CTET Syllabus 2026

Child Development (Primary School Child) — 15 questions

• Concept of development and its relationship with learning
• Principles of the development of children
• Influence of Heredity & Environment
• Socialization processes: Social world & children (Teacher, Parents, Peers)
• Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky: constructs and critical perspectives
• Concepts of child-centered and progressive education
• Critical perspective of the construct of Intelligence
• Multi-Dimensional Intelligence
• Language & Thought
• Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice
• Individual differences among learners
• Distinction between Assessment for learning and assessment of learning; School-Based Assessment, Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation
• Formulating appropriate questions for assessing readiness levels of learners

Concept of Inclusive education and understanding children with special needs — 5 questions

• Addressing learners from diverse backgrounds including disadvantaged and deprived
• Addressing the needs of children with learning difficulties, "impairment" etc.
• Addressing the Talented, Creative, Specially abled Learners

Learning and Pedagogy — 10 questions

• How children think and learn; how and why children "fail" to achieve success in school performance
• Basic processes of teaching and learning; children’s strategies of learning; learning as a social activity
• Child as a problem solver and a "scientific investigator"
• Alternative conceptions of learning in children; understanding children’s "errors" as significant steps in the learning process
• Cognition & Emotions
• Motivation and learning
• Factors contributing to learning — personal & environmental

Content — 15 questions

• Geometry
• Shapes & Spatial Understanding
• Solids around Us
• Numbers
• Addition and Subtraction
• Multiplication
• Division
• Measurement
• Weight
• Time
• Volume
• Data Handling
• Patterns
• Money

Pedagogical issues — 15 questions

• Nature of Mathematics / Logical thinking
• Place of Mathematics in Curriculum
• Language of Mathematics
• Community Mathematics
• Evaluation through formal and informal methods
• Problems of Teaching
• Error analysis and related aspects of learning and teaching
• Diagnostic and Remedial Teaching

Content — 15 questions

• Family and Friends (Relationships; Work and Play; Animals; Plants)
• Food
• Shelter
• Water
• Travel
• Things We Make and Do

Pedagogical Issues — 15 questions

• Concept and scope of EVS
• Significance of EVS, integrated EVS
• Environmental Studies & Environmental Education
• Learning Principles
• Scope & relation to Science & Social Science
• Approaches of presenting concepts
• Activities
• Experimentation / Practical Work
• Discussion
• CCE
• Teaching material / Aids
• Problems

Language Comprehension — 15 questions

• Reading unseen passages — two passages, one prose or drama and one poem, with questions on comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development — 15 questions

• Learning and acquisition
• Principles of language Teaching
• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool
• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language
• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders
• Language Skills
• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing
• Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom
• Remedial Teaching

Comprehension — 15 questions

• Two unseen prose passages (discursive or literary or narrative or scientific) with questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development — 15 questions

• Learning and acquisition
• Principles of language Teaching
• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool
• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language
• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders
• Language Skills
• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing
• Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom
• Remedial Teaching

Child Development (Elementary School Child) — 15 questions

• Concept of development and its relationship with learning
• Principles of the development of children
• Influence of Heredity & Environment
• Socialization processes: Social world & children (Teacher, Parents, Peers)
• Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky: constructs and critical perspectives
• Concepts of child-centered and progressive education
• Critical perspective of the construct of Intelligence
• Multi-Dimensional Intelligence
• Language & Thought
• Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice
• Individual differences among learners
• Distinction between Assessment for learning and assessment of learning; School-Based Assessment, Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation
• Formulating appropriate questions for assessing readiness levels of learners

Concept of Inclusive education and understanding children with special needs — 5 questions

• Addressing learners from diverse backgrounds including disadvantaged and deprived
• Addressing the needs of children with learning difficulties, "impairment" etc.
• Addressing the Talented, Creative, Specially abled Learners

Learning and Pedagogy — 10 questions

• How children think and learn; how and why children "fail" to achieve success in school performance
• Basic processes of teaching and learning; children’s strategies of learning; learning as a social activity
• Child as a problem solver and a "scientific investigator"
• Alternative conceptions of learning in children; understanding children’s "errors" as significant steps in the learning process
• Cognition & Emotions
• Motivation and learning
• Factors contributing to learning — personal & environmental

Mathematics — Content, 20 questions

• Number System: Knowing our Numbers, Playing with Numbers, Whole Numbers, Negative Numbers and Integers, Fractions
• Algebra: Introduction to Algebra, Ratio and Proportion
• Geometry: Basic geometrical ideas (2-D), Understanding Elementary Shapes (2-D and 3-D), Symmetry (reflection), Construction (using straight edge scale, protractor, compasses)
• Mensuration
• Data handling

Mathematics — Pedagogical issues, 10 questions

• Nature of Mathematics / Logical thinking
• Place of Mathematics in Curriculum
• Language of Mathematics
• Community Mathematics
• Evaluation
• Remedial Teaching
• Problem of Teaching

Science — Content, 20 questions

• Food: Sources of food, Components of food, Cleaning food
• Materials: Materials of daily use
• The World of the Living
• Moving Things People and Ideas
• How things work: Electric current and circuits, Magnets
• Natural Phenomena
• Natural Resources

Science — Pedagogical issues, 10 questions

• Nature & Structure of Sciences
• Natural Science / Aims & objectives
• Understanding & Appreciating Science
• Approaches / Integrated Approach
• Observation / Experiment / Discovery (Method of Science)
• Innovation
• Text Material / Aids
• Evaluation — cognitive / psycho-motor / affective
• Problems
• Remedial Teaching

Content — History (within 40 content questions)

• When, Where and How
• The Earliest Societies
• The First Farmers and Herders
• The First Cities
• Early States
• New Ideas
• The First Empire
• Contacts with Distant Lands
• Political Developments
• Culture and Science
• New Kings and Kingdoms
• Sultans of Delhi
• Architecture
• Creation of an Empire
• Social Change
• Regional Cultures
• The Establishment of Company Power
• Rural Life and Society
• Colonialism and Tribal Societies
• The Revolt of 1857-58
• Women and Reform
• Challenging the Caste System
• The Nationalist Movement
• India After Independence

Content — Geography (within 40 content questions)

• Geography as a social study and as a science
• Planet: Earth in the solar system
• Globe
• Environment in its totality: natural and human environment
• Air
• Water
• Human Environment: settlement, transport and communication
• Resources: Types — Natural and Human
• Agriculture

Content — Social and Political Life (within 40 content questions)

• Diversity
• Government
• Local Government
• Making a Living
• Democracy
• State Government
• Understanding Media
• Unpacking Gender
• The Constitution
• Parliamentary Government
• The Judiciary
• Social Justice and the Marginalised

Pedagogical issues — 20 questions

• Concept & Nature of Social Science/Social Studies
• Class Room Processes, activities and discourse
• Developing Critical thinking
• Enquiry / Empirical Evidence
• Problems of teaching Social Science/Social Studies
• Sources — Primary & Secondary
• Projects Work
• Evaluation

Language Comprehension — 15 questions

• Reading unseen passages — two passages, one prose or drama and one poem, with questions on comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development — 15 questions

• Learning and acquisition
• Principles of language Teaching
• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it
• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language
• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders
• Language Skills
• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing
• Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom
• Remedial Teaching

Comprehension — 15 questions

• Two unseen prose passages (discursive or literary or narrative or scientific) with questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development — 15 questions

• Learning and acquisition
• Principles of language Teaching
• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool
• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language
• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders
• Language Skills
• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing
• Teaching-learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom
• Remedial Teaching