Read the following statements and choose the correct option : Assertion (A) :…
2023
Read the following statements and choose the correct option :
Assertion (A) : Teachers should create a meaningful environment which seeks active participation and engagement of all children.
Reason (R) : All children are intrinsically motivated to learn and are capable of learning.
- A.
Both (A) and (R) are false.
- B.
Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
- C.
Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
- D.
(A) is true, but (R) is false.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: In an Assertion-Reason (A-R) item, an option is correct only when both statements are independently true AND the Reason states the actual premise that necessitates the Assertion, not merely a fact that happens to be true alongside it. Modern child-centred, constructivist pedagogy (reflected in NCF 2005 and NEP 2020) holds that children are active constructors of their own understanding, intrinsically motivated and cognitively capable of learning when given the opportunity - and it is precisely this capacity that is used to justify moving classrooms from passive transmission toward participatory, meaningful engagement for every child.
Application: The Assertion prescribes creating a meaningful environment that seeks active participation and engagement of all children - the standard recommendation for a learner-centred classroom. The Reason states that all children are intrinsically motivated and capable of learning - the constructivist premise about children as learners. The test for an explanatory link is whether the Reason states the underlying premise that necessitates the Assertion, rather than being a separately-true but unrelated fact: because children are inherently capable and motivated (Reason), a teacher's role becomes designing environments that let this innate capacity express itself through active participation (Assertion) - a direct premise-to-prescription relationship.
Contrast with the near-miss alternatives:
Calling both statements false would require rejecting a well-established pedagogical principle and a well-supported claim about children's learning capacity - neither statement is false under mainstream educational theory.
Treating both as true but unrelated would apply only if the Reason were a true but tangential fact about children (e.g. an unrelated preference) rather than the direct justification for the teaching practice described in the Assertion - that is not the case here, since the Reason is the very premise the Assertion depends on.
Calling the Reason false would require children's intrinsic motivation and capacity to learn to be an unsupported claim - it is instead a core, well-evidenced premise of constructivist and developmental theory.
This is consistent with how the item is treated in the CTET 2023 Paper I official answer key: both statements are true and the Reason correctly explains the Assertion.