Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science - IELTS Reading Answers

You can improve one skill at a time by practicing individual IELTS reading passages like ‘Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science’, such as identifying paragraph structure, finding specific details, or finding keywords. Single-passage practice helps you master each skill thoroughly and break your preparation into manageable steps rather than feeling overwhelmed by all three passages at once.

Solve the questions with the passage ‘Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science Skin Reading Answers’, check your answers against the provided location and explanations, and improve your performance in the reading module with the help of the given IELTS exam preparation tips for band score of 8+.

Passage for Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science Reading Answers

The following Reading Answers passage, ‘Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science’, provides useful practice for the IELTS reading test. Practicing this passage and focusing on similar IELTS Reading topics for General and Academic will greatly improve your skills in tackling various reading passages.

Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science

A It has been pointed out that learning mathematics and science is not so much learning facts as learning ways of thinking. It has also been emphasised that in order to learn science, people often have to change the way they think in ordinary situations. For example, in order to understand even simple concepts such as heat and temperature, ways of thinking of temperature as a measure of heat must be abandoned and a distinction between ‘temperature’ and ‘heat’ must be learned. These changes in ways of thinking are often referred to as conceptual changes. But how do conceptual changes happen? How do young people change their ways of thinking as they develop and as they learn in school?

B Traditional instruction based on telling students how modern scientists think does not seem to be very successful. Students may learn the definitions, the formulae, the terminology, and yet still maintain their previous conceptions. This difficulty has been illustrated many times, for example, when instructed students are interviewed about heat and temperature. It is often identified by teachers as a difficulty in applying the concepts learned in the classroom; students may be able to repeat a formula but fail to use the concept represented by the formula when they explain observed events.

C The psychologist Piaget suggested an interesting hypothesis relating to the process of cognitive change in children. Cognitive change was expected to result from the pupils’ own intellectual activity. When confronted with a result that challenges their thinking - that is, when faced with conflict - pupils realise that they need to think again about their own ways of solving problems, regardless of whether the problem is one in mathematics or in science. He hypothesised that conflict brings about disequilibrium, and then triggers equilibration processes that ultimately produce cognitive change. For this reason, according to Piaget and his colleagues, in order for pupils to progress in their thinking they need to be actively engaged in solving problems that will challenge their current mode of reasoning. However, Piaget also pointed out that young children do not always discard their ideas in the face of contradictory evidence. They may actually discard the evidence and keep their theory.

D Piaget’s hypothesis about how cognitive change occurs was later translated into an educational approach which is now termed ‘discovery learning’. Discovery learning initially took what is now considered the Tone learner’ route. The role of the teacher was to select situations that challenged the pupils’ reasoning; and the pupils’ peers had no real role in this process. However, it was subsequently proposed that interpersonal conflict, especially with peers, might play an important role in promoting cognitive change. This hypothesis, originally advanced by Perret-Clermont (1980) and Doise and Mugny (1984), has been investigated in many recent studies of science teaching and learning.

E Christine Howe and her colleagues, for example, have compared children’s progress in understanding several types of science concepts when they are given the opportunity to observe relevant events. In one study, Howe compared the progress of 8 to 12-year-old children in understanding what influences motion down a slope. In order to ascertain the role of conflict in group work, they created two kinds of groups according to a pre-test: one in which the children had dissimilar views, and a second in which the children had similar views.

They found support for the idea that children in the groups with dissimilar views progressed more after their training sessions than those who had been placed in groups with similar views. However, they found no evidence to support the idea that the children worked out their new conceptions during their group discussions, because progress was not actually observed in a post-test immediately after the sessions of group work, but rather in a second test given around four weeks after the group work.

F In another study, Howe set out to investigate whether the progress obtained through pair work could be a function of the exchange of ideas. They investigated the progress made by 12-15-year-old pupils in understanding the path of falling objects, a topic that usually involves conceptual difficulties. In order to create pairs of pupils with varying levels of dissimilarity in their initial conceptions, the pupils’ predictions and explanations of the path of falling objects were assessed before they were engaged in pair work. The work sessions involved solving computer-presented problems, again about predicting and explaining the paths of falling objects. A post-test, given to individuals, assessed the progress made by pupils in their conceptions of what influenced the path of falling objects.

Questions for Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science Reading Answers 

The ‘Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science’ is an IELTS Academic Reading passage with 13 questions. The question types in this reading passage include:

• IELTS Reading Matching Headings (Q. 1-6)
• IELTS Reading Multiple Choice Questions (Q. 7-8) & (Q. 9-10)
• IELTS Reading Summary Completion (Q. 11-13)

Questions 1-6

List of Headings

i A suggested modification to a theory about learning.

ii The problem of superficial understanding.

iii The relationship between scientific understanding and age.

iv The rejection of a widely held theory.

v The need to develop new concepts in daily life.

vi The claim that a perceived contradiction can assist mental development.

vii Implications for the training of science teachers.

viii An experiment to assess the benefits of exchanging views with a partner.

ix Evidence for the delayed benefits of disagreement between pupils.

1 Paragraph A

2 Paragraph B

3 Paragraph C

4 Paragraph D

5 Paragraph E

6 Paragraph F

Questions 7-8

Which TWO of these statements are attributed to Piaget by the writer of the passage?

A Teachers can assist learning by explaining difficult concepts.

B Mental challenge is a stimulus to learning.

C Repetition and consistency of input aid cognitive development.

D Children sometimes reject evidence that conflicts with their preconceptions.

E Children can help each other make cognitive progress.

7 …………

8 …………

Questions 9-10

Which TWO of these statements describe Howe’s experiment with 8-12-year-olds?

A The children were assessed on their ability to understand a scientific problem.

B All the children were working in mixed-ability groups.

C The children who were the most talkative made the least progress.

D The teacher helped the children to understand a scientific problem.

E The children were given a total of three tests, at different times.

9 …………

10 …………

Questions 11-13

How children learn

Piaget proposed that learning takes place when children encounter ideas that do not correspond to their current beliefs. The application of this theory gave rise to a teaching method known as 11 …………

At first this approach only focused on the relationship between individual pupils and their 12 ………….

Later, researchers such as Perret-Clermont became interested in the role that interaction with 13 ………… might also play in a pupil’s development.

Answers for Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science with Location and Explanations

Now it is time to cross-check your answers using the answer key below for the Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science IELTS Reading passage. Make sure to create strategies based on the feedback from this practice and master IELTS Reading question types with examples.

Tips to Solve the Passage Question Types in the Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science Reading Answers 

Let us check out some quick IELTS Reading tips and techniques to increase your reading speed and overall comprehension to answer the passage question types in the Reading Answers of Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science.

Matching Headings

• Start by reading the list of headings first, not the paragraphs. This helps you know what themes to look for, such as contradiction, rejection, or educational implications.
• Underline key abstract ideas in each heading. For example, “perceived contradiction” or “superficial understanding” signals conceptual focus, not experiments.
• Read only the first and last two sentences of each paragraph initially. Headings usually reflect the main idea, not supporting details.
• Match headings based on overall purpose, not examples. For instance, a paragraph mentioning formulas is really about lack of deep understanding, not mathematics.
• Be careful with headings that sound similar. In this passage, several headings relate to conflict, but only one focuses on mental development through contradiction.
• Do not match a heading just because a paragraph contains a familiar name like Piaget. Always ask: What is the paragraph mainly doing—describing, challenging, or applying a theory?

Multiple Choice Questions

• Identify whose ideas you are selecting, here Piaget, before reading the options.
• Scan the passage for reporting verbs linked to Piaget such as proposed, argued, or pointed out.
• Read each option and ask: Is this something Piaget believed, or something later researchers added?
• Select only statements that are clearly attributed to Piaget, not implied or generally true.
• Remember that exactly two answers are correct, so eliminate options that refer to teachers, experiments, or peer interaction if Piaget did not emphasise them.
• Do not choose statements simply because they sound educationally sensible. Choose them only if the writer explicitly links them to Piaget.
• Similarly, for Q. 9-10, first, identify whose experiment is being tested, here Howe’s experiment.
• Scan the relevant paragraph for procedural details such as who participated, what was tested, how many tests were used, and when assessments occurred.
• Match options that describe what actually happened, not what the experiment proved.
• Ignore options that describe teaching methods or outcomes unless they are explicitly stated.
• Pay attention to numbers and time references, as these often distinguish correct answers.

Summary Completion

• Read the summary first to understand the logical progression of ideas (theory leads to teaching method, which in turn points to interaction).
• Predict the type of word needed for each gap (e.g. method name, person, group).
• Locate the paragraph that discusses the same sequence of ideas.
• Copy the answer exactly as it appears in the passage, keeping within the word limit.
• Check that the completed summary is grammatically correct and coherent.
• Do not paraphrase. Writing guided learning instead of the exact phrase from the passage will lose marks.

Well done on completing the Acquiring the Principles of Mathematics and Science Reading Answers! You need to get better at reading quickly, understanding questions, and retrieving information in order to achieve a high IELTS score. So, to crack IELTS Reading in the first go, try solving more of the recent IELTS Reading practice tests and work on your comprehension skills.

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