Mrs. Solomon gives each of her third graders four wooden squares (each 1 by 1) and a piece of poster paper. They identify the wooden pieces as squares and conclude that they're all the same size. She has them put the squares together to form a larger square (2 x 2) and to draw a line around the larger square. They remove the wooden squares, and she asks them how much space the wooden pieces covered and leads them to conclude, four squares. She asks them what they call the space and introduces the term area. She then tells them they have an area of four squares. To reinforce the idea, she then asks them what the area of two blocks is and helps them to conclude, two squares.
Based on this information, which of the following is the best assessment of the developmental appropriateness of Mrs. Solomon's teaching of the concept area?
a. Her instruction was developmentally inappropriate, because she shouldn't have told them they had an area of four squares.
b. Her instruction was developmentally inappropriate, because she should have also used a wooden space to put the squares on instead of poster paper.
c. Her instruction was developmentally appropriate, because the students had concrete illustrations of both area and square.
d. Her instruction was developmentally appropriate, because she reinforced the concept through teacher direction.
Ques. 2According to Piaget, which of the following would be the best solution to Mrs. Green's problem?
a. Describe the process of the change in molecular motion between a liquid and solid in more detail, so they see the difference.
b. As a classroom activity, have the students observe some ice cubes as they're allowed to melt, and then describe what they see.
c. Have them carefully read the explanation in their texts and then discuss the meaning of the text description.
d. Have the students observe ice cubes as they're allowed to melt, and show them a model illustrating the molecular motion of the substance in each state.
Ques. 3Mr. Smith is discussing the question, What would life be like for us if we were living 100 years from now? His students deal with the question effectively. Which stage of development is best illustrated by the students' ability to deal with the question effectively?
a. Sensorimotor
b. Preoperational
c. Concrete operational
d. Formal operational
Ques. 4Mrs. Wells is teaching her fifth graders to find the volume of rectangular solids using the formula V = l x w x h (length times width times height). They had difficulty with the problems, and they couldn't seem to visualize the boxes when shown pictures of them in their textbooks. According to Piaget, which of the following would be the best solution to this dilemma?
a. Wait until they are developmentally ready to deal with the abstraction in finding volume. (Wait and teach it in the sixth grade.)
b. Show them an empty box, and put cubes in it until it is full to illustrate volume and the cubic dimension.
c. Walk them through several problems taken from their textbooks, being certain that they are successful at each step in the calculation.
d. Give them pictures of boxes to help them better visualize the problem.
Ques. 5You're teaching the concept arthropod (insects, spiders, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, etc.) to your fifth graders. Using Piaget's work as a basis for your decision, which of the following would be the best example for teaching the concept?
a. A lobster from a fish store
b. A movie showing a crabber catching crabs in a crab pot
c. A color picture of a shrimp swimming in the water
d. A picture showing insects and their body parts
Ques. 6A student is able to simplify mathematical expressions that include negative numbers. Which stage of development is best illustrated by the student's ability?
a. Sensorimotor
b. Preoperational
c. Concrete operational
d. Formal operational
Ques. 7Which of the following best illustrates qualitative differences in thinking?
a. Dennis used to be able to solve only one algebraic equation but can now solve two simultaneous algebraic equations.
b. Jennifer used to think that food disappeared when we ate it but now knows that our body changes it through digestion.
c. Ann used to be able to find the longitude and latitude of points only on a plane map, but she now can find longitudes and latitudes on a globe.
d. Al knows that force is a push or a pull, so he now concludes that magnets exert a force on some metal objects even though the magnet isn't touching the object.
Ques. 8People sometimes argue that students shouldn't take education courses as undergraduates, because they aren't meaningful. Colleges of education have responded to this criticism by providing field experiences for the undergraduates. This can be viewed as a step in the process of developing preservice teachers' abilities to teach. Of the following, the best explanation for the value of field experience according to Piaget would be that it:
a. helps preservice teachers begin to deal with abstract concepts.
b. provides a form of concrete experience for the abstract concepts preservice teachers must understand.
c. enhances preservice teachers' maturation.
d. provides the necessary social interaction to improve preservice teachers' communication skills.
Ques. 9Teachers often comment that they can easily tell which students in their classes have had parents who have worked with them, in comparison with other students whose parents have been less involved. Of the following, the Piagetian concept most closely related to this description is:
a. maturation.
b. experience.
c. equilibrium.
d. adaptation.
Ques. 10Ms. Ramsay is discussing the Civil War with her students. She poses the question, What would life have been like as a child during this time? Her students are able to generate some plausible explanations. At which stage of development, according to Piaget, are her students engaged?
a. Sensorimotor
b. Preoperational
c. Concrete operational
d. Formal operational
Ques. 11Several controversies exist with respect to neuroscience. Which of the following is not one of those controversies?
a. The influence of experience on the physiology of the brain.
b. The tendency of people to to use neuroscience to explain behaviors and events it is incapable of explaining.
c. The benefits or lack of benefits of added stimulation for cognitive development in young children
d. The role of critical periods for development
Ques. 12An economics professor once said, The world is governed by economics. Later the faculty was told in a meeting about university enrollment problems and what effect these had on funding. The professor then nodded knowingly and mumbled, Yes, economics rules the world. Piaget would say she:
a. went through a process of transformation seeing the process move from one point to another.
b. accommodated a scheme to include an additional example.
c. reached equilibrium through the process of accommodation.
d. assimilated an example into an already existing scheme.
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