ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2020-2021)

BES-123: LEARNING AND TEACHING

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given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private
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Q1. What are the learning processes identified by Piaget? Discuss each of these by giving
example from a classroom situation.
Ans. In recent times, the work of Piaget has received a lot of attention. Piaget’s work has
influenced a lot of thinking.
Piaget studied the growth and development of the child. The main objective of Piaget has
been to describe the process of human thinking from infancy to adulthood.
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development redefines intelligence, knowledge and the
relationship of the learner to the environment. Intelligence, like a biological system is a
continuing process that creates structures. In continuing interactions with the environment,
s/he needs intelligence. Similarly, knowledge is an interactive process between the learner
and the environment. Knowledge is highly subjective in infancy and early childhood and
becomes more objective in early adulthood
He believes that learning is a function of certain processes. They are: assimilation,
accommodation, adaptation and equilibration. Let us discuss each process in detail so that
Piaget’s cognitive approach to learning is understood properly.
Assimilation: It is a process of incorporating new objects and experiences into the existing
schema (here, schema refers to well-defined sequences of actions). As soon as the schema of
action is developed, it is applied to every new object and in every new situation.
Assimilation of experiences into a succession of cognitive scheme takes place. Later,
representation of words and actions using symbols takes place resulting in representational
schema. The observation of surroundings and process leads to assimilation in the early
stages of learning. This assimilation accounts for the children’s ability to act on and
understand something new in terms of what is already familiar. Assimilation is followed by
accommodation.
Accommodation: In the individual’s encounters with the environment, accommodation
accompanies assimilation. Accommodation is the adjustment of internal structures to the
particular characteristics of specific situations. For example, biological structures

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accommodate the type and quantity of food at the same time so that the food is being
assimilated. Similarly, in cognitive functioning, internal structures adjust to the particular
characteristics of new objects and evens. Accommodation also refers to the modification of
the individual’s internal cognitive structures. When the learner realizes that his or her ways
of thinking are contradicted by events in the environment, the previous ways of thinking are
reorganized. This reorganization, which results in a higher level of thinking, is
accommodation.
As the child continues to confront experiences in the environment, the schema is so formed
so as to not remain permanent. S/he has either to combine her/his previous schemata or to
modify them as per new experiences. The process of combining/modifying existing
schemata and the arrival at new schemata is known as accommodation. Here, the child
remains active and explores questions, experiments, etc.
Equilibration: In cognitive development, equilibration is the continuing selfregulation that
permits the individual to grow, develop and change while maintaining stability.
Equilibration, however, is not a balance of forces but it is a dynamic process that
continuously regulates behaviour. It indicates the balance between assimilation and
accommodation. Equilibration is the factor that maintains stability during the process of
continuous interaction and continuous change. Without equilibration, cognitive
development would lack continuity and cohesiveness but instead would become
fragmented and disorganized.
Equilibrium is the balancing act between the old and the new, between perceptions and
experiences. It is a dynamic process that attempts to reduce dissonance.
Adaptation: Assimilation helps in getting new experiences into existing schema, while
accommodation helps in combining/expanding/changing the new schema based on new
experiences. Thus, the individual is helped in adjusting to new environment. This
adjustment to a new environment is known as adaption. This adaption is also not the
permanent one. S/he develops many new or modified schemata as s/he alters or extends
her/his range of action. Adaption results from the interactionist process between the
organism and environment--which helps the individual to organise her/his life experiences
from the environment. In adapting to events in life the person tries to assimilate all
experiences and information into existing cognitive structures. If this is possible, s/he
accommodates by changing the cognitive structure. By assimilating the new to the old and
by accommodating the old to the new, the person learns. The process of adaptation
continues throughout life.
Based on his characterization of cognitive functioning as consisting of organization and
adaptation, Piaget has presented a definition of intelligence. He believes that intelligence is
not a fixed trait set for life but rather a process of adapting to the environment. The
environment makes demands from the person. These demands are reacted to when the
person assimilates aspects of the environment into existing cognitive structures and
accommodates the cognitive structures to environmental demands. In the first case, the
person’s behaviour is determined by existing cognitive structures. In the second case, the

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person’s cognitive structures are modified by the environment. The result is adaptive
behaviour or intelligence. Adaptation is a process through which a person seeks an
equilibration or balance between what s/he presently perceives, knows and understands and
what s/he sees in any new phenomena, experiences or problems. Adaptation is the human
tendency to survive for equilibrium or balance between self and environment. The
equilibrium is conceptualised by Piaget as a dynamic and growth-producing process which
would be achieved at each intellectual stage, before a person reaches the next level of
cognitive functioning. Therefore, the adaptation and the growth of organisms provide an
explanation of the problems and processes involved in the adaptation of intelligence or
knowledge (Piaget 1980). Piaget has mapped out in detail the stages by which cognitive
functions develop and the times at which given concepts may be expected to appear.
Piaget has propounded the four stages thus - probably the clearest version of his
classification as sensory-motor, preoperational, concrete operations and formal operations.
Each stage represents an increase over the previous one in the child’s ability to think
abstractly, predict the world correctly, explain reasons for things accurately, and generally
deal intellectually with the world.
i) Sensory-motor stage: This is known as the first stage. It extends roughly from birth to the
age two. As the names implies, the schema that develops during this stage are those
involving the child’s perception of the world and the coordination by which s/he deals with
the world. It is during this period that the child forms his/her most basic conceptions about
the nature of material world. He learns that an object that has disappeared can reappear.
S/he learns that is the same object even though it looks very different when seen from
different angles or in different illuminations. S/he relates the appearances, sound and touch
of the object to one another. S/he discovers ways in which her/his own actions affect objects,
and acquires a primitive sense of causality. Thus, her/his world becomes increasingly an
orderly arrangement of more or less permanent objects, related casually to each other and to
her/his own behaviour.
ii) Proportional stage: It is known as the second stage and extends roughly from about age 2
to 7. In this stage, the child begins to exhibit the effect of having learned language. S/he is
able to represent objects and events symbolically: not just to act towards them, but to think
about them. The children have internal representations of objects before has words to
express them. These internal representations give the child greater flexibility for dealing
adaptively with the world, and attaching words to them gives him/ her much greater power
of communication. However, his/her intellectual abilities are still very limited compared
with those of an adult. His/her thinking is still decidedly concrete by an adult standard. S/he
tends to focus on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of others, a process that Piaget
calls cantering. His/her reasoning can be a logician’s nightmare, and s/he finds it difficult to
understand how anyone else can see things from a point of view other than his/her own.
S/he is thus, as the name of the stage implies, still early in the process of acquiring a logical,
adult intellectual structure.

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iii) Concrete operation stage: The third stage extends from age 7 to 11. Again, this
represents an increase in flexibility. In this case, over the preoperational. The sort of
operations to which the name of the stage refers includes classifying, combining and
comparing. The child in the stage of concrete operations can deal with the relationships
among hierarchies of terms such as robin, bird and creature. S/he is aware as the
preoperational child is not, of the reversibility of operations. What is added can be
subtracted, and a substance that has been changed in shape can be restored to its original
shape. A girl at this stage will not fall into the fallacy that a preoperational girl may of
saying, “I have a sister, but she doesn’t have any sister”.
Again, however, Piaget pointed out this is not the whole story. One child may have learned
arithmetical operations by role fail to supply them when appropriate, while another child
may deal effectively with problems without ever having been exposed to arithmetic.
Learning of symbolic manipulations may be helpful to the child in going from the wide
variety of concrete situations is more important.

iv) Formal operations stage: The fourth stage and final stage around age 11 years. It
involves improvements in abstract thinking, continuing to about age 16. In this stage, the
capacity for symbolic manipulation reaches its peak. Though children in the previous stage
have been able to perform a number of logical operations, they have one so within the
context of a concrete situation. Now, the person intellectuality, because s/he is no longer a
child, can view the issues abstractly. They can judge the validity of logical argument in
terms of their formal structure, independent of content. S/he can explore different ways of
formulating a problem and see what their logical consequences are. S/he is at least ready to
think in terms of a realm of abstract propositions that fit in varying degrees in the real world
that s/he observes. S/he may not demonstrate all the tendencies in every possible situation,

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but s/he has reached the stage at which he is capable of doing so. The intellectual apparatus
of formal reasoning that provides the basis for so much human achievement is at least
potentiality at his/her disposal.
Children may not show those stages within the age-ranges specified above, because of
differing home and school environments. But what Piaget insists on, is that the sequence of
these stages in intellectual development remains the same for all children.
At the higher education level, we are concerned with learners who are at the fourth stage i.e.
formal operation stage. Therefore, we should know more about this stage. (learners at
undergraduate level are expected to beat this stage).
The important characteristics of the formal operation period/stage are listed below:
● Learner at this stage survey many possibilities
● They design a system of what is hypothetically possible, is structured and followed
by empirical verification.
● They can conceive of an imaginary world.
● They become critical of their own standards and look objectively at the assumptions
in hand
● They accept assumptions for the sake of argument
● They generate hypotheses, discuss and proceed them to test
● They try to generalize things
● They become conscious of their own thinking and provide rational/ justification for
their thinking, judgement and actions.
● The older adolescents or adults are sufficiently detached from their ego and from
their inner world to be objective one. They are also detached enough from external
things to be objective observers and to be able to reason about the assumptions and
the hypotheses and as such they can establish general laws.
● They go even to the extent of finding empirical and mathematical proofs for their
observations.
● At this stage, thinking goes beyond the immediate present and attempts are made by
them to establish as many vertical relationships as possible.
● Notions, ideas and concepts are formal which belong to the present and future.
Q2. Identify the strategies you would like to use to promote curiosity among your
learners. Apply these on your learners for sometimes, and develop a reflective report on
effectiveness of these strategies in your classroom situation.
Ans. Albert Einstein once opined, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity
has its own reasons for existing.” If you think about the last time any book, movie or
conversation sparked your curiosity, it will surely give you the utmost pleasure. When
something ignites your curiosity, regions of your brain associated with reward, memory,
and motivation actually “fire up” with activity. In other words may, curiosity may be a great
thing that readies the brain to learn sincerely. Many researchers suggest a link between
motivation, learning and curiosity. It’s no secret that curiosity makes learning more effective
and enjoyable. Curious learners not only ask questions, but also actively seek out answers.

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Without curiosity, Sir Isaac Newton would have never formulated the laws of physics,
Alexander Fleming probably wouldn’t have discovered penicillin, and Marie Curie’s
pioneering research on radioactivity may not exist. Apart from this many more researches
would not have been possible. To understand the role of curiosity let us go through the
points given below.

Curiosity prepares the brain for learning: It might be no big surprise that we are more
likely to remember what we have learned when the subject matter seems interesting to us. It
turns out that curiosity helps us to learn information which we do not consider all that
interesting or important. If you as a teacher are able to arouse learners’ curiosity about
something they’re naturally motivated to learn, they’ll be better prepared and motivated to
learn things that they would normally consider boring or difficult.
For instance, if a learner struggles with math, personalizing math problems to match their specific
interests rather than using generic textbook questions could help them better remember how to go
about solving similar math problems in the future. This is the responsibility of the teacher to shape the
learners to learn anything with ease which is otherwise complicated.
Curiosity makes subsequent learning more rewarding: Apart from preparing the brain for
learning, curiosity can also make learning a more rewarding experience for learners. The
modern researchers have found that when the learners’ curiosity had been sparked, there
was not only increased activity in the hypothalamus, which is the region of the brain
involved in the creation of memories, but also in the brain circuit that is related to reward
and pleasure. So not only will arousing learners’ curiosity help them remember lessons that
might otherwise go in one ear and out the other, but it can also make the learning experience
as pleasurable as games, chocolate or pocket money.
Asking the right question: Naturally, there are still a few things that remain unclear about
curiosity’s role in learning. For one thing, scientists have yet to determine its long-term
effects. For instance, if a learner’s curiosity is stimulated at the beginning of a school day,

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will it help them to absorb information better, all day long? Another thing the researchers
are keen to investigate is why some people are more naturally curious than others, and
which factors most influence how curious we are. So rather than jumping straight into the
answers, let’s try to starting learners off with the sort of questions that encourage them to do
their own seeking.
Be curious yourself: Curiosity is contagious. Try a new sport, start a new hobby or take an
online course in an unfamiliar subject. Seek out people with different backgrounds and
viewpoints, and then actively listen to what they say. As you take on these new challenges,
share your experiences with your learner—the excitement, the rewards, and the challenges.
In this process, you’ll inspire your learner to tackle new subjects and persevere through the
initial discomfort that often comes with learning something unfamiliar.
Ask questions and answer the questions: You’ve heard the saying, “It’s the journey, not the
destination.” When it comes to curiosity, it’s the question, not the answer that engages
learners. The destination has value and will reward a learner’s hard work. The journey,
however, makes that end result more exciting and satisfying. Curiosity starts the journey
and motivates a learner to keep going, no matter how rocky the path is.
To draw learners in, you need to ask open-ended questions that encourage them to
seek out their own answers—questions that cannot be answered with a yes or a no or
a shrug of the shoulders. Open-ended questions can begin with phrases like:
● What would happen if…
● What would it be like to …
● Why did …
● How do we know that …
● What did you think when …
Practice and encourage active listening: Of course, great questions are pointless if no one is
listening. When you actively listen to your learner, you’re also demonstrating how he or she
can live curiously and communicate effectively. By example, show your learner how to
listen with full attention, how to play back or paraphrase the speaker’s comments, and how
to ask questions that generate more information and maybe even more questions.
Present new information in chunks: For arousing curiosity information should be
presented in small chunks. If information is presented in small chunks then the learner will
be forced to think about the next chunk.
Q3. Identify any classroom problem which you would like to solve through an action
research. Prepare an action research proposal on it.
Ans. Step One: Identifying the Problem - as the first step we need to identify an issue and
begin to formulate questions for which we are looking for solutions. As the first step to
action research, we will choose something that is important to us as a teacher: for example,
we can look at some of our own teaching methods or at the way students learn. We can
begin with a simple and manageable project that can be handled. We need to keep in mind
that it is not possible to change everything at the same time. We only need to begin
somewhere so that others start thinking on initiating their ideas to address the issue of their

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concern. Improvement can begin in small measures, taking one problem at a time and
finding a solution for it.
We can also start off with a question, like “Why do the learners not respond to my
mathematics class?” Think about how you can undertake such a problem.
You may ask yourself whether all the learners are not responding or a few? For example
“What happens when I am teaching a particular concept?” Identify this concept that is
bothering you and your learners are not responding on. The concept in question will be
related to which grade learners are we referring to? We have to understand whether it is the
learners who fail to respond in the entire school or only a part of it? Thus we need to define
how big or small the problem is i.e. an understanding on the magnitude of the problem. The
solution we look for will be based on this understanding.
Step Two: Reference Work - once the problem has been identified it will call for some
reference work. This will be the second step of the action research. We require finding out
more about our problem and the various ways in which it has been addressed in the past.
For example we must find out the ‘mathematics concept’ to which the learners have not
been responding. We need to know how learners’ have responded to the same concept in
other schools and classrooms. We need to find out if there is an inherent problem in
transacting such concept. We need to read, discuss, and think over it and try to identify
what will work in our context.
There is a need to involve more school teachers in the project and talk to them about our
concerns and find out their opinion on the issue. We can take their suggestions and further
go on to refer to books and journals, and also find out if there are some other studies
available on our topic of concern. We must explore with as much as we can, as this will
provide us with greater clarity on our initiative. As we move on with our reference work we
must not lose focus. We must try and bring in local resource persons who can provide
inputs on where to limit ourselves. We may have to revisit our question and make changes
wherever required maintaining alignment with our major issue of concern. If the need
arises, we can change our direction and work on something more relevant and manageable.
Action research provides a lot of flexibility and that allows us to be sure about what we are
about to do.
Step Three: Initiating Action - After all the reference works, discussions and exchanging
ideas it is likely that we will come up with newer ideas. On the basis of these new ideas we
will make changes and try out what seems appropriate for our school or classroom. These
ideas will generally be influenced by what we have gathered from others experiences and
other studies. We must try out these ideas in the classroom. For example we try and teach
the “mathematics concept” using a different TLM, or using a different method. Next we
need to find out if children are engaging with this new form of teaching–learning.
Step Four: Collection of Data - At this point we will face the challenge of how to measure
the results? This is where we will make use of wide variety of data collection methods.
Depending on the kind of research we need to carefully identify our data collection method.
It could call for designing questionnaire schedules for interviews, work out an observation

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format, and develop formats for recording various focus group discussions or simple
discussions and any other evaluation methods like a case study. We need to ensure that our
research must be systematic and rigorous so that our work gains credibility.
Step Five: Evaluation and Analysis - once the project has taken off, at every step we have to
evaluate and reflect on the responses we start receiving on the new ideas introduced in the
classroom. We must gather all the data on some simple formats and analyse them. With
concurrent evaluation and regular reflection we can find out if our intervention is feasible
and is making the desired change or not? We can involve resource persons like BRC/CRC
coordinators, school principals who have an understanding on our problem and their
opinion will make some value addition to our effort. Their inputs can prove a different
perspective that we have been overlooking and is important for us to consider.
Step Six: Drawing Findings – once we are ready with the findings that suggest solutions to
the existing problems we need to implement this as part of our classroom practice. We need
to ensure that the solution has helped to improve or amend our previous practice. We are
now able to do things differently in the classroom. We need to question ourselves that have
we learned from the project.
We need to keep in mind that action research is empowering – it allows us to change our
ways of classroom transactions. We can continue to make changes all the time, and continue
to grow as a professional.
We need to ask ourselves that have the questions to our concerns been answered. As we
worked towards one concern did we come across other issues that require our attention?
Did we expect what we actually found? How are we going to share our results with the
others in the education system? We further need to consider whether these findings are
useful to the others in our school/community? We need to present our findings to others –
we can give a talk, make presentations at state level meetings on our initiative and how it
has. We have to convey that the changes happened because we altered the existing practice.
We must observe if we have been able to evolve as higher level professionals, and have
induced a different set of relationships within the school and classrooms, teacher to teacher
and also teacher to students helped the students and teachers.
Step Seven: Document our Findings: Since action research is a cyclical process and
continues from where it ends we cannot stop with drawing our conclusions. You must also
share with our colleagues what you found through your research. We must therefore ensure
that we have documented each step of our research. We can further prepare a full-fledged
study report and send to district and the state level stakeholders to get their feedback. The
report could be further circulated for dissemination and up-scaling wherever feasible. The
specific requirements of the report will differ depending on what you’ve done; however, all
of the reports have a few things in common.