1 Teaching: Concept, Objectives and Levels

1.1 Education: The Basic Elements

Education is the larger activity of which teaching is the engine. Four elements make any educational act recognisable.

Four Elements of Education

Element	What it covers	Working question
Educator	The teacher, parent, mentor, peer	Who is initiating?
Educand	The learner, student, child, adult learner	Who is receiving?
Content	Subject matter, skill, value, attitude	What is being passed?
Social context	School, college, family, community	Where is it recognised?

The Sanskrit etymology — Shiksha (instruction) and Vidya (knowledge) — and the Latin etymology — educare (to bring up) and educere (to draw out) — both reinforce a dual nature: education gives and education draws out.

The aim/goal/objective hierarchy is also examined.

Aim — broad purpose of education in society (for example, “develop responsible citizens”)
Goal — medium-range purpose of a course or programme (for example, “introduce undergraduates to economic reasoning”)
Objective — specific purpose of a single lesson, stated as observable learner behaviour (for example, “the learner will compute the price elasticity of demand from a given dataset”)

1.2 The Concept of Teaching

Teaching is a purposive, interactive and tripolar activity in which a teacher arranges experiences so that a learner moves from a present state of knowledge or skill to a desired one.

Purposive — driven by stated objectives, not happenstance.
Interactive — a two-way exchange, more than mere information transmission.
Tripolar — three poles (teacher, learner, content) bound by a medium of communication.

Influential Definitions of Teaching

Educator	Working definition	What it foregrounds
H.C. Morrison	An “intimate contact between a more mature personality and a less mature one which is designed to further the education of the latter”	Personal relationship, maturation
Edmund Amidon	An “interactive process, primarily involving classroom talk”	Interaction, classroom discourse
N.L. Gage	“Any interpersonal influence aimed at changing the ways in which other persons can or will behave”	Behavioural change
B.O. Smith	“A system of actions intended to induce learning”	Goal-directed system
John Dewey	Teaching is comparable to selling — “no one can sell unless someone else buys”	Reciprocity of teaching and learning

flowchart LR
  T[Teacher<br/>Subject mastery,<br/>method, personality] --- C[Content<br/>Curriculum,<br/>experiences]
  C --- L[Learner<br/>Readiness, motivation,<br/>prior knowledge]
  L --- T
  T -. Communication .-> L
  L -. Feedback .-> T
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1.2.1 Nature of Teaching

Teaching is purposeful, dynamic, social, both scientific and artistic, formal or informal, value-laden, and evaluable. Scientific because it draws on educational psychology, evaluation and pedagogy. Artistic because the same lesson plan in two hands produces two different classrooms. Dynamic because the same content is delivered differently to different cohorts. Evaluable because every act of teaching can be assessed against the objectives it set itself.

1.2.2 Teaching, Training, Instruction, Indoctrination, Conditioning

Distinguishing Five Closely-Related Activities

Activity	Primary aim	Cognitive engagement	Identifying cue
Teaching	All-round development; understanding	High — encourages questioning	“Develops critical thinking”
Training	Skill or task mastery	Moderate — repetition and practice	“Job-specific” or “vocational”
Instruction	Information transmission	Moderate — structured, narrow	“Step-by-step direction”
Indoctrination	Acceptance of a doctrine without questioning	Low — discourages questioning	“Uncritical acceptance”
Conditioning	Habit formation through stimulus-response	Lowest — reflex-level	“Automatic response”

Example. A driving school’s training component teaches the learner to operate the clutch; the instruction component delivers traffic-rule information; teaching would additionally develop the judgment of when to overtake safely.

1.3 Objectives of Teaching

A teaching objective is a statement of what the learner should be able to do at the end of the lesson. The standard tripartite framework is Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), revised by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) (Lorin W. Anderson & David R. Krathwohl, 2001; Benjamin S. Bloom et al., 1956).

Bloom’s Three Domains

Domain	Concerned with	Original verbs (low → high)	Revised top level
Cognitive	Knowing and thinking	Knowledge → Comprehension → Application → Analysis → Synthesis → Evaluation	Create
Affective	Feeling, valuing, attitude	Receiving → Responding → Valuing → Organising → Characterising	Internalising values
Psychomotor	Doing, skill, coordination	Imitation → Manipulation → Precision → Articulation → Naturalisation	Naturalisation

flowchart BT
  K[Remember<br/>Recall facts] --> U[Understand<br/>Explain ideas]
  U --> A[Apply<br/>Use in new situations]
  A --> N[Analyse<br/>Break into parts]
  N --> E[Evaluate<br/>Justify a stand]
  E --> C[Create<br/>Produce new work]
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The revised taxonomy reverses the top two rungs and re-labels every level as a verb — objectives describe what learners do.

1.3.1 Behavioural Objectives — the A-B-C-D Format

A useful behavioural objective contains four elements: Audience, Behaviour, Condition, Degree.

Example. “Given a passage of 200 words [Condition], the learner [Audience] will identify the main idea [Behaviour] with 80 per cent accuracy [Degree].”

A common distractor offers an aim disguised as an objective. “To develop scientific temper” is too broad to measure in a single lesson; “to state Newton’s three laws of motion in own words” is measurable in forty minutes. The verb decides.

1.4 Levels of Teaching

Teaching can be delivered at three increasingly demanding levels. Each level has a different cognitive target, a different teacher role, and a different main proponent.

Three Levels of Teaching and their Main Proponents

Level	Main proponent	Cognitive target	Teacher’s role	Learner’s role	Typical method
Memory	Herbart	Recall and recognition	Drills, repeats, asks closed questions	Memorises, reproduces	Lecture, recitation
Understanding	Morrison	Sees relationships, applies	Explains, illustrates, gives examples	Connects, applies, summarises	Discussion, demonstration
Reflective	Hunt (also Bigge & Hunt)	Analyses, evaluates, creates	Poses problems, mediates inquiry	Investigates, questions, defends	Problem-solving, project work

flowchart TB
  M[Memory Level<br/>Herbart<br/>Bloom: Remember, Understand] --> U[Understanding Level<br/>Morrison<br/>Bloom: Apply, Analyse]
  U --> R[Reflective Level<br/>Hunt / Bigge & Hunt<br/>Bloom: Evaluate, Create]
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Example for each level:

Memory. Reciting the periodic table.
Understanding. Explaining why metals conduct electricity.
Reflective. Designing an experiment to test whether an unknown sample is a metal.

The reflective level is sometimes called the introspective level. NEP-2020’s emphasis on critical thinking and creative problem-solving sits at this level (Ministry of Education, Government of India, 2020).

1.5 Phases of Teaching

A single act of teaching moves through three phases in sequence. The three-phase scheme was articulated by Philip Jackson in Life in Classrooms (1968) (Philip W. Jackson, 1968).

Three Phases of Teaching (Jackson)

Phase	When	Core activities	Cue
Pre-active	Before class	Setting objectives, content selection, lesson planning, choosing aids	“Planning” or “preparation”
Interactive	During class	Presentation, questioning, classroom management, feedback	“Face-to-face” or “delivery”
Post-active	After class	Evaluation, reflection, revision of plan, remedial action	“Evaluation” or “reflection”

flowchart LR
  P[Pre-active Phase<br/>Plan and prepare] --> I[Interactive Phase<br/>Teach and engage]
  I --> O[Post-active Phase<br/>Evaluate and reflect]
  O -. Feedback loop .-> P
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The dotted feedback arrow makes teaching a discipline rather than a one-shot performance: the post-active phase feeds the next pre-active phase.

1.6 Glaser’s Basic Teaching Model

Robert Glaser’s 1962 model is the simplest scaffold to remember (Robert Glaser, 1962):

Instructional Objectives → Entering Behaviour → Instructional Procedure → Performance Assessment → (feedback loop to Objectives).

Instructional objectives — what the learner should be able to do at the end.
Entering behaviour — the diagnostic snapshot of what the learner already knows and can do.
Instructional procedure — the methods, materials and activities used.
Performance assessment — tests and observations to gauge whether the objectives have been met. Feedback loops back to the start.

1.7 Maxims of Teaching

Maxims sequence content within a lesson. NTA stems often ask the candidate to match an anecdote to the right maxim.

Eight Working Maxims of Teaching

Maxim	Meaning	Classroom illustration
Known to unknown	Anchor the new in the familiar	Teach Hindi alphabet by linking to mother-tongue sounds
Simple to complex	Sequence by difficulty	Begin algebra with one variable before two
Concrete to abstract	Begin with objects, end with ideas	Use coins to teach addition before introducing “+”
Particular to general	Build laws from instances	Several falling-object demonstrations before the gravitational law
Whole to part	Show the big picture first	Display the body’s diagram before teaching individual organs
Empirical to rational	Begin with observation, end with reason	Measure boiling water before introducing heat theory
Definite to indefinite	Settled facts first, then open questions	Newtonian mechanics before relativistic corrections
Psychological to logical	Order by learner readiness, not by subject logic	The sequence the learner finds approachable, even if out of textbook order

1.8 Practice Questions

Q 01 Concept of Teaching Easy

Which of the following is not a characteristic of teaching?

APurposeful
BTripolar
CStimulus-response conditioning of reflexes
DEvaluable

View solution

Correct Option: C

Conditioning of reflexes is behaviourist conditioning, not teaching. Teaching is purposive, tripolar, and evaluable.

Q 02 Definitions of Teaching Medium

Match the educator with the definition of teaching:

(i)	H.C. Morrison	(a)	"interpersonal influence aimed at changing behaviour"
(ii)	N.L. Gage	(b)	"system of actions intended to induce learning"
(iii)	B.O. Smith	(c)	"intimate contact between a more mature and a less mature personality"
(iv)	Edmund Amidon	(d)	"interactive process, primarily classroom talk"

A(i)-(c), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(b), (iv)-(d)
B(i)-(a), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(d), (iv)-(b)
C(i)-(b), (ii)-(d), (iii)-(a), (iv)-(c)
D(i)-(d), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c), (iv)-(a)

View solution

Correct Option: A

Morrison → "intimate contact"; Gage → "interpersonal influence"; Smith → "system of actions"; Amidon → "interactive process".

Q 03 Levels of Teaching Easy

Match the level of teaching with its main proponent:

(i)	Memory level	(a)	Hunt
(ii)	Understanding level	(b)	Herbart
(iii)	Reflective level	(c)	Morrison

A(i)-(b), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(a)
B(i)-(a), (ii)-(b), (iii)-(c)
C(i)-(c), (ii)-(a), (iii)-(b)
D(i)-(a), (ii)-(c), (iii)-(b)

View solution

Correct Option: A

Memory → Herbart, Understanding → Morrison, Reflective → Hunt. This match-the-proponent stem is one of the most repeated questions on Teaching Aptitude.

Q 04 Phases of Teaching Easy

In Jackson's classification, which phase includes lesson planning and selection of teaching aids?

AInteractive
BPre-active
CPost-active
DReactive

View solution

Correct Option: B

The pre-active phase covers all preparatory activities before the class begins, including objectives, content selection, lesson planning and choice of aids.

Q 05 Behavioural Objectives Medium

"Given a sample paragraph of 150 words, the learner will identify three figures of speech with 75 per cent accuracy." This statement is best described as:

AA general aim
BA philosophical goal
CA behavioural objective
DA teaching maxim

View solution

Correct Option: C

The statement names audience, behaviour, condition and degree — the four elements (A-B-C-D) of a behavioural objective.

Q 06 Bloom's Taxonomy Easy

Which level of Bloom's revised taxonomy occupies the highest cognitive position?

AEvaluate
BAnalyse
CCreate
DSynthesise

View solution

Correct Option: C

Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) place "Create" at the apex, replacing "Synthesis" from the original 1956 taxonomy.

Q 07 Maxims of Teaching Hard

Arrange the following maxims in the sequence a primary-school teacher should follow when introducing decimal fractions:

(i) Concrete to abstract
(ii) Known to unknown
(iii) Simple to complex
(iv) Particular to general

A(ii), (i), (iii), (iv)
B(i), (ii), (iv), (iii)
C(iii), (iv), (i), (ii)
D(iv), (iii), (ii), (i)

View solution

Correct Option: A

Begin with what the learner knows (whole numbers), move to objects (rods), then progressively to harder cases, then generalise.

Q 08 Glaser's Model Medium

Glaser's Basic Teaching Model places which component immediately after instructional objectives?

APerformance assessment
BInstructional procedures
CEntering behaviour
DFeedback

View solution

Correct Option: C

The four-step order is Objectives → Entering Behaviour → Instructional Procedure → Performance Assessment.

Quick recall

Teaching is purposive, interactive, tripolar; conditioning is reflexive and lowest in cognitive engagement.
Bloom (revised): Remember–Understand–Apply–Analyse–Evaluate–Create.
Three levels and proponents: Memory→Herbart, Understanding→Morrison, Reflective→Hunt (and Bigge). Mnemonic: “HMH”.
Jackson’s phases: Pre-active–Inter-active–Post-active. Feedback closes the loop.
Glaser’s model: Objectives–Entering behaviour–Instructional procedure–Performance assessment.
A-B-C-D objective: Audience, Behaviour, Condition, Degree.