Important Characteristics Notes On Teaching Aptitude For UGC NET 2022

1. The concept of Teaching: Teaching involves the purposeful direction and management of the learning process. It is a planned activity or a process in which the learner, teacher, and other variable are planned in a particular order to attain some predetermined goals. Teaching can be both formal and informal. 

• Informal teaching is carried out within a family or in a community, during initial years of life, for example, homeschooling.
• Formal teaching is carried out by paid professions called teachers or faculty.

2. Basic Teaching Models: Generally, there are two models of teaching. These are:

(a). Instructor-centered Teaching

• When an instructor or a facilitator is in actively involved in teaching while the learners are in a passive, receptive mode listening as the instructor or a facilitator teaches is known as instructor-centered Teaching.
• In this teaching, an instructor is fully responsible for what is taught and how it is learned.
• The learner is fully dependent upon the instructor for all learning. Here the instructor is responsible for the process of evaluation.

(b). Learner-centered Teaching

• When a student or a learner is more emphasized in a classroom than others is known as learner-centered teaching.
• It also involves each student’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, placing the learning instructors for individuals rather than for the class.
• It includes self-evaluation.

3. Nature or Characteristic Features of Teaching: The main characteristic features of teaching are given below:

1. It tends towards the self-organization.
2. It involves different levels of teaching.
3. It is a continuous process.
4. It is related to education, learning, instruction, and training.
5. It generally takes place in a dynamic environment.

4. Different Levels of Teaching

Teaching takes place at three levels progressively- memory level of teaching, understanding level of teaching, and reflective level of teaching

(a). Memory Level of Teaching (MLT): The first level of teaching is a Memory Level of Teaching. This level is concerned with memory or the mental ability that exists in all living beings and is considered as the lowest level of teaching.

• Herbart is the main proponent of this level.
• It induces the habit of rote memorization of facts and bits of information.
• Here the teaching-learning process is basically ‘Stimulus-Response'(S-R) here.
• Here the evaluation system mainly includes oral, written and essay-type examination.

(b). Understanding Level of Teaching (ULT): The second and thoughtful level of teaching is an understanding level of teaching. This level is concerned with understanding something i.e., to perceive the meaning, grasp the idea and comprehend the meaning.

• Morrison is the main proponent of this level.
• It goes beyond just memorizing of facts as it is memory plus insight.
• Here, the instructor and the learner both play an active role.
• Here the evaluation system includes both objective and essay-type examination.

(c). Reflective Level of Teaching (RLT): The third and highest level of teaching is a memory level of teaching. This level is concerned with both MLT and ULT. Here the teacher thinks over their teaching practices, analyzing how to teach and how the learning process can be changed or improved for better learning outcomes.

• Hunt is the main proponent of this level.
• In this approach, the learners are motivated and are active.
• Here the students occupy the primary place and teacher assumes the secondary place.
• Here the evaluation system includes an essay-type examination.

5. Important Concepts related to Teaching

(a). Education: The process through which a learner has facilitated learning and acquired knowledge, beliefs, habits, values, and skills is said to be Education. It includes teaching, training, discussion, storytelling etc.

(b). Instruction: It is a main part of teaching. It includes the delivery of contents by the instructor. It doesn’t play any role in the interaction between the teacher and the learner but it facilitates achievement of teaching.

(c). Learning: It involved both activities and experiences. It can be defined as a relative change in the behavior of an individual as a result of experience or practice.

(d). Training: The process of developing in oneself’s any skills and knowledge that relate to specific useful competencies is known as training.  The main purpose of imparting training is to equip oneself’s with specific skills.

(e). Syllabus: An academic document that used to communicates course information and defines responsibilities and expectation is said to the syllabus. It helps to supervise or controls the course quality. It may be descriptive.

(f). Curriculum: It is defined as a course of study developed by school authorities.

(g). Indoctrination: It is the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.

Download UGC NET Previous Year Paper with solutions

Check out the study notes:

• Study Notes on Higher Education
• Study Notes on Coding-Decoding
• Study Notes on Teaching
• Study Notes on Communication
• Study Notes on Data Interpretation
• How to score 60+ in Paper – I

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