Factors Influencing Teaching Effectiveness – UGC NET Question

Teaching is most effective when it starts from where the learners are. Students’ prior knowledge and entry behaviour determine their readiness for new learning. If these characteristics are accurately diagnosed, the teacher can choose suitable objectives, content level and methods. Thus, this factor is directly and strongly related to learner characteristics that influence teaching effectiveness.

Option A:
This option refers to the availability of technological resources, which is an institutional or infrastructural factor. While smart boards and projectors can support teaching, they do not themselves describe learner characteristics or guarantee that teaching will match students’ needs.

Option B:
This option correctly focuses on what learners already know and can do at the beginning of instruction. Understanding entry behaviour helps the teacher avoid both under-challenging and over-challenging the class and to scaffold learning effectively.

Option C:
This option concerns administrative staffing, which primarily affects institutional management rather than the immediate teaching–learning interaction in the classroom.

Option D:
This option describes physical infrastructure. Although classroom size may influence comfort and logistics, it is not itself a learner characteristic; the crucial learner-related factor is what students bring cognitively and affectively to the classroom.