1) Three of the following teaching strategies should help promote conceptual change.
Which one will not?
a.Pique students interest in classroom subject matter.
b.Identify students misconceptions about a topic prior to instruction.
c.Explore a few topics in depth rather than covering many topics quickly.
d.Have students learn definitions of important concepts to automaticity.
2) Luis suffers from extreme test anxiety. Three of the statements below probably
describe Luis. Which one does not?
a.As he takes a test, he looks closely and carefully at the wording of each test question.
b.He has trouble thinking clearly about how to answer each question.
c.He is more worried than his classmates about how his teacher will evaluate his
performance.
d.He gets lower test scores than his classmates, even though he knows the material as
well as they do.
3) From the standpoint of criteria described in the textbook, which one of the following
objectives should be most useful?
a.Students will complete the first ten chapters of their textbook by the end of the
semester.
b.The teacher will demonstrate the correct way to use a Bunsen burner.
c.Students will study effective debating strategies.
d.Students will write poetry using meter and rhyme.
4) For which one of the following individuals is behavior clearly affected by an
incentive?
a.Alphonso gets wrapped up in a mystery novel and doesnt hear the doorbell ring.
b.Blake does several extra-credit projects to ensure his A in sociology.
c.Cecil smiles when his girlfriend gives him a new sweater.
d.Darren eats junk food even when hes not hungry.
5) To remember the four states that come together at a single point (Colorado, Arizona,
New Mexico, and Utah), Marcia remembers CANU (pronounced like canoe). Marcias
technique illustrates the use of:
a.the keyword method
b.a superimposed meaningful structure
c.the method of loci
d.the pegword method
6) Theories are advantageous in several ways. Three of the following describe
advantages of learning theories. Which one does not?
a.Theories enable objective, unbiased reporting of research findings.
b.Theories help to condense large bodies of information.
c.Theories help practitioners design interventions that facilitate learning.
d.Theories provide an impetus for new research.
7) Sarah needs to solve this word problem:
A sweater in a store is originally priced at $40, but the price tag is marked One-half off.
The sweater is placed on a rack marked Five dollars off the sale price. How much does
the sweater cost now?
Sarah knows how to find one-half of a number; she also knows how to subtract one
number from another. She uses both of these operations to arrive at the correct answer
of $15. Which one of the following best describes Sarahs approach to problem solving?
a.drawing an analogy
b.availability
c.working backward
d.combining algorithms
8) In three of the following situations, interactions with peers might promote
considerable learning. In which situation is an interaction with an adult (rather than
with peers) more likely to be beneficial?
a.Learning how to use a microscope correctly
b.Contrasting different interpretations of a poem
c.Identifying the pros and cons of a democracy
d.Exploring various ways of solving a mathematical problem
9) Which one of the following scenarios reflects the typical duration of working
(short-term) memory?
a.Arnies family spends a summer at his grandmothers house and is able to remember
his grandmothers telephone number for the two months he is there. However, he
quickly forgets the number after he moves back home again.
b.Barney looks up the correct spelling of the word fossil and closes the dictionary. By
the time he finds a piece of paper on which to write the word, he has forgotten how to
spell it.
c.Carol remembers most of the information that she has been learning about World War
II in class this week, but she remembers very little of what she learned about World War
I two weeks ago.
d.At 9:00 a.m., Darrell makes a mental list of the five items he needs to purchase at the
grocery store at the end of the day. At noon, he checks himself and realizes that he still
remembers all five. At 3:00 p.m., however, he discovers that he has forgotten three of
the five items.
10) People often hold on stubbornly to their misconceptions about the world. Three of
the following are possible explanations as to why this might be so. Which statement is
not a likely explanation for the resilience of misconceptions?
a.Some misconceptions are central elements of peoples personal theories about the
world.
b.Virtually all knowledge has a natural tendency to become distorted over time.
c.People learn school subject matter without relating it to the things they know and
believe.
d.People elaborate on new information using their current misconceptions.
11) Tim and Sally are two fifth graders who have entered their science projects in an
elementary school science fair. They both receive blue ribbons on their projects.
Considering gender differences in students explanations for success, how are the two
students likely to explain their blue ribbons?
a.Tim will think, I got a ribbon because Im really good in science. Sally will think, I got
a ribbon because I worked really hard on my project.
b.Tim will attribute his ribbon to his many nights of hard work. Sally will think, I got a
ribbon because Im good in science.
c.Tim will think that he is lucky when it comes to projects like this. Sally will think that
she succeeded because her father is a scientist and she must have inherited his ability.
d.Tim will think, My project got a ribbon because I had a lot of help from my friends.
Sally will think, I got a ribbon because Im smarter than the other kids.
12) When students are reading a textbook, their comprehension monitoring is most
effective if it occurs:
a.Before they read a passage
b.Immediately after theyve read a passage
c.Several minutes or hours after theyve read a passage
d.Both immediately after theyve read a passage and also at some later time
13) Three of the following are principles of learning. Which one is a theory of learning
rather than a principle?
a.A behavior that is followed by punishment decreases in frequency.
b.People learn by making mental associations between new information and their
existing knowledge.
c.A response that is rewarded every time it occurs increases more rapidly than a
response that is only occasionally rewarded.
d.Students tend to remember more of a lecture if they take notes on the lectures content.
14) When behaviorists describe an organism as a black box, they mean that:
a.Many stimuli have no noticeable effect on the organism.
b.Learning processes occurring within the organism cannot be studied scientifically.
c.Learning is, by its very nature, something that takes place outside the organism.
d.An organism makes many responses even in the absence of any observed external
stimulus.
15) Three of the following are examples of authentic activities. Which one is least
authentic?
a.Collecting samples of local vegetation in a botany class
b.Writing an editorial for the local newspaper
c.Playing shortstop in a baseball game
d.Taking an essay test in a history class
16) Ms. Goodsell is thinking about how she might help the students in her introductory
French class learn to pronounce the word bonjour correctly. Which one of her thoughts
below is most consistent with a social cognitive perspective of learning?
a.If I explain the parts of the wordif I tell them that bon means good and jour means
daythen they will have an easier time understanding why the word is pronounced the
way it is.
b.Maybe I should show them how I form my mouth and lips as I pronounce the word
and then encourage them to imitate me.
c.Maybe I should explain how certain letters and letter combinations are consistently
pronounced differently in French than they are in English.
d.I need to be patient. Correct pronunciation will come in time for those students who
are really motivated to speak French.
17) Which one of the following teachers is using reciprocal teaching?
a.Mr. Armando has students work in pairs, testing each others knowledge about a topic.
b.Working with a small group, Mr. Bromley gives each student a chance to ask
questions of other group members regarding a section of text they are reading.
c.When students ask questions about things they dont understand, Ms. Cromwell asks if
classmates can answer those questions before answering them herself.
d.Before a test, Ms. Dievers has each student describe the strategies he or she plans to
use while studying.
18) Which one of the following reflects class inclusion as Piaget described it?
a.Getting cows and horses confused
b.Realizing that things that are cars are also vehicles
c.Identifying a shape as a square one day but as a triangle the next
d.Understanding that some behaviors that are perfectly acceptable at home are
unacceptable at school
19) Which one of the following statements best reflects behaviorists notion of tabula
rasa (blank slate)?
a.Organisms inherit few predispositions to behave in particular ways; instead, the
behaviors they exhibit are largely the result of environmental experiences.
b.Stimuli that occur after responses are made are usually more influential on an
organisms learning that stimuli that occur before responses are made.
c.The things that organisms learn in a new situation largely override the things that
theyve learned in previous situations; as a result, newly learned behaviors often replace
previously learned behaviors.
d.Learning is more a function of what the environment does to the organism than of
what the organism does to the environment; in other words, the organism plays a
relatively passive role in the learning process.
20) Mr. Jones teaches a class of twenty 8-year-old third graders. His goal for the
upcoming school year is to help at least 50% of his students reach formal operations.
Judging from Piagets theory, we would expect that Mr. Joness goal is:
a.An easy one to attain
b.Almost impossible to attain
c.Attainable only if he emphasizes abstract reasoning throughout the school year
d.Attainable only if his students have had enriching educational experiences most of
their lives