UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Feedback provides learners with specific information on what they have done well and where they need to improve. It closes the communication loop between teacher and student by showing how performance compares with expected standards. Effective feedback is timely, clear and constructive, enabling students to adjust their strategies. Therefore, the information described in the stem is correctly termed feedback.

Option A:
Feedback includes comments, explanations or corrective guidance that directly relate to students’ responses. It is central to formative assessment and helps learners monitor their own progress. Because the stem highlights information about correctness and quality for improvement, feedback is the precise term that matches.

Option B:
Reinforcement refers to consequences, positive or negative, that increase or decrease the likelihood of a behaviour. While praise or rewards can be part of feedback, reinforcement focuses more on behaviour shaping than on detailed information about performance quality.

Option C:
Homework is a task assigned to students for practice outside classroom time. It may lead to feedback later, but the task itself is not the informational component the question asks about.

Option D:
Diagnosis involves identifying the nature and causes of learning difficulties. Diagnostic work may precede feedback but is not the same as the explanatory information given to students about their performance.

The Pygmalion effect,also known as self-fulfilling prophecy,occurs when higher expectations from a teacher lead to improved performance in students. Positive cues,extra attention and challenging tasks are given,raising achievement. The stem describes this phenomenon directly,so Pygmalion effect is the correct term.

Option A:
Hawthorne effect refers to changes in behaviour when people know they are being observed,not specifically to expectation-driven performance changes.

Option B:
Testing effect is related to improved retention due to retrieval practice,which is different from expectancy influences.

Option C:
Contrast effect involves comparative judgements between individuals,not expectation-based improvement.

Option D:
Pygmalion effect highlights the power of teacher beliefs in shaping outcomes,making option B appropriate.