MDU

2020-2022

2nd YEAR
Paper 1: Knowledge and Curriculum
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Notes

UNIT 1: Introduction: What is Knowledge?

The Chamber of Dictionary defines knowledge as: “Information or what is known; the whole
of what can be learned or found out.”

The concept of knowledge refers to facts that are taught and learned rather than skills like
reading, writing, analyzing.
It reflects the truth about reality.
Wisdom is different, in which it entails that realization of knowledge into practical life.
There is no limit or boundaries of knowledge.

Sources of Knowledge

● Sense Experience or Empirical Knowledge

● Reasoned or Rational Knowledge
● Experimentation
● Authority
● Intuition
● Revealed Faith Knowledge
● Other Sources: Practical life and Media

What are the different methods of Acquiring Knowledge? By appealing to authority, appeal
to tradition, appeal to senses, inductive and deductive methods, appeal to experience, intuition,
concentration and meditation, observation, problem solving.

Characteristics of Knowledge

● Knowledge is like money, the more a man gets, the more he craves.
● Knowledge once gained, casts like a light beyond its immediate boundaries.
● Knowledge never decays.
 ● Information is the source of knowledge.
● Knowledge advances by steps, not by leaps.
● Knowledge is boundless.
● Facts and values are the basis of the structures of knowledge.

Belief and Truth

● Belief is a feeling that something is good, right or valuable, a feeling of trust in the
worth or ability of someone. Belief is a mental state in which someone is confident in
the existence of something, but may not necessarily have objective proof to support
their claim.
● Truth is objective and public; it is eternal and unchanging without bias. People can
believe in something different and can also all believe in the same idea. Truth is
considered to be a self-expression of God, it means that truth is theological.
○ According to Constructivist Theory, Social Constructivism holds that truth is
constructed by social processes, is historically and culturally specific, and that it
is in part shaped through the power struggles within a community.

Jerome Bruner’s Discovery Learning

● Discovery learning has been defined as- “Learner makes a discovery through a variety of
learning activities.” Bruner believes that a child has to learn for himself by making sense
of the environment around him.
● Strategies for Discovery Learning: Encouraging students to discuss directly with each
other, monitoring the flow of ideas and activities in the class-room, teachers effectively
answering the students’ questions, asking leading questions, and providing useful
information when students need help.
● Benefits/Purposes/Educational Implications of Discovery Learning: It increases the
intellectual potential of children by helping children learn how to learn; children
develop the skills of problem-solving and inquiry, enabling them to arrange and use
what they learn in new situations and learn further concepts. It gives self-satisfaction to
students. Heuristic of discovery is learned, helps in memorizing, knowledge that is
produced through discovery is easier to remember and recall.
○ Learning to find patterns in abstract and concrete situations.
○ Developing effective ways of working in a team.
○ Skills learned through discovery learning are more meaningful to students.
○ Increases students ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information.
○ Students are actively involved.
 ○ Bruner (1960) opposed Piaget’s notion of readiness. He argued that schools waste
time trying to match the complexity of subject material to a child’s cognitive
stage of development.
○ He proposed the concept of Spiral Curriculum: It refers to a curriculum design
in which key concepts are presented repeatedly throughout the curriculum, but
with deepening layers of complexity, or in different applications.
● Characteristics of Bruner’s Theory of Cognitive Development:
○ Reinforcement after learning,
○ Both individual and social qualities develop by education,
○ The structure of the curriculum is such that the learner learns easily and
conveniently,
○ Bruner’s theory lays emphasis upon coordination among the past experiences of
the children and the content of the new subject being taught or learned,
○ According to this theory, the subject matter to be taught to the students is
presented in such an order so that they can learn in a logical manner and by
keeping the difficulty level in mind.
● Difference between Bruner and Piaget:

Bruner agrees with Piaget Bruner disagrees with Piaget

Children are pre-adapted to learning. Development is a continuous process, not

a series of stages.

Children have a natural curiosity. The Development of a language is a cause

not a consequence of cognitive
development.

Children’s cognitive structures develop You can speed cognitive development. You
over-time. don’t have to wait for the child to be ready.

Children are active participants in the The involvement of adults and more
learning process. knowledgeable peers makes a big
difference.

Cognitive development entails the Symbolic thought does not replace earlier
acquisition of symbols. modes of representation.

Contribution of Teachers in Assimilation and Dissemination of Information and

Knowledge

● How teachers prepare a constructive Learning Design:

○ Situation: develop goals, tasks, and curriculum standards
 ○ Grouping: group students and materials, and use cooperative learning
○ Bridge: recall prior knowledge using students' cognitive maps, skills, values,
motivation, and expectations
○ Task: use higher-level thinking skills and problem-based learning
○ Exhibit: arrange student portfolios and work samples
○ Reflection: synthesize critical thinking and knowledge
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UNIT 2: Introduction: What are the different facets of knowledge? Discuss its
relationship in Local and Universal

Local and universal: An expertise in local history, problems of people living in the locality,
resources available for development, socio economic data and the like are well known to
intelligent and long term residents of particular areas. There are experts, armchair
philosophers and globetrotting intellectuals including- who are well versed in international
affairs but have no feel about ground realities. Studying social sciences helps to learn about
history, culture, economic conditions, geography and problems of local as well as international
problems.

Concrete and abstract: Knowledge about things that actually exist now or existed earlier and
are factually found to be correct is concrete knowledge. They could be shown, manipulated,
modified and duplicated. They exist in some form and are accessible to one or more sense
organs. Places, things, articles, weapons, vessels and similar things have names and some
descriptions. Even pictures could be used to represent them. In contrast to the above, in some
of the ancient documents retrieved its language , content, scripts and symbols used may not be
known to us as they are to be understood only through reasoning and research; that is to say we
derive sense out of obtained objects by the application of thinking and reasoning. Such things
are known as abstract things. Sometimes, remains and relics like tools, weapons, household
articles, coins, skulls, bones obtained from excavations derive meaning in the hand of
archaeologists, through reasoning. Such things which derive meaning, not through our sensory
experiences but from thinking and reasoning are called abstract things.

Both concrete and abstract things though serve as sources of knowledge for us. To acquire
knowledge through abstract sources is a little bit difficult; it requires special training and
previous experience.

Practical and theoretical knowledge: One intuitive way to distinguish between practical and
theoretical knowledge is to classify the objectives as what are known and what are inferred. For
example, taking the shortest route from place A to place B or getting a property registered,
concern practical matters. There are then theoretical propositions like ‘ Total prohibition’, ‘
Removing social imbalances’, ‘ Eradicating corruption and black marketing’, 'Extending
subsidies and freebies to the weaker sections of the people’, which are only at the conceptual
stage. They can be discussed but not demonstrated before any audience.

Discussions in mathematics, logic, philosophy and similar subjects are abstract in nature and do
not have concrete shapes. They could be described and defined but can’t be demonstrated.
Questions such as the existence of god, laws of hell and heaven will always be baffling. They can
be termed as theoretical in nature.

Contextual and Textual: Context means circumstance in which something happens or in

which something has to be considered, that is according to content. Contextual knowledge is
the interpretation of information in the peculiar context or situation in which a particular thing
took place. On the other hand, texts provide a lot of information. Textbooks provide graded
information in a language style for a particular group taking into consideration the physical and
mental abilities and psychological needs. Textbooks may not always provide new, interesting
and useful knowledge.

Forms of knowledge

● Depending upon the ways of acquiring, knowledge takes different forms. Knowledge
acquired through sense perceptions is known as ‘sensory knowledge’.
● When sense perceptions are stored in mind as images and applied in thinking whenever
needs arise, such kind of knowledge acquired is called ‘experiential knowledge’.
● Knowledge acquired from things that could not be explained through direct relations but
may be inferred through indirect relations is termed as ‘demonstrative knowledge’.
● When knowledge is acquired through the use of inductive and deductive reasoning, it is
called ‘logical knowledge’.
● When one gets knowledge transcending conscious experiences and reasoning, it is called
‘intuitive knowledge’.
● Knowledge that is beyond human experiences and revealed by god or the almighty to
sages and saints or messiahs constitute ‘revealed knowledge’.
● Texts and documents stored in the digital form and are accessible to computers
represent ‘digital knowledge’.

Sensory knowledge

When we have direct contact with the environment, the various stimuli present in it cause
appropriate sensations to be transmitted to the brain and are interpreted with the help of
already stored knowledge. This results in sensory perceptions and is recorded in the mind,
which constitutes ‘sensory knowledge’. Sensory knowledge need not always be true.
For example, to our senses it appears sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening daily
which is untrue. According to the findings of science, sun-rise and sun-set are caused by the
rotation of the earth around the sun and not by the movement of the sun. But we may not be
able to sense the rotation of the earth. Therefore it is said that knowledge derived from logical
reasoning is superior to sensory knowledge.

Experiential knowledge

Sense perceptions are used then and there; but for long term use they are stored in the minds in
the form of images. When these images are appropriately combined in a proper sequence and
put into use, it results in thinking. Thoughts using images develop ‘experiential knowledge’.
For recollecting one’s experience, there need not be any immediate sensation; the mind uses
the stored images of sense perceptions(experiential knowledge) to solve the problem it
encounters. Experiential knowledge is superior to sensory knowledge as it operates mentally.
As experiential knowledge is derived from initial sensations, it is also like sensory knowledge
inferior to knowledge obtained through logical reasoning.

Demonstrative knowledge

Demonstrative knowledge is said to be used when we perceive the agreement or disagreement

between two ideas or events indirectly through a series of intermediate ideas. For example,
when we are unable to find a direct relationship between A and C, we may have relations to both
A and C. if ‘A’ is greater the ‘B’ and ‘B’ is greater than ‘C’, then we know demonstratively that ‘A’
is greater than ‘C’.

Logical knowledge

Logic is about the science of thinking or explaining the reasoning for some occurrence. Logical
knowledge is one that is accepted as logical conclusion as it is based on sound reasoning.
Logical reasoning is of two types-

● Inductive reasoning: In inductive reasoning particular instances are observed and the
common elements if any present in them are found. In this way new truths of
knowledge are obtained.
● Deductive reasoning. In deductive reasoning, a particular truth that exists already is
applied to a new event presently observed to find the validity of the existing truth. In
science, lays and principles are developed through inductive reasoning and they are
verified by the deductive method. This kind of logical knowledge is highly valid and
useful and is largely found in science.

Intuitive knowledge
When the mind transcends the sensory perceptions and intellectual reasoning and gets deeply
absorbed in the highest level of consciousness enabling us to understand situations, people’s
feelings or agreement/ disagreement of two ideas etc. Immediately without the need for
conscious reasoning or study, it is called intuition. People who can focus consciousness at a
point (like in meditation) and also have rich and varied background experiences get intuitive
experiences. Though intuition yields perfect certainty, it is only rarely available to us. The
claim “intuitive findings are always true” is not accepted by all.

Revealed knowledge

Messages for the whole of mankind or for an individual have been recorded and cherished as
they are believed to have come from some supernatural power like god. This divine knowledge
cannot be subjected to scrutiny. Religious scriptures like Vedas, Koran , bible etc. Claim such
authority as they were directly received by chosen great men. These revelations are relevant to
all people and places and at all times. They have to be studied, understood and explained; but
should not be questioned or altered.

Digital knowledge

In this modern era, knowledge of electronics and computer applications has become the basic
requirement for all. The term digitalization is often used when diverse forms of information
such as texts, sound , images of voice are converted into a single binary code that could be
recorded and preserved in computers. Digital information exists as one of two digits either 0 or
1 , arranged sequentially. Digital information could be converted back into its original form by
using the equipment MODEM (modulation and demodulation) attached to the computer.

By converting the existing information in the diverse forms into the digital form, it is easier to
preserve for long without much distortion and that too in a small space. It is also easier to
access and share. For example, an original historical document may only be accessible to
people who visit its physical location, but if the document content is digitized, it can be made
available to people worldwide. There is a growing trend towards digitization of historically and
culturally significant data. Acquiring the knowledge stored in the form of digital information
and developing the skills required to access such information constitutes ‘digital knowledge’.

Paper 2: Assessment for Learning

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Notes
UNIT 1: Introduction: What is assessment? Discuss the importance of assessment in
education.

Meaning: The term ‘assessment’ is the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to
evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition,
or educational needs of students. In other words, it is the process of documenting, usually in
measurable terms, knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs.