APPSC Paper I · Hostel Welfare Officer Paper II · Topic 1
1 APPSC Paper I Philosophical Foundations & Educational Thinkers questions with answers
39 questions from APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II question paper with answers and APPSC HWO Paper II Mock 1 with answers. Try each one, then tap Show answer.
Previous-paper questions are as in the original paper. Medha AI wrote the answers and explanations.
1.2Gandhi and TagoreNotes
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Which of the following modern Indian Educationalist was very much naturalist ?
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Answer C. Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore is the Indian educationist most identified with naturalism: learning in the lap of nature, as at Santiniketan, with freedom and self-expression.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q1, final key
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"My Experiments with Truth" is written by
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Answer B. Mahatma Gandhi
'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' is Gandhi's autobiography, first published in Gujarati in instalments (1925-29).
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q7, final key
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"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where the world is not brokenup into fragments by narrow domestic walls" is written by
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Answer B. Rabindranath Tagore
These lines are from Tagore's poem in Gitanjali, the collection for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1913.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q48, final key
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Who believed God as a creator of nature ?
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Answer C. Tagore
Tagore saw God as the creator revealed in nature and wanted children educated in close contact with nature, as at Santiniketan.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q92, final key
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"The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one's life usefully is the best education for citizenship." Who said this ?
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Answer B. Mahatma Gandhi
This line comes from Gandhi's writing on basic (Nai Talim) education, which linked productive work and the useful use of time to good citizenship.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q135, final key
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Which of the following journals was NOT edited or published by Gandhi?
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Answer D. Kesari
Gandhi ran Indian Opinion in South Africa and Young India and Harijan in India; Kesari was Bal Gangadhar Tilak's Marathi paper.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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As a naturalist, Gandhi held that the true textbook for the pupil is
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Answer B. his teacher
Gandhi played down printed textbooks and said the teacher himself is the pupil's true textbook, teaching by example.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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The scheme of Basic Education was placed before the nation at the All India National Education Conference held in 1937 at
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Answer B. Wardha
Gandhi's scheme was discussed at the All India National Education Conference at Wardha in October 1937, so it is also called the Wardha Scheme.
Source: Medha AI, based on the APPSC HWO Paper II syllabus (25/2026)
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Compared with Gandhi, Tagore placed greater stress on
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Answer C. fine arts, aesthetics and international understanding
Gandhi built education around a productive, self-supporting craft; Tagore built it around nature, the arts and a world outlook (Visva-Bharati).
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
1.1Schools of philosophy: idealism, naturalism, pragmatism, realism, existentialism (with western educators)Notes
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Which of the following is a key theoretical principle of pragmatism, according to John Dewey ?
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Answer A. Experience
For Dewey, knowledge grows out of experience: we learn by doing and testing ideas against their consequences.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q2, final key
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The project method in teaching is most closely associated with which Philosophical Ideology ?
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Answer C. Pragmatism
The project method was developed by Kilpatrick, a follower of Dewey, and is the typical pragmatist teaching method.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q3, final key
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Who introduced the concept of Kindergarten ?
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Answer B. Frobel
Friedrich Froebel opened the first kindergarten ('children's garden') in Germany in 1837-40, with gifts, occupations and play.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q5, final key
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Which philosophy emphasizes on the fact, men in the world feel lonely and anxious, being unsure of their meaning and fearful of their annihilation ?
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Answer C. Existentialism
Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Sartre) centres on the lonely individual facing anxiety, freedom and the search for meaning.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q6, final key
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Match the items of List – I with that of List – II.
List – I List – II A. Exaltation of human personality 1. Idealism B. Learning by doing 2. Realism C. Develop the democratic values in education 3. Naturalism D. Emphasis on mass production 4. Pragmatism 5. Existentialism 6. Marxism Which sequence is correct ?
A B C D
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Answer C. 1 4 5 6
Idealism exalts human personality (A-1), pragmatism stands for learning by doing (B-4) and Marxism stresses mass production (D-6); only option 3 fits these, pairing democratic values with existentialism (C-5).
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q75, final key
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"Knowledge comes primarily through senses" belongs to which school of philosophy ?
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Answer A. Realism
Realism holds that the external world exists independently and that we know it chiefly through sense experience, so it favours sense training and the sciences.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q79, final key
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Founder of Existentialism
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Answer A. Soren Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard, the 19th-century Danish thinker, is regarded as the father of existentialism.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q80, final key
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"No disinterested pursuit of knowledge and no intellectual education for its own sake", was the slogan of
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Answer B. Pragmatist
Pragmatists value knowledge only for its use in solving problems of life, so they reject learning for its own sake.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q81, final key
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Establishing a classless society is the aim according to
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Answer C. Socialism
Socialism (in its Marxist form) aims at a classless society with common ownership of the means of production.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q82, final key
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Match the following :
1. Idealism A. Learning by doing 2. Naturalism B. Aesthetic and ethical life 3. Pragmatism C. Realization of truth, beauty and goodness 4. Existentialism D. Education through environment Show answerHide answer
Answer B. 1 – C, 2 – D, 3 – A, 4 – B
Idealism aims at truth, beauty and goodness (1-C), naturalism at education through the environment (2-D), pragmatism at learning by doing (3-A) and existentialism at the aesthetic and ethical life (4-B, Kierkegaard's stages).
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q89, final key
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Who emphasized learner-centred education and the importance of experience in learning ?
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Answer C. John Dewey
John Dewey, the pragmatist philosopher, championed child-centred education and learning by doing (experience).
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q114, final key
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Class VII pupils decide to run a school vegetable garden; they plan it, share the work, keep accounts and report the results. This way of learning rests on
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Answer C. Pragmatism
This is a project: purposeful, co-operative learning by doing in a real situation, which comes from pragmatism (Dewey and Kilpatrick).
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." These opening words of The Social Contract were written by
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Answer D. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rousseau opened The Social Contract (1762) with these words; the same protest against society's chains runs through his Emile.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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Which school of philosophy stresses each person's freedom of choice and responsibility for it, and wants education to help every learner find his own meaning in life?
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Answer D. Existentialism
Existentialism (Kierkegaard, Sartre) values the unique individual, freedom and personal responsibility.
Source: Medha AI, based on the APPSC HWO Paper II syllabus (25/2026)
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Who wrote "The Great Didactic", which proposed teaching all things to all people?
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Answer D. Comenius
Comenius's Great Didactic set out a universal system of graded schooling, teaching all things to all people.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
1.1Meaning, aims, types & agencies of education; philosophy and educationNotes
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The root word of 'Education' is
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Answer B. Educare
'Education' is traced to the Latin 'educare' (to bring up, nourish), with 'educere' (to lead out) as the other root.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q4, final key
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What is called education acquired without any specific purpose, fixed period and place ?
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Answer C. Informal education
Informal education happens incidentally through family, peers, media and life, with no fixed aim, time, place or syllabus.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q8, final key
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Philosophy and Education are the two sides of same coin; "the former is contemplative side while the other is active side", said by
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Answer C. Ross
J. S. Ross described education as the dynamic side of philosophy and philosophy as its contemplative side.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q87, final key
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Consider the statements.
I. The Latin word 'educare' means to bring up or nourish.
II. The Latin word 'educatum' means the act of teaching or training.
Which is correct?
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Answer C. Both I and II
Educare = to bring up or nourish; educatum = the act of teaching or training; educere = to lead out.
Source: Medha AI, based on the APPSC HWO Paper II syllabus (25/2026)
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The questions 'What counts as valid knowledge?' and 'How do we come to know?' guide the choice of curriculum and teaching methods. They come from which branch of philosophy?
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Answer B. Epistemology
Epistemology influences curriculum and methods of teaching; axiology influences aims; metaphysics influences the view of the child and reality.
Source: Medha AI, based on the APPSC HWO Paper II syllabus (25/2026)
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Which is an argument AGAINST the individual aim of education?
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Answer B. It may breed selfish individualism and neglect of social duty
Critics say the individual aim, pushed too far, breeds selfishness, social disintegration and neglect of duty to others.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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"The highest education is that which makes our life in harmony with all existence." Who said this?
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Answer B. Rabindranath Tagore
Tagore saw the highest education as bringing one's life into harmony with all existence, nature and humanity.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
1.2Vivekananda, Aurobindo, J. Krishnamurti and other Indian educatorsNotes
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Swami Vivekananda in Chicago, 1893 "Universal Acceptance" which of the following type represents Vivekananda contribution to education ?
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Answer C. Education for man-making
Vivekananda's best-known idea about education is man-making: education that builds character, strength of mind and self-reliance.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q16, final key
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"Education of the masses" is the concept of
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Answer A. Vivekananda
Vivekananda insisted that neglect of the masses was India's great sin and that education must reach the poor, even taken to their doorsteps.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q17, final key
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The man who drenched deep in the nectar of Indian spiritual philosophy of Vedanta
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Answer B. Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda based his whole thought, including his views on education, on Advaita Vedanta.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q76, final key
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"Arise, awake and do not stop until the goal is reached" is said by
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Answer A. Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda popularised this call, drawn from the Katha Upanishad.
Source: APPSC HWO 2025 Paper II (Notification 15/2025), Q93, final key
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In J. Krishnamurti's view, the teacher and the pupil are
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Answer D. equal fellow seekers of truth
Krishnamurti said nobody is anybody's guru; teacher and pupil learn together as equals in the search for truth.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed/Psychology textbooks (HWO Paper II)
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Banaras Hindu University (1916) was founded by
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Answer B. Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya founded BHU in 1916; Annie Besant's Central Hindu College (1898) became its nucleus.
Source: Medha AI, based on standard education and modern-history references (HWO Paper II)
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In 1929 J. Krishnamurti dissolved which organisation that had been built around him?
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Answer A. Order of the Star
At Ommen in 1929 he dissolved the Order of the Star, saying 'Truth is a pathless land' and that no organisation can lead a man to truth.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed textbooks and standard references (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, KFI) (HWO Paper II)
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Krishnamurti's early Theosophical writings, such as 'At the Feet of the Master', appeared under which pen name?
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Answer A. Alcyone
As a boy in the Theosophical Society, Krishnamurti wrote under the name Alcyone; At the Feet of the Master (1910) and Education as Service (1912) carry it.
Source: Medha AI, based on BRAOU B.Ed textbooks and standard references (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, KFI) (HWO Paper II)
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