UPHESC Assistant Professor Education 2025 PYQs

Concept: Item analysis of an achievement test computes difficulty value $p=\frac{R}{N}$ and discrimination index $D=\frac{R_U-R_L}{N/2}$ for each item to select good items.

1. Items have right/wrong answers in achievement tests, so ‘difficulty’ applies.
2. Attitude scales have no right answers – items are selected by t-values/scale values, not difficulty.
3. Reliability and validity are properties of the whole test.

Short trick: Difficulty + discrimination = item analysis of achievement test.

Concept: T-scores have mean 50 and SD 10, so $T=50+10Z$.

1. Z-score: mean 0, SD 1 – negatives and decimals are awkward.
2. Example: $Z=1.5\Rightarrow T=50+15=65$.
3. (Deviation IQ uses $100+15Z$.)

Short trick: T = 50 ± 10 per SD.

Concept: Formative evaluation is carried out during instruction to monitor learning progress and give feedback for improvement.

1. Placement – before instruction (entry behaviour).
2. Diagnostic – to locate persistent learning difficulties and their causes.
3. Summative – at the end, to grade/certify.

Short trick: During = Formative; End = Summative; Before = Placement; Why failing = Diagnostic.

Concept: NEP 2020 (para 24.4) says existing e-learning platforms such as DIKSHA, SWAYAM and SWAYAMPRABHA will be leveraged for creating virtual labs.

1. PARAKH is the National Assessment Centre (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) – an assessment body, not a content platform.
2. So i, ii and iv.

Short trick: Labs on content platforms (DIKSHA, SWAYAM, SWAYAM PRABHA); PARAKH = assessment.

Concept: Robert Glaser (1962) gave the Basic Teaching Model with four components: instructional objectives → entering behaviour → instructional procedures → performance assessment (with feedback).

1. Skinner – linear programmed instruction.
2. Thomas F. Gilbert – mathetics.
3. Joyce & Weil – classified models of teaching into four families.

Short trick: Glaser’s BTM: O-E-I-P (Objectives, Entry, Instruction, Performance assessment).

Concept: EDUSAT (GSAT-3), India’s first satellite exclusively for education, was launched by ISRO on 20 September 2004 by GSLV-F01 from Sriharikota.

1. It provided interactive satellite-based distance education (virtual classrooms).
2. Earlier experiment: SITE (1975–76) using the American ATS-6 satellite.

Short trick: EDUSAT – 20-09-2004 (‘20-9-04’).

Concept: MOOC = Massive Open Online Course – unlimited participation, open access via the web (term coined 2008, Dave Cormier).

1. Order matters: Massive – Open – Online – Course (option D swaps Open and Online).
2. India’s MOOC platform: SWAYAM (2017).

Short trick: M-O-O-C in order: Massive, Open, Online, Course.

Concept: Norman A. Crowder (1960) developed branching (intrinsic) programming: multiple-choice frames route the learner to remedial or advanced frames.

1. Linear programming – B. F. Skinner (1954).
2. Mathetics – Thomas F. Gilbert (1962).
3. Guilford – structure of intellect model.

Short trick: Skinner = Linear; Crowder = Branching; Gilbert = Mathetics.

Concept: G. O. M. Leith (1967): ‘Educational technology is the systematic application of scientific knowledge about teaching-learning and conditions of learning to improve the efficiency of teaching and training.’

1. Richmond: concerned with providing appropriate learning situations, holding the instructional aims in view.
2. R. A. Cox: application of scientific processes to man’s learning conditions.

Short trick: ‘Scientific knowledge about learning … teaching and training’ = Leith.

Concept: Match each reform with the body that recommended it.

1. Common School System – Kothari Commission (1964–66) → III.
2. Navodaya Vidyalayas (pace-setting schools) – NPE 1986 → IV.
3. 4-year multidisciplinary UG programme – NEP 2020 → II.
4. Multipurpose schools – Mudaliar (Secondary Education) Commission 1952–53 → I.

Short trick: Kothari–Common school; Mudaliar–Multipurpose; 1986–Navodaya; 2020–4-yr UG.

Concept: NEP 2020 (para 4.2): the foundational stage (ages 3–8) will consist of flexible, multilevel, play-based, activity-based and inquiry/discovery-based (interactive) learning.

1. Lecture method is teacher-centred and unsuitable for 3–8 year-olds.
2. So play, activity and interactive methods – i, iii, iv.

Short trick: Foundational stage = Play + Activity + Inquiry; no lectures.

Concept: The Acharya Ramamurti Committee (1990) reviewed NPE 1986; its report (Dec 1990) was titled ‘Towards an Enlightened and Humane Society’.

1. Janardhana Reddy Committee (CABE, 1992) reviewed NPE again → Programme of Action 1992.
2. Hartog Committee (1929) – wastage and stagnation; B. G. Kher Committee (1948) – financing of primary education.

Short trick: Ramamurti 1990 = ‘Enlightened and Humane Society’.

Concept: NEP 2020 (para 23.3) proposes an autonomous National Educational Technology Forum (NETF) to provide a platform for free exchange of ideas on using technology for learning, assessment, planning and administration.

1. NPE 1986 gave Operation Blackboard and Navodaya; Sachar Committee (2006) – socio-economic status of Muslims.

Short trick: NETF – new body of NEP 2020 (like PARAKH, NRF, HECI).

Concept: Operation Blackboard (launched 1987–88) was recommended by NPE 1986 to provide minimum essential facilities in every primary school – two all-weather rooms, two teachers (one woman) and essential teaching-learning material.

1. Sargent Plan (1944) – post-war educational development.
2. Yashpal Committee (1993) – ‘Learning without Burden’.

Short trick: NPE 1986 → Operation Blackboard + Navodaya + DIET.

Concept: NEP 2020’s 5+3+3+4 structure: Foundational (5 yrs: 3 yrs pre-school/Anganwadi + Classes 1–2, ages 3–8), Preparatory (Classes 3–5), Middle (6–8), Secondary (9–12).

1. Pre-primary is only the first 3 years of the foundational stage.
2. Basic Education was Gandhi’s Wardha scheme (1937).

Short trick: 5-3-3-4 = Foundational–Preparatory–Middle–Secondary.

Concept: The Secondary Education Commission (Mudaliar, 1952–53) laid down aims of secondary education: development of democratic citizenship, improvement of vocational efficiency, development of personality, and education for leadership.

1. Hunter (1882) – primary education; Sadler (1917–19) – Calcutta University; Radhakrishnan (1948–49) – university education.

Short trick: Mudaliar’s 4 aims: Democratic citizenship, Vocational efficiency, Personality, Leadership.

Concept: In the standard textbook view this description of the inclusive school is attributed to Judy Lupart (Canada), who argued that inclusion needs a fundamental restructuring of regular schools – reconstructed educational thinking and practice – for the benefit of all students.

1. Roger Slee writes mainly on the politics of inclusion and 'the irregular school'.
2. Specht and the other names are not the usual attribution for this line, so the textbook answer is Lupart.

Short trick: Lupart → 'Reconstruct the regular school'.

Concept: RCI was set up in 1986 as a registered society; it became a statutory body under the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 (amended 2000).

1. PWD Act – 1995; RTE Act – 2009; RPWD Act – 2016; National Trust Act – 1999.
2. RCI regulates training of special educators and rehabilitation professionals.

Short trick: RCI: society 1986 → Act 1992 → PWD 1995 → RPWD 2016.

Concept: Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard (French physician) is regarded as the father of special and inclusive education for his systematic individualised training of Victor, ‘the wild boy of Aveyron’ (1800s).

1. Louis Braille – Braille script for the blind.
2. Samuel Gridley Howe – Perkins School for the Blind.
3. Anne Sullivan – teacher of Helen Keller.

Short trick: Itard → Victor of Aveyron → father of special/inclusive education.

Concept: RPWD Act 2016 Schedule: blindness = (i) total absence of sight; or (ii) visual acuity less than 3/60 or less than 10/200 (Snellen) in the better eye with best correction; or (iii) field of vision subtending an angle of less than 10 degrees.

1. Partial absence of vision – low vision, not blindness.
2. 30° field limit – not the criterion (it is < 10°).
3. Option D reproduces the Act’s criterion (10/200 Snellen in the better eye).

Short trick: Blindness: 3/60 or 10/200, field < 10°; Low vision: 6/18–3/60, field < 40°.