REVIEWER 1: CHILD AND ADOLESCENTS

1.In Vygotsky’s view, opportunities to engage in pretend play (e.g., playing “house” or “doctor”)
have which one of the following effects?

They allow children to practice adult behaviors.

2.Piaget spoke of egocentrism in both the thought and speech of the preoperational child. Three
of the following are examples of preoperational egocentrism as Piaget defined it. Which one is
not?

Justin is constantly grabbing objects and pulling them toward himself.

3.Which one of the following reflects class inclusion as Piaget described it?

Realizing that things that are cars can also be vehicles

4.Mr. Johnson 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. From the perspective
of Piaget’s theory, we would expect that Mr. Johnson’s goal is:

Almost impossible to attain

5.Louis receives a new soccer ball and begins to dribble it in the same way he dribbles his
basketball. His dribbling of the new ball reflects Piaget’s concept of:

 Assimilation

6.Which one of the following students is working in his or her zone of proximal development?

Berta is beginning to learn basic woodworking techniques. She has trouble hammering
a nail straight into a piece of wood unless her teacher stands beside her, helping her and
reminding her of what to do.

7.Three of the following statements are consistent with Vygotsky’s views about the kinds of
diversity we are likely to see in students. Which statement is not consistent with Vygotsky’s
theory?

Some children frequently engage in self-talk, whereas other children don’t use it at all.

8.Three of the following teachers are using scaffolding to help their students learn. Which one is
not necessarily providing scaffolding?

Mr. Donaldson takes his students on a field trip to the local art museum.

9.Several parents who are making costumes for an elementary school play ask the young cast
members to assist them with such tasks as cutting fabric, pinning pieces together, and sewing
simple hems. Using the language of Vygotskian theorists, we can say that the parents are

Engaging the students in guided participation

10.Which one of the following examples illustrates a cognitive apprenticeship in mathematics?

Mr. Johnson and a student work together to solve a challenging word problem, with
Mr. Johnson modeling effective ways of thinking about the problem.
11.Five-year-old Becky is playing with blocks, stacking them one on top of another until her
towers eventually tumble, and then stacking them again. Which one of the following best reflects
Piaget’s view of how Becky is probably learning in this situation?

She is actively thinking about and interpreting the results of her actions.

12.Which one of the following is associated with Piaget’s concrete operations stage?

Awareness that other people’s thoughts might differ from one’s own

13.One thing that children in Piaget’s formal operations stage can do, but children in the concrete
operations stage cannot do, is:

Reason logically about strictly hypothetical situations

14.According to Piaget, three of the following are essential for cognitive development. Which
one is not?

High self-esteem

15.Piaget’s view of cognitive development can best be described as:

Discrete stages in which distinctly different forms of logical thought emerge

16.Piaget’s processes of assimilation and accommodation both involve:

Relating new information to prior knowledge

17.Sociocultural theory suggests that with development, children acquire many cognitive tools of
their culture. Which teacher is most clearly applying this idea?

Ms. Turiel shows students how to graph their research results so that they can more
easily see trends in the data.

18.The following four junior high school science teachers are teaching the concept molecule to
their students. In each classroom, some of the students have acquired formal operational
reasoning abilities, whereas others think in a concrete operational manner. In which classroom
are the concrete operational students most likely to have difficulty understanding?

Mr. Carmen verbally describes how different elements are made up of different
numbers of neutrons, protons, and electrons.

19.Mr. Remick asks 9-year-old Anne to divide a pitcher of lemonade equally between
two glasses, one each for her and her friend Kate. The two glasses are different shapes,
with Anne’s being tall and thin and Kate’s being short and wide. After Anne pours the lemonade,
Mr. Remick says to her, “Look, the lemonade in your glass is higher than the lemonade in Kate’s
glass. Did you give yourself more than you gave Kate?” “No,” Anne replies, “my glass is
skinnier.” Mr. Remick continues to ask Anne questions to determine how well she understands
that height compensates for width in this situation. Mr. Remick’s strategy can best be described
as illustrating:

The clinical method

20.From Piaget’s perspective, children are:

 Eager to interact with and make sense of their world

21.Piaget’s sensorimotor stage is characterized by:

Schemes based primarily on perceptions and behaviors

22.Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development refers to:

The range of tasks children can accomplish only with support

23.In Piaget’s theory, a scheme can best be described as:

An organized set of similar thoughts or actions

24.From Vygotsky’s perspective, what important role does inner speech play in children’s
thinking and cognitive development?

By giving themselves directions about what to do next, children guide themselves

through complex tasks.

25.Roger is shown two piles of sand and says that each pile has the same amount. However,
when one pile is flattened with a shovel, he now claims emphatically that the flattened pile has
less sand. Based on this information, Roger is probably in Piaget’s _______ stage of
development.

preoperational

26.Which one of the following is the best example of dynamic assessment?

Mr. Warren observes and records how Erica’s logical thinking changes over time as
she experiments with a pendulum and how she responds to his hints about separating and
controlling variables.

27.Central to Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is the idea that children increasingly
make better sense of their world:

By interacting with more experienced people who mediate their understandings

28.Which one of the following statements most accurately describes Lev Vygotsky’s view of
how cognitive development occurs?

Children develop, in part, by working on challenging tasks with the assistance of more
competent individuals.

29.Which one of the following is the best example of a cognitive tool?

The concept of pi (π) in a geometry class

30.Marcy is given her choice of two identical chocolate bars, one of which has been broken into
four pieces. Marcy chooses the broken candy bar, believing that it has more candy. From the
perspective of Piaget’s theory, Marcy is showing a lack of _______, indicating that she has not
yet completed the transition to the _________ stage of development.

conservation; concrete operations

31.Ms. Killian and her fourth graders have been growing sunflowers under various conditions—
they have grown sunflowers in different kinds of soil, with different amounts of water, and in
varying degrees of sunlight. Below are four statements that Ms. Killian makes related to the
sunflowers. Which one is most consistent with the idea of a cognitive apprenticeship?

“This sunflower is taller than that sunflower over there. Let’s consider what the
growing conditions for the two flowers have been and try to figure out what might have led
to the difference we see.”

32.Which one of the following children shows signs that he or she is in Piaget’s preoperational
stage of cognitive development?

Jenny learns hundreds of new words and phrases in only a few months.

33.Vygotsky proposed that thought and language are:

Largely independent before age two but closely connected thereafter

34.Which one of the following is the best example of Piaget’s concept of assimilation?

A kindergartner uses a white crayon instead of chalk to draw on the blackboard.

35.Eight-year-old Julie lives in a rural area where many people are farmers or in some other way
makes their living through agriculture. After a lengthy summer drought, it begins to heavily rain
one day in late July. “Thank goodness!” Julie hears her father exclaim. “Our prayers have finally
been answered!” Julie makes a mental note of the cause–and–effect relationship her father has
implied. This situation illustrates Vygotsky’s belief that:

Adults pass along to children the ways in which their culture interprets events.

36.Students in a fourth grade reading group are reading a passage about snakes. Their teacher
asks, “Who can think of a good title that summarizes what this passage is about?” After hearing
several good suggestions, the teacher says, “The author says that snakes are helpful to farmers.
What evidence does she give to support her statement?” If we consider Vygotsky’s concept of
internalization, we might predict that such a discussion will:

Help students develop effective reading comprehension strategies (e.g., summarizing,

looking for supporting statements)

37.Imagine you are a third-grade teacher. Considering Piaget’s theory of cognitive development,
you should expect most or all your students to exhibit ______ thinking.

concrete operational

38.As a high school music teacher plays a recording of Ferde Grofé’s symphony Grand Canyon
Suite for his class, he asks his students to visualize scenes that Grofé tried to capture with music:
a sunrise over the Grand Canyon, a burro ride down a winding trail, a thunderstorm, and so on.
From a Vygotskian perspective, this lesson could best be described as:

A mediated learning experiences

39.Which one of the following examples most clearly illustrates a cognitive apprenticeship?

A junior high school English class is reading Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening.” At the end of each verse, the teacher describes the visual images and
feelings that the poem elicits for him, and he encourages his students to do likewise.
40.Which one of the following would Piaget be least likely to advocate for elementary school
children?

Lectures that describe simple abstract scientific concepts

41.Which one of the following is the best example of a mediated learning experience?

As Ms. Robinson takes a group of children hiking, she gathers leaves from maple, oak,
and elm trees and points out the ways in which the leaves from the trees are distinctly
different.

42.Which one of the following statements best describes Piaget’s view of how children acquire
knowledge about the world?

Children actively construct their own view of the world from their experiences with
the environment.

43.Three of the following are definitely examples of scaffolding. Identify the situation in which
no scaffolding is described.

Ms. Andrews likes to challenge her students by giving them group research projects.
She puts her students in groups of three or four students each, and she gives each student a
topic to research. She sends the groups to the school library to find out as much as they can
about their topic, and then has each group give a report to the entire class.

44.Which one of the following best illustrates Piaget’s concept of accommodation?

Donna revises her understanding of what clouds are like when she studies them in
science.

45.Which one of the following best illustrates how socio-cognitive conflict might promote
cognitive development?

Two students help each other prepare for a quiz by giving each other practice test
questions.

46.Which one of the following teachers is definitely keeping in mind Piaget’s idea that
assimilation and accommodation are both necessary for learning and cognitive development to
occur?

Mr. Baretta shows students how a new topic is similar to the things they already know,
but also different in certain ways.

47.Kiley is having trouble learning the steps involved in using a microscope correctly. If we
consider Vygotsky’s description of how children help themselves through difficult tasks, we
should suggest that Kiley:

Talk herself through the steps

48.Which one of the following best describes Piaget’s notion of equilibration?

A child revises existing schemes to incorporate new information.

49.Which one of the following statements best describes Vygotsky’s concept of internalization?

Through their social interactions with other people, children acquire ways of mentally
approaching and thinking about a task.
50.From a Vygotskian perspective, scaffolding serves what purpose in instruction?

It supports students as they perform difficult tasks.