Course: Elementary Education (8623)
Semester: Spring, 2021
Q.1 Explain the system of Elementary Education in Pakistan. Describe the steps taken by the government for compulsory education.
Education plays a pivotal role in the rise and fall of the nation’s especially in the 21st century importance of education influence much to meet the fast growing challenges. It is mainly due to the emergence of global competition in education and technology. This competitive environment is the core need for progress of any country. All countries including Pakistan have different school systems but when we divide them we find two major categories of school systems: private and public schools. In Pakistan, private schools are getting mass acceptance today to ensure sustained progress of the country. During 1990s and 2000s, private sector emerged as a key provider of education services in Pakistan both in absolute terms and relative to the public sector. Private educational institutions are playing key role not only in eradicating illiteracy but also enhancing the level of students as well as teachers by providing better academic environment. Private sector contributed significantly in eradicating illiteracy in the emerging economies. If private schools are properly managed they can uplift educational standard in Pakistan as well. The educational landscape of Pakistan has gone through numerous transformations in the past two decades. Enrollment levels and gender parity index have been on the rise. The changes in the education sector that have been taking place in Pakistan have created an environment with numerous opportunities as well as challenges in terms of policy development. Even though the enrollment in government schools is much bigger than any other sector, the declining trend in favor of non –state providers is significant. Education, especially primary education is mostly considered a public service which should be provided to the citizens without discrimination, irrespective of affordability and mainly as the government’s responsibility. This ideology was behind the nationalization of all education institutions in 1972, which severely interrupted the role of the robust private sector particularly at the post elementary level
2 Explain information process model with reference to cognitive development in elementary school years.
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.1 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.
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.
- 2 Explain information process model with reference to cognitive development in elementary school years.
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.1 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.
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.
- 4 Explain the concept of physical fitness, also state the purpose of physical and health education. Suggest ways to integrate health education with other subjects.
Physical fitness is your ability to carry out tasks without undue fatigue. Learn about the components of physical fitness: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and body composition and why they are important.
Physical Fitness
While on vacation last year, I had an opportunity to ride a Segway. After only a few minutes of wobbling, I felt like I had mastered this upright transportation technology, and I was able to travel long distances with very little physical effort. We certainly live in the technology age, and the advances we see in technology have simplified many physically demanding tasks. In fact, it can make you wonder if all of this technology has eased our physical burdens so much that one day we might be so physically unfit that we can no longer perform tasks without the help of technology. Our ability to carry out daily tasks and routine physical activities without undue fatigue is called physical fitness. While too much reliance on technology could make us less fit, we see that we can improve physical fitness through the performance of different exercises. In this lesson, we will take a look at the five components that make up physical fitness, how we can improve them and the benefits they bring to our lives.
Cardiorespiratory Endurance
In the most general terms, a fit person is able to perform tasks with more sustainable energy and for longer periods than an unfit person. But, fitness is more than just the ability to work longer; in fact, it includes a number of components, one of which is cardiorespiratory endurance. This is a measure of the circulatory and respiratory systems’ ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to and eliminate waste products from cells. Your cells need oxygen and nutrients in order to fuel your muscles during periods of physical activity. When your cells work they produce wastes that need to be transported away. How efficiently your body does these tasks is a measure of your cardiorespiratory endurance.
- 5 Differentiate between lecture and demonstration method. Explain which one is suitable for teaching which subjects at elementary level in Pakistan.
Lecture-cum-demonstration includes the merits of the lecture as well as demonstration method. It attempts to filter out the disadvantages of both. Demonstration means ‘to show’. In Lecture method teacher just tells but in demonstration method teacher shows and illustrates certain fundamental phenomena.
Characteristics of good demonstration
- Visibility
- One major idea at a time
- Clear cut
- Convincing
- Rehearsal
- Supplemented with other teaching aids
- Asking relevant questions
- Neat, clean and tidiness
- Simple and speedy
- To write observation
- Teacher to act as performer
- Sufficient time
Steps in Lecture-cum-demonstration
1) Planning and Presentation: While planning a demonstration the following points should be kept in mind.
- Subject matter
- Lesson planning
- Rehearsal of experiment
- Collection and arrangement of apparatus
2) Introduction of lesson: The lesson may be introduced on the following basis
- Student’s personal experience
- Student’s environment
- Telling story
- A simple and interesting experiment