Route to teaching jobs

Bandita Balaram Mohanty

The Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) is taken by all teachers who want to teach in government schools. Some places like Delhi have made CTET compulsory for private schools as well. CTET can be held once or twice a year; this year the first test was held in July and the second will be held in December. 

Format

There are two papers in CTET — Paper I is for teachers who want to teach  classes I to V, while Paper II is for teachers who want to teach classes VI to VIII. 

Paper I has five subjects:  Language I and Language II, Mathematics, Environmental Studies (EVS) and Child Development and Pedagogy (CDP). The languages and CDP are included in both Papers I and II.  

Paper II has two options:  Social Sciences/Social Studies and Science and Mathematics.

There are 150 questions in each paper, and each subject has 30 questions assigned to it, except for Social Sciences/Social Studies, which has 60 questions assigned to it. 

Each question carries 1 mark and there is no negative marking. Candidates get two-and-a- half hours to complete the test, which means each question should ideally be solved in 1 minute, though some take longer and some can be solved instantaneously. 

All questions follow the pattern of MCQ. 

The main objective of CTET is to create a high national standard for teacher quality, and the questions are aligned with this objective. 

Time management abilities

CTET questions are sometimes very long, especially the scenario-based ones. It is, therefore, important to practise timed mock test papers, and increase one’s reading speed so that it is 1 minute per question or less. An example of a longer question (nearly 100 words long) from the EVS section of the December 2018 paper is as follows: “To talk about emergency situations, Priya asked children their experiences when they faced any emergencies. Children narrated their experiences with fire, electric shock and road accidents. She asked questions, assessed their understandings and discussed safety aspects using resources such as road safety advertisements from newspapers and also used LPG and electric bills to discuss safety guidelines on fire and electric shock respectively. Which is the most appropriate approach that Priya employed?”

How long did it take you to read this question? Remember, each of the four options could also be long sentences. 

The CTET paper has questions in English as well as a regional language placed next to each other, so do not hesitate to take the support of both languages to quickly understand a question.

Last, but not the least, practicing as many model test papers as possible, knowing your subjects well, and understanding what makes you a good teacher, will take you a long way to attain success in CTET. 

Plan well

Here are some things to keep in mind about the questions, and some tips to ace them. 

Understanding of concepts: The most obvious questions are the ones that test your understanding of the actual subject, be it mathematics or social studies. You should, therefore, be familiar with all topics that are taught at elementary and primary school level. 

It is important that you also study a little extra from higher classes. So aspirants for Paper I should ideally study a bit from the syllabi of classes VI and VII, and aspirants for Paper II should be familiar with the syllabi of classes IX and X as well. In case of some subjects like EVS, you must brush up on your general knowledge, as questions related to the concepts of the EVS curriculum can come, like they had in the July 2019 paper. 

Understanding of pedagogy: The pedagogy- based questions can sometimes be straightforward, and quiz you about learning theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. 

However, these are often based on a classroom scenario, in which case it is important to be clear about concepts of pedagogy as they are applied to an actual, practical classroom. One example from the December 2018 CTET paper for EVS is: ‘Sushma wants her students to be sensitised for ‘conservation of trees’. Which one of the following is the most suitable strategy to do so?” 

Understanding of the best practices of teaching: There are often questions based on the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which you must read. Even when the questions are not directly related to the NCF 2005, reading it will allow you to understand the best practices of teaching and learning, which, in turn, will help you choose an answer when you are given options which are too similar to each other in the exam. 

Example: 

“What does ‘learning without burden’ in the context of Environmental Studies imply?” 

This concept is discussed in detail in the NCF 2005. 

Knowledge of policies and laws related to education:  Sometimes the questions are based on various laws connected to education. An essential act which you must have in-depth knowledge of is Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, also known as the Right to Education Act or RTE. 

All the best!  

Question Bank: Here are some sample questions covering various question types.  

The EVS curriculum promotes the inclusion of lived experiences of various people in the form of narratives in order to:

(1) Provide context
(2) Provide authentic experiences
(3) Make lessons interesting
(4) All of the above

Sunita, a teacher of Class IV, asks her students to find out the following information about any one pet animal from their neighbourhood: eating habits, sleeping patterns, and external features like size, colour, hair, and so on. Through this activity, which of the following aspects of learning are being promoted?

(1) Observation, questioning, communication, and experimentation
(2) Observation, questioning, expression, and sensitivity
(3) Questioning, classification, measurement, and communication
(4) Sensitivity, classification, communication, and experimentation

In dialogic teaching, the learners articulate their ideas freely, and both the teacher and the learners help each other to arrive at a common and shared understanding. This principle of dialogic teaching can be termed as:

(1) Cumulative
(2) Reciprocal
(3) Supportive
(4) Teacher-centric

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in the year of

(1) 2001
(2) 2003
(3) 2006
(4) 2009

Answer Key: 1. (4); 2. (2); 3. (3); 4. (3)

— The writer is Senior Lecturer of Education Technology in District Institute of Education and Training, Keshavpuram, Delhi. She has co-authored the book CTET Preparation and Practice: Environmental Studies for Paper I, for Oxford University Press.