Study Guide

Field 007: P–12 Education
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Objective 0001
Student Development and Diversity (Standard 1)

1. Several students in a kindergarten class tend to monopolize classroom materials and have difficulty sharing with others. Other students in the class are becoming increasingly reluctant to work or play with these students. Which of the following actions by the teacher would best help these students develop positive and cooperative relationships with their peers?

  1. assigning a partner who readily shares classroom materials to the students who have difficulty sharing
  2. providing abundant classroom materials to minimize the need for the students to share
  3. scheduling a conference to inform the students' parents/guardians of their children's sharing difficulties
  4. utilizing role-play activities to help the students practice successful sharing behaviors
Answer
Correct Response: D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of typical developmental challenges for students from early childhood through grade 12 and the ability to help students address these challenges. Using role play with kindergarten students helps them understand what sharing and cooperation should look like and supports them in developing strategies for responding to different situations in a relatively nonthreatening context. This approach also enables the teacher to provide students with feedback on their actions and suggestions for alternative actions that may be more productive.
Objective 0002
Learning Processes (Standard 2)

2. A prekindergarten student is completing a pattern activity by stringing large beads of different colors. The teacher established the initial bead pattern of red, blue, yellow, and purple and the student is stringing beads to repeat the initial pattern. During the activity, the student whispers, "Red, blue, yellow, purple . . . now blue. No, that's not right. It should be red next." According to Lev Vygotsky's theories, the student's behavior clearly illustrates which of the following concepts?

  1. chunking information to promote recall
  2. linking new information to known information
  3. using private speech to facilitate problem solving
  4. categorizing objects according to common characteristics
Answer
Correct Response: C. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of major theories and concepts related to the learning process. According to Vygotsky, the function of private speech is to communicate with the self for the purpose of self-guidance and is helpful in situations where additional cognitive effort is needed to reach a solution. In repeating the colors in order, the student is using self-talk to recall the appropriate pattern for stringing the beads and to self-correct errors.
Objective 0002
Learning Processes (Standard 2)

3. Students in a high school history class are studying the American and French Revolutions of the mid-eighteenth century. Which of the following assignments related to this topic would best promote students' higher-order thinking skills?

  1. Construct a diagram showing similarities and differences in the social and economic conditions of each country at the time of the revolutions.
  2. Create a timeline of events leading up to each country's revolution.
  3. Describe in a brief essay the important political figures of the period and the roles they played in their countries' revolutions.
  4. Summarize the key goals of the revolutionary movement in each country.
Answer
Correct Response: A. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of processes by which students construct meaning and acquire skills, including critical- and creative-thinking skills, and the ability to facilitate these processes for students with diverse characteristics and needs. Constructing a diagram requires students to synthesize information about each country's social and economic conditions and use that information to create an original visual representation of relationships, similarities, and differences between the revolutions. Cognitive processes such as comparing, analyzing, and synthesizing are all forms of higher-order thinking.
Objective 0002
Learning Processes (Standard 2)

4. Which of the following statements describes a long-term implication for the learning of students who live in homes or communities characterized by high levels of stress?

  1. High levels of stress cause the body to release cortisol, which can interfere with neurological function in the brain.
  2. Students who live in highly stressful environments tend to prefer solitary activities over group interaction.
  3. High levels of stress increase the body's need for sleep, which can lead to frequent tardiness and absenteeism.
  4. Students who live in highly stressful environments tend to resist forming personal relationships with nonfamilial adults.
Answer
Correct Response: A. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how factors in the home, school, and community influence learning processes. High levels of stress over an extended period of time and the release of cortisol are associated with the "fight or flight" response. This response interferes with normal neurological function and is a barrier to the clear thinking and concentration students need in order to learn effectively.
Objective 0003
Learning Environment (Standard 5)

5. Which of the following teacher actions would best help establish a foundation for a culture of learning in the classroom?

  1. recognizing academic achievement by displaying exemplary student work
  2. ensuring that students have more than enough assignments and tasks to keep them fully occupied during class
  3. incorporating a social component into each instructional sequence
  4. communicating consistently through words and actions that the knowledge students are pursuing is important and interesting
Answer
Correct Response: D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to apply skills and strategies for establishing a culture of learning that emphasizes high expectations for all students. When a teacher values learning and demonstrates that through instruction and daily interactions, students will come to value learning as well. If the knowledge students are pursuing is relevant to their interests and applicable to their lives, then learning becomes the central focus of the classroom.
Objective 0003
Learning Environment (Standard 5)

6. Many students in a first-grade class have had limited literacy experiences. The teacher can respond to these students' literacy needs most appropriately and effectively by planning instruction that emphasizes which of the following strategies?

  1. modeling for students the use of context clues to determine meanings of unfamiliar words
  2. reading and discussing with students a variety of narrative and informational texts
  3. teaching students how to perform basic research tasks such as looking up a topic online
  4. providing students with regular opportunities to act out favorite stories for peers
Answer
Correct Response: B. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to plan and adapt developmentally appropriate learning environments that are responsive to the characteristics, strengths, experiences, and needs of each student. For students with limited literacy experiences, the most appropriate way to begin meeting their literacy needs is to provide them with a literacy-rich environment that includes a variety of texts. Beyond exposing them to various texts, it is important to read and discuss the texts with students to help them construct meaning from the texts. This practice also promotes their literacy development in the areas of listening and speaking.
Objective 0004
Instructional Planning and Delivery (Standard 3)

7. Students in a fourth-grade class have extensive background knowledge in science, are highly motivated, and are progressing through the science curriculum much faster than the teacher anticipated. The teacher can best address this situation by taking which of the following steps?

  1. developing longer student activities and homework assignments for each science lesson
  2. arranging for students to tutor peers in other classes who are struggling with science content
  3. revising instructional plans to increase the overall depth and complexity of science instruction
  4. devoting less time to science instruction in favor of a content area in which students need more support
Answer
Correct Response: C. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to differentiate instruction according to student characteristics and needs and to monitor and adapt lessons to ensure rigorous learning and success for all students. The students in this class are likely to become bored if the teacher proceeds with the curriculum as planned. To provide responsive instruction for these students, the teacher needs to differentiate the instructional content, learning tasks, and/or products to ensure that they are appropriately challenged. It may not be feasible to advance students beyond the grade level curriculum, but the teacher can design instruction to help students explore the key concepts through more complex tasks.
Objective 0004
Instructional Planning and Delivery (Standard 3)

8. A seventh-grade language arts teacher assigns students to select a twentieth-century author, research the author's life, and write a biographical report. The school librarian has gathered a variety of resources on various twentieth-century authors for students to use in their research. As students begin their research, the teacher observes that a few students tend to eliminate resources if they cannot locate information about their author quickly and easily. Which of the following teacher strategies would be most effective in beginning to address this situation?

  1. asking the librarian to direct the students to specific resources that contain information about their author
  2. reminding the students of the importance of persistence when searching for information
  3. teaching the students a mini-lesson on using an index and table of contents to locate information
  4. recommending that the students ask a peer to help them locate information about their author
Answer
Correct Response: C. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of information literacy, and the ability to promote students' knowledge of and model and facilitate students' use of the tools, practices, and opportunities of the information age. The information literacy skill of locating information on a specific topic has several facets. Not only do students need to know what types of resources to consult, they also need to develop strategies for efficiently locating information within a resource. Teaching students how to use an index and table of contents can help ensure that they do not overlook a valuable resource because they did not know how to locate the information. This strategy also helps students avoid spending time poring through a resource that does not contain information that is relevant to their needs.
Objective 0004
Instructional Planning and Delivery (Standard 3)

9. Middle school teachers are developing an instructional unit focused on the Olympic Games that will address content in social studies, mathematics, and language arts. The teachers have brainstormed ways of relating ideas and standards in each of the designated content areas to the topic of the unit. Which of the following steps should the teachers take next in developing the unit?

  1. coming to consensus on instructional objectives to include in the unit
  2. considering potential student projects and activities for the unit
  3. determining the usefulness of current instructional resources for the unit
  4. establishing guiding questions to define the scope and sequence of the unit
Answer
Correct Response: D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to apply skills and strategies for integrating curricula, creating interdisciplinary units of study, and providing students with developmentally appropriate opportunities to explore content from integrated and varied perspectives. Once teachers have brainstormed possible relationships among disciplines, they need one or more guiding questions to provide structure to the unit. A guiding question is the thread that links the ideas from more than one discipline in a coherent way. For example, an effective guiding question for a unit integrating social studies, mathematics, and language arts might be "How does immigration act as a catalyst for change?"
Objective 0005
Assessment (Standard 4)

10. Which of the following initial approaches would be most effective for helping high school students develop personal learning goals?

  1. advising students to focus their goals on skills that are directly related to career choices they are considering
  2. meeting with students to identify and discuss areas in which they want to improve and areas in which they want to extend their knowledge and skills
  3. suggesting that students engage their family in a discussion about what they believe to be appropriate goals for the student
  4. providing students with a list of goals that have been developed by students in other classrooms to use as a guide
Answer
Correct Response: B. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to apply developmentally appropriate skills and strategies for engaging students in reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting. For students to be able to establish personal learning goals, they first need to understand where they are in relation to where they want to be. The process of identifying both areas of strength and areas of need helps students gain this understanding. They can then focus on specific aspects of their performance which will facilitate their ability to establish personally relevant and achievable goals.
Objective 0005
Assessment (Standard 4)

11. It would be most appropriate for a teacher to use a frequency chart for which of the following purposes?

  1. identifying an effective behavioral intervention for a particular student
  2. monitoring a student's performance of a targeted behavior
  3. calculating the amount of time a student is engaged in productive learning
  4. evaluating the development of a student's study skills
Answer
Correct Response: B. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to use appropriate assessment strategies, instruments, and technologies to obtain desired information and monitor progress. A frequency chart is a tally sheet that allows a teacher to quickly gather data on a particular occurrence. Teachers generally use frequency charts to collect data about student behaviors such as being out of his or her seat, shouting out in class, or participating in a class discussion. The information is often used to monitor a student's efforts to correct the behavior in question.
Objective 0005
Assessment (Standard 4)

12. Which of the following strategies by an elementary school teacher would be most effective in facilitating active participation by students' parents/guardians in the assessment process?

  1. providing parents/guardians with frequent reports of their children's grades in each of the content areas
  2. surveying parents/guardians periodically to provide them with an opportunity to share their perceptions of their children's learning and development
  3. asking parents/guardians to oversee their children in completing occasional take-home tests
  4. engaging parents/guardians in dialogues about their children's learning and development through regular conferences and examinations of student work samples
Answer
Correct Response: D. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of the role of families as active participants in developing, implementing, and interpreting assessments for children, and the ability to engage families in these processes. Discussing their children's progress and learning with parents/guardians through regular conferences enables them to provide input and insights into their children's strengths and needs. Examining student work samples helps parents/guardians understand the characteristics of exemplary work and identify those characteristics in their children's work. This process also clarifies for parents/guardians specific aspects of their children's work that need improvement. Reviewing work samples over time is an effective way to assess a student's progress in achieving particular skills.
Objective 0006
Reading Instruction (Standard 7)

13. A third-grade teacher begins a readers theatre activity by providing each student with a copy of the script. The teacher reads the script aloud as students follow along and then engages students in both echo reading and choral reading of the script. Finally, the teacher assigns students to read various parts of the script. The teacher's approach to the readers theatre activity is likely to be most effective in helping students develop reading skills in which of the following areas?

  1. fluency
  2. phonological awareness
  3. decoding
  4. vocabulary development
Answer
Correct Response: A. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to use evidence-based instructional practices to develop students' phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension in accordance with the teacher's area of professional responsibility. The teacher's approach to the readers theatre activity provides students with an opportunity to develop fluency through multiple readings of a text both as a group and individually. Students build fluency in these readings by using expressiveness, intonation, and inflection when rehearsing and performing the text.
Objective 0006
Reading Instruction (Standard 7)

14. Students in a seventh-grade science class will be reading an informational article on genetics. Before the students begin the reading assignment, the teacher engages them in a brief discussion of what they know about genetics. The teacher then distributes the article and has students examine charts and other text features in the article. This strategy is helpful in promoting students' comprehension of the content of the article because it:

  1. gives students an opportunity to ask questions about unfamiliar content or terminology.
  2. helps students determine an appropriate pace to use when reading the article.
  3. prepares students to receive and incorporate new information into their understanding.
  4. facilitates students' ability to organize and summarize information in the article.
Answer
Correct Response: C. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to use evidence-based skills and strategies for facilitating students' comprehension before, during, and after reading content-area texts in the teacher's discipline or area of professional responsibility. Students come to school with various levels of background knowledge. By engaging students in a discussion of what they already know about genetics, the teacher is activating this existing knowledge as a foundation for new information. Having students examine charts and other text features gives them a sense of how the new information is organized and the important concepts and ideas.
Objective 0007
The Professional Environment (Standard 6)

15. A ninth-grade science teacher is preparing to meet with a student and his parents to discuss the student's performance and progress. The teacher collects samples of the student's work and assessments as well as the learning objectives for recent lessons. The teacher's method of preparation for the meeting is likely to be most effective in helping the teacher achieve which of the following outcomes?

  1. facilitating a productive discussion with the student and his parents
  2. promoting the student's sense of responsibility for his learning
  3. fostering in the student a positive attitude toward science learning
  4. ensuring positive communication between the student and his parents
Answer
Correct Response: A. This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of how to apply skills and strategies for establishing collaborative relationships with parents/guardians, other professionals, and community partners to support and enhance student learning. Providing materials for the parents to reference during the meeting will enhance their understanding of how their child is performing in relation to expectations. Materials such as work samples and learning objectives provide a context for the discussion and can help facilitate communication and collaborative problem solving between the parents and the teacher regarding various aspects of the student's performance.