language from the people with whom they interact. Piaget also broke
this stage down into a number of different substages. It is during the final part of the sensorimotor stage that
early representational thought emerges.
Piaget believed that developing object permanence or object constancy, the understanding that objects continue
to exist even when they cannot be seen, was an important element at this point of development.

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By learning that objects are separate and distinct entities and that they have an existence of their own outside of
individual perception, children are then able to begin to attach names and words to objects.
The Preoperational Stage
Ages: 2 to 7 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.
 Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.
 While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very
concrete terms.
The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but it is the emergence
of language that is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development. Children become
much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development, yet continue to think very concretely about
the world around them.  At this stage, kids learn through pretend play but still struggle with logic and taking the
point of view of other people. They also often struggle with understanding the idea of constancy.
For example, a researcher might take a lump of clay, divide it into two equal pieces, and then give a child the
choice between two pieces of clay to play with. One piece of clay is rolled into a compact ball while the other is
smashed into a flat pancake shape. Since the flat shape looks larger, the preoperational child will likely choose
that piece even though the two pieces are exactly the same size.
The Concrete Operational Stage
Ages: 7 to 11 Years
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes
 During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events
 They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is
equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example
 Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete
 Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle
While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they become
much more adept at using logic.2 The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become
better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.
While thinking becomes much more logical during the concrete operational state, it can also be very rigid. Kids
at this point in development tend to struggle with abstract and hypothetical concepts.
During this stage, children also become less egocentric and begin to think about how other people might think
and feel. Kids in the concrete operational stage also begin to understand that their thoughts are unique to them
and that not everyone else necessarily shares their thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
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The Formal Operational Stage

Ages: 12 and Up
Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:
 At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical
problems
 Abstract thought emerges
 Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require
theoretical and abstract reasoning
 Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information
The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an
understanding of abstract ideas.3 At this point, people become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to
problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.
The ability to thinking about abstract ideas and situations is the key hallmark of the formal operational stage of
cognitive development. The ability to systematically plan for the future and reason about hypothetical situations
are also critical abilities that emerge during this stage. 
It is important to note that Piaget did not view children's intellectual development as a quantitative process; that
is, kids do not just add more information and knowledge to their existing knowledge as they get older. Instead,
Piaget suggested that there is a qualitative change in how children think as they gradually process through these
four stages.4 A child at age 7 doesn't just have more information about the world than he did at age 2; there is a
fundamental change in how he thinks about the world.
Q.3 Explain Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Discuss the role of family in the personality
development of a child.
Childhood social and personality development emerges through the interaction of social influences, biological
maturation, and the child’s representations of the social world and the self. This interaction is illustrated in a
discussion of the influence of significant relationships, the development of social understanding, the growth of
personality, and the development of social and emotional competence in childhood.
 Provide specific examples of how the interaction of social experience, biological maturation, and the
child’s representations of experience and the self-provide the basis for growth in social and personality
development.
 Describe the significant contributions of parent–child and peer relationships to the development of social
skills and personality in childhood.
 Explain how achievements in social understanding occur in childhood. Moreover, do scientists believe
that infants and young children are egocentric?
 Describe the association of temperament with personality development.
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 Explain what “social and emotional competence” is and provide some examples of how it develops in
childhood.
Understanding social and personality development requires looking at children from three perspectives that
interact to shape development. The first is the social context in which each child lives, especially the
relationships that provide security, guidance, and knowledge. The second is biological maturation that supports
developing social and emotional competencies and underlies temperamental individuality. The third is
children’s developing representations of themselves and the social world. Social and personality development is
best understood as the continuous interaction between these social, biological, and representational aspects of
psychological development.
Relationships
This interaction can be observed in the development of the earliest relationships between infants and their
parents in the first year. Virtually all infants living in normal circumstances develop strong emotional
attachments to those who care for them. Psychologists believe that the development of these attachments is as
biologically natural as learning to walk and not simply a byproduct of the parents’ provision of food or warmth.
Rather, attachments have evolved in humans because they promote children’s motivation to stay close to those
who care for them and, as a consequence, to benefit from the learning, security, guidance, warmth, and
affirmation that close relationships provide 
Although nearly all infants develop emotional attachments to their caregivers–parents, relatives, nannies– their
sense of security in those attachments varies. Infants become securely attached when their parents respond
sensitively to them, reinforcing the infants’ confidence that their parents will provide support when needed.
Infants become insecurely attached when care is inconsistent or neglectful; these infants tend to respond
evidently, resistant, or in a disorganized manner. Such insecure attachments are not necessarily the result of
deliberately bad parenting but are often a byproduct of circumstances. For example, an overworked single
mother may find herself overstressed and fatigued at the end of the day, making fully-involved childcare very
difficult. In other cases, some parents are simply poorly emotionally equipped to take on the responsibility of
caring for a child.
The different behaviors of securely- and insecurely-attached infants can be observed especially when the infant
needs the caregiver’s support. To assess the nature of attachment, researchers use a standard laboratory
procedure called the “Strange Situation,” which involves brief separations from the caregiver (e.g., mother). In
the Strange Situation, the caregiver is instructed to leave the child to play alone in a room for a short time, then
return and greet the child while researchers observe the child’s response. Depending on the child’s level of
attachment, he or she may reject the parent, cling to the parent, or simply welcome the parent—or, in some
instances, react with an agitated combination of responses.

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Parental roles in relation to their children change in other ways, too. Parents increasingly become mediators (or
gatekeepers) of their children’s involvement with peers and activities outside the family. Their communication
and practice of values contributes to children’s academic achievement, moral development, and activity
preferences. As children reach adolescence, the parent-child relationship increasingly becomes one of
“reregulation,” in which both the parent(s) and the child recognizes the child’s growing competence and
autonomy, and together they rebalance authority relations. We often see evidence of this as parents start
accommodating their teenage kids’ sense of independence by allowing them to get cars, jobs, attend parties, and
stay out later.
Social Understanding
As we have seen, children’s experience of relationships at home and the peer group contributes to an expanding
repertoire of social and emotional skills and also to broadened social understanding. In these relationships,
children develop expectations for specific people (leading, for example, to secure or insecure attachments to
parents), understanding of how to interact with adults and peers, and developing self-concept based on how
others respond to them. These relationships are also significant forums for emotional development.
Remarkably, young children begin developing social understanding very early in life. Before the end of the first
year, infants are aware that other people have perceptions, feelings, and other mental states that affect their
behavior, and which are different from the child’s own mental states. This can be readily observed in a process
called social referencing, in which an infant looks to the mother’s face when confronted with an unfamiliar
person or situation. If the mother looks calm and reassuring, the infant responds positively as if the situation is
safe. If the mother looks fearful or distressed, the infant is likely to respond with wariness or distress because
the mother’s expression signals danger. In a remarkably insightful manner, therefore, infants show an awareness
that even though they are uncertain about the unfamiliar situation, their mother is not, and that by “reading” the
emotion in her face, infants can learn about whether the circumstance is safe or dangerous, and how to respond.
Although developmental scientists used to believe that infants are egocentric—that is, focused on their own
perceptions and experience—they now realize that the opposite is true. Infants are aware at an early stage that
people have different mental states, and this motivates them to try to figure out what others are feeling,
intending, wanting, and thinking, and how these mental states affect their behavior. They are beginning, in other
words, to develop a theory of mind, and although their understanding of mental states begins very simply, it
rapidly expands. For example, if an 18-month-old watches an adult try repeatedly to drop a necklace into a cup
but inexplicably fail each time, they will immediately put the necklace into the cup themselves—thus
completing what the adult intended, but failed, to do. In doing so, they reveal their awareness of the intentions
underlying the adult’s behavior. Carefully designed experimental studies show that by late in the preschool
years, young children understand that another’s beliefs can be mistaken rather than correct, that memories can

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affect how you feel, and that one’s emotions can be hidden from others. Social understanding grows
significantly as children’s theory of mind develops.
How do these achievements in social understanding occur? One answer is that young children are remarkably
sensitive observers of other people, making connections between their emotional expressions, words, and
behavior to derive simple inferences about mental states (e.g., concluding, for example, that what Mommy is
looking at is in her mind). This is especially likely to occur in relationships with people whom the child knows
well, consistent with the ideas of attachment theory discussed above. Growing language skills give young
children words with which to represent these mental states (e.g., “mad,” “wants”) and talk about them with
others. Thus in conversation with their parents about everyday experiences, children learn much about people’s
mental states from how adults talk about them (“Your sister was sad because she thought Daddy was coming
home.”). Developing social understanding is, in other words, based on children’s everyday interactions with
others and their careful interpretations of what they see and hear. There are also some scientists who believe
that infants are biologically prepared to perceive people in a special way, as organisms with an internal mental
life, and this facilitates their interpretation of people’s behavior with reference to those mental states (
Social and Emotional Competence
Social and personality development is built from the social, biological, and representational influences
discussed above. These influences result in important developmental outcomes that matter to children, parents,
and society: a young adult’s capacity to engage in socially constructive actions (helping, caring, sharing with
others), to curb hostile or aggressive impulses, to live according to meaningful moral values, to develop a
healthy identity and sense of self, and to develop talents and achieve success in using them. These are some of
the developmental outcomes that denote social and emotional competence.
These achievements of social and personality development derive from the interaction of many social,
biological, and representational influences. Consider, for example, the development of conscience, which is an
early foundation for moral development. Conscience consists of the cognitive, emotional, and social influences
that cause young children to create and act consistently with internal standards of conduct. Conscience emerges
from young children’s experiences with parents, particularly in the development of a mutually responsive
relationship that motivates young children to respond constructively to the parents’ requests and expectations.
Biologically based temperament is involved, as some children are temperamentally more capable of motivated
self-regulation (a quality called effortful control) than are others, while some children are dispositional more
prone to the fear and anxiety that parental disapproval can evoke. Conscience development grows through a
good fit between the child’s temperamental qualities and how parents communicate and reinforce behavioral
expectations. Moreover, as an illustration of the interaction of genes and experience, one research group found
that young children with a particular gene allele were low on measures of conscience development when they

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had previously experienced unresponsive maternal care, but children with the same allele growing up with
responsive care showed strong later performance on conscience measures.
Q.4 Explain the inter-relationship of language skills. How does the classroom environment affect them?
Language is a cognitive process by which we communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. When we think
of language and school, most of us think about reading. But language skills encompass more than reading. We
talk, we listen, we read, and we write with words. Language skills, then, include reading, writing, listening, and
speaking.
Reading, writing, speaking and listening play crucial roles in school, and all four are interrelated and affect one
another. There is a fundamental and reciprocal relationship among oral language (listening and speaking),
written language, and reading. Initially, reading and writing are dependent on oral language skills. Eventually,
reading and writing extend oral language. Young children use oral language skills to learn how to read. Older
children use reading to broaden their learning.
Reading. Of the four language skills, reading has the greatest impact on school success. Substantial research in
reading development and reading instruction has been funded by the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD) within the National Institutes of Health. Since 1965, well over 45,000 children
and adults from all walks of life have participated in the research (Birsh, 2005). NICHD funded researchers
have now defined how children learn to read, why some children have difficulties learning to read, how we can
remediate reading difficulties, and how we can prevent reading difficulties.
In 1997, in response to a congressional charge, the National Reading Panel (NRP) was created under the
direction of the NICHD. The purpose of the NRP was to conduct an evidence-based assessment of the scientific
research on reading and its implications for reading instruction. The panel examined over 100,000 research
studies completed since 1966. The panel’s report, issued in 2000, stated that, in order to read, children must be
taught alphabetics (phonemic awareness and phonics), reading fluency (speed, accuracy, expression, and ease),
and reading comprehension.
The findings of the NRP report on the five components of reading instruction are summarized as follows:
 Phoneme awareness –the ability to attend to, think about and work with the individual sounds in words
 Phonics – the relationship between the sounds and written symbols of language or phoneme-grapheme
correspondence
 Fluency – the ability to read text quickly and accurately
 Vocabulary – the ability to understand the meanings of the words we use to communicate
 Comprehension – the ability to derive meaning from what is read, which is the reason for reading
Poor instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics is the most common reason why students exhibit reading
problems.  The most common cause of reading problems other than poor instruction is dyslexia.  While learning

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 Course: Elementary Education (826)
Semester: Autumn 2020

to read may be more difficult for children with dyslexia, students with dyslexia can learn to read when they are
taught in a direct, sequential and cumulative fashion.
Reading problems may also be caused by breakdowns in other components such as fluency, vocabulary, and/or
text comprehension. Deficits in vocabulary and text comprehension are very often associated with oral language
difficulties. Poor comprehension of text may be due to challenges with attention and/or memory. Because
reading problems have various causes at their root, and because these various causes are treated in different
ways, it is critical to specifically identify and address all of the underlying causes.
Writing is the expressive mode of written language and involves using written symbols of language to
communicate. Writing not only includes the ability to accurately represent the graphic form of speech (letters
and words) but also the ability to develop and express one’s thoughts in a cohesive, structured manner. The
skills required for effective writing include knowledge of spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar, an
understanding of how word order in sentences affects meaning, and the ability to distinguish main ideas from
supporting ideas or details.
Listening involves understanding what we hear. To listen effectively, one must be able to retain “chunks” of
language in short-term and working memory, recognize and understand vocabulary, recognize the stress and
rhythm patterns of speech and glean meaning from context.
Speaking skills include the correct pronunciation of words, the appropriate use of vocabulary and grammar and
the ability to recall words from long-term memory. The goal of speaking is to make our ideas and explanations
clear and understandable to others. Effective speaking also involves the ability to use language within the social
context.
Children who struggle with language often perform poorly in school because they have trouble understanding
what is said to them, what they read, and expressing their thoughts to others. Students with language processing
problems should receive instruction or therapy by a qualified professional, as well as receiving accommodations
and modifications in the school setting, if necessary, to assure school success.
Q.5 Discuss the questioning technique for the development of higher mental process. Elaborate its
effectiveness in different methods of teaching.
Asking and answering questions is a key ingredient in the learning process and in effective teaching. using a
variety of questions in the classroom can serve many different purposes — they can be used to:
 diagnose students’ level of understanding
 help students retain material but putting into words otherwise unarticulated thoughts
 involve and engage students in their learning process, especially critical thinking and reflection
 test students’ knowledge
 dispel misconceptions
 summarize and review key points and highlighting main themes, ideas and skills
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 Course: Elementary Education (826)
Semester: Autumn 2020

 stimulate creativity
 modifying students’ perception of the subject
 encourage students to become self-directed learners(
If students are interested and engaged in the course content, they should be asking questions. As TAs and CIs,
we should welcome and encourage questions from our students. Hence, it is important to follow certain basic
rules around student questions:
 take questions seriously — treat every inquiry as a genuine attempt at intellectual curiosity, probing
and exploration
 be positive and encouraging — promote the idea that every student question is useful, important and
appreciated.
 draw all class members into the conversation — whenever you field a question, repeat it to the
entire class and answer to the entire class
 avoid embarrassing students who have asking problematic questions — avoid making the
questioner feel foolish especially when a question reveals the individual student’s lack of awareness
or knowledge
You should encourage your students to create their own questions about course content. ask students to:
 suggest and submit quiz, mid-term or exam questions
 get student to quiz each other on the tutorial/lesson/lecture content
 get students to write down one or two remaining questions at the end of tutorial (Centre for
Teaching Excellence, Cornell University; Cashlin, 1995)
Avoid the “Are there any questions?” Turn these reflective moments into opportunities for students to
demonstrate their understanding as a check of their learning:
 “Now, I am sure you have some questions?”
 “That was complicated. What did I leave out?”
 “This is a difficult topic with lots of controversial issues. Which area do you think remains
controversial?”
Responding to student questions about content also requires some basic rules:
 reinforce good questions and answers — reinforce participation on a continuous basis and in a
variety of direct and indirect ways by praising students for asking or answering a question
 answer as pointedly and briefly as possible – be straightforward in your answer and avoid providing
all information that you know about the topic
 answer questions immediately – always provide a response to avoid discouraging students; however,
you can ask other students to respond or postpone the question (if it is too divergent or complex) until
after class
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 Course: Elementary Education (826)
Semester: Autumn 2020

 relate questions to the course content, even if they are tangential – remind students of how a
seemingly unrelated question does pertain to course content as every question if a learning
opportunity
 ask for comments or answers from other students – you can redirect a question from one student to
the entire class
Strategies to improve the distribution of your questioning
1. Introduce hands down questioning - where you decide who to ask. Tell the pupils clearly "This is a
hands down question - I expect you all to be able to give me an answer, even if that answer is 'I'm not
sure'." It takes some training, but it's worth it!
2. If you tend to question the same pupils try moving about the classroom. Teachers seem to ask those
pupils seated in a sort of "shifting spotlight " in front of them By moving to different areas of the room
you are likely to ask a wider range of pupils.
3. Distribute slips of paper/card at the beginning of the lesson. As pupils answer a question, they hand
over one of their cards. Teachers can see clearly who has still all their cards and can target an
appropriate question! This technique also allows teachers to engage reluctant pupils, who may be
given fewer cards.
4. Address a question directly to a named pupil. Keep others involved by asking them to consider what
they could add/ whether they agree etc. e.g. “John, do you think that Macbeth really wants to kill the
King at this point? Sam, do you agree? What evidence can you find? Does anyone think something
different?"
5. Use the 'thinking time' pause after asking the question to consider who has answered questions
already. Try simple strategies like asking a pupil who often answers to select two or three others to
answer - thus keeping them involved.

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