1) Which of the following statements about the role of educational psychology in teacher education is accurate?
A) Educational psychology tells teachers what to do in order to be effective in the classroom.
B) Educational psychology course work focuses on subject matter knowledge rather than pedagogical knowledge.
C) Educational psychology provides teachers with research-based principles to guide their teaching.
D) Educational psychology is the study of learning theory without regard to classroom application.
2) Which of the following statements best expresses the text author's view of the importance of subject matter knowledge in effective teaching?
A) It is the single indispensable ingredient in effective teaching.
B) It is more important than communicating knowledge to students.
C) It is of little importance when compared to qualities such as self-discipline, leadership, and enthusiasm.
D) It is a good start; necessary, but not sufficient.
3) According to the text author, knowledge of how to transmit information and skills to students is:
A) sufficient for effective teaching.
B) at least as important as knowledge of what to teach.
C) no different from knowing the subject matter well.
D) not as important as knowledge of what to teach.
4) Teachers who demonstrate skill in communicating with students possess:
A) tenure status.
B) advanced degrees in their disciplines.
C) pedagogical knowledge.
D) teaching licenses.
5) All of the following teacher actions are pedagogically sound EXCEPT:
A) considering prerequisite skills needed to understand new ideas.
B) engaging students in active learning that leads to understanding.
C) concluding that the required subject matter will not interest the students.
D) taking into account the intellectual characteristics of students.
6) Content knowledge is to "what to teach" as ________ is to "how to teach."
A) ethnography
B) discipline
C) prerequisite
D) pedagogy
7) According to your text author, can good teaching be taught?
A) Yes, good teaching strategies can be learned and applied.
B) No, there are too many personality factors to be considered.
C) Yes, but it can only be taught to those who demonstrate above average intelligence.
D) No, teachers are born, not made.
8) During a social studies class, two students at the back of the room whisper to each other about the dance on Saturday night. The teacher moves near the two students, but does not stop the discussion about President Johnson's Great Society. The students stop whispering to each other. Which principle of effective teaching is being used?
A) Use the discipline problem as a teaching tool.
B) Use the mildest intervention possible.
C) Wait until minor problems become major before intervening.
D) State rules, give examples, and then restate rules.
9) Teachers who think about the outcomes they want for their students and how each decision they make moves students toward those outcomes:
A) are novice teachers.
B) will lose students' attention.
C) are focused mainly on subject matter knowledge.
D) are intentional teachers.
10) Ms. Marano has a strong sense of teacher efficacy. Which of the following is she most likely to believe?
A) Students' potential for academic achievement comes down to how much ability they inherited.
B) Students with a negative home environment cannot be reached.
C) A teacher's actions are a major influence on a student's level of success.
D) Success will come when a teacher is lucky enough to get a "good class."
11) According to Bandura (1997), teachers who have strong teacher efficacy are likely to:
A) decrease the amount of effort invested in teaching, when students fall short of academic goals.
B) accept the fact that some students will never succeed.
C) blame students' failure on parents.
D) persist in their efforts, even when students fail.
12) Intentional teachers become expert by engaging in all of the following activities EXCEPT:
A) upgrading and examining their teaching practices.
B) using their own students' responses to guide instructional decisions.
C) unquestioning adherence to the methods learned during teacher training.
D) reading and attending conferences to learn new ideas.
13) According to the text author, what is most likely the major difference between teachers with 20 years of experience and teachers with one year of experience 20 times?
A) age
B) relationships with principals
C) ability to reflect
D) content knowledge
14) From studies in educational psychology, we know that:
A) scolding students for misbehavior will result in better behavior.
B) whole group instruction is better than individual instruction.
C) student achievement increases when independent study strategies are used.
D) mixed-ability grouping is more effective than same-ability grouping.
15) Ideas that explain relationships between factors are called:
A) theories.
B) laws.
C) principles.
D) hypothesis.
16) What is the main purpose of theory development?
A) Theories gather data that prove cause and effect.
B) Theories identify principles that have been thoroughly tested.
C) Theories explain relationships between two factors.
D) Theories synthesize laws and principles.
17) Which one of the following statements about educational psychology is accurate?
A) Progress in how we come to understand behavior and learning is a slow and uneven process.
B) Often, a single study will provide breakthrough evidence to extend theories.
C) Theories break down laws and principles so that they can be studied in their most pure form.
D) An example of a theory would be that discovery learning increases student learning.
18) It is probably true that the most important things that teachers learn about teaching take place:
A) in liberal education programs.
B) in departments of education.
C) in graduate school.
D) while on the job.
19) Which of the following statements about theories is accurate?
A) The quality, accuracy, and usefulness of theories are what determine, ultimately, a teacher's success.
B) Theories are based on clearly established outcomes and are thus rarely changed once formulated.
C) Theories are common in the hard sciences but not appropriate for education.
D) Theories evolve and gain acceptance relatively quickly.
20) One aim of educational psychology is to:
A) find a unified method of teaching all learners.
B) eliminate rigorous teaching licensing policies.
C) test theories that guide the actions of teachers.
D) turn laws into useful theories.
21) When you combine objective research with common sense, the result is:
A) decreased quality in decision making.
B) effective teaching.
C) self-regulated learning.
D) inconsistent student achievement.
22) Which of the following statements best sums up the role of research in teaching?
A) Decision making, when based on research, is free of context.
B) Common sense has no place in instructional decision making.
C) No theory, research, or book can tell teachers what to do in a given situation.
D) Educational psychology research can be translated directly into instructional effectiveness.
22) Which of the following components of sound teacher decision making is FALSE?
A) Sound decision making depends on the objectives the teacher has in mind.
B) Sound decision making depends on the situation within which a problem arises.
C) It is necessary to combine principles and theories with common sense when making decisions.
D) Principles and theories should be isolated from context.
23) Based on your textbook author's conception of effective teaching, which of the following statements is true?
A) Knowing what research prescribes will ensure that the most effective teaching decisions will be made.
B) What were effective strategies 10 years ago will not work well today.
C) Common sense may be appealing, but it usually results in poor judgment and lower student success.
D) More weight should typically be given to the teacher's informed judgment of a classroom situation, than to direct prescriptions from research findings.
24) The essence of a variable is that it:
A) ensures that two groups are equivalent.
B) creates special treatments and examines their effects.
C) synthesizes principles and laws.
D) can have more than one value.
25) A researcher wants to study the effects of rewards on motivation. Two groups of students are set up; one group receives rewards for its efforts and the other group does not. In order to ensure that the two groups are essentially equivalent, what procedure should the researcher use?
A) Have students count off by twos.
B) Randomly assign students to groups.
C) Put all students who are motivated by awards in one group.
D) Let students choose the group to which they would like to belong.
27) Which of the following is an example of random assignment?
A) The first half of the class that enters the classroom is put in one group; the remaining students are assigned to another group.
B) Students whose last name begins with the letters A – L are assigned to one group; the remainder are assigned to another group.
C) Students who roll an odd number on a die are assigned to one group; those who roll an even number are assigned to another.
D) Students are allowed to choose the group to which they prefer to belong.
28) A math teacher randomly assigns one group of students to use computers and one group to use work sheets when learning fractions. The teacher then compares the two groups by giving both groups a test of fractions knowledge. What type of research was conducted?
A) descriptive study
B) correlational study
C) ethnography
D) experiment
29) Studies demonstrating that differences in findings can be attributed to the treatment given are said to have high:
A) correlational coefficients.
B) applicability.
C) generalizabilty.
D) internal validity.
30) Which of the following research types attempts to control all factors except those created by the treatment, while remaining relevant to real life?
A) correlational study
B) randomized field experiment
C) single case study
D) laboratory experiment
31) A teacher experimented with different approaches to instruction in a class. Although all of the conditions of the experiment could not be controlled, the teacher's study was meaningful to real students in real classrooms because it followed all the rules of good research. Therefore, the
A) study can be replicated with consistent results.
B) results would be the same across cultures and contexts.
C) results show a high degree of external validity.
D) findings will predict effective instruction in all third grade classrooms.
32) In a study, students were randomly assigned to classes receiving individual tutoring or no tutoring. The students who did not receive tutoring are called the:
A) control group.
B) placebo group.
C) pilot group.
D) experimental group.
33) In one study, teachers were assigned to either group A, which received additional training in teaching strategies, or group B, which received no training. Group A is called the:
A) pilot group.
B) control group.
C) placebo group.
D) experimental group.
34) In some situations a randomized field experiment may not be possible, because teachers cannot be assigned to treatments. In such cases equivalence of experimental and control groups may be established using matching, rather than random assignment. Compared with the randomized field experiment, the field experiment that uses matching has:
A) higher external validity.
B) lower internal validity.
C) higher internal validity.
D) lower external validity.
35) After a new hand-raising rule was implemented, a special education teacher collects data on a student's hand-raising behavior. What type of research is this?
A) correlational study
B) randomized field experiment
C) single case experiment
D) laboratory experiment
36) A teacher notes the average number of students who clean up their materials each day for one week. The teacher then implements a reinforcement program for neatness and observes the students' neatness behavior for another week. What type of research is this?
A) correlational study
B) single case experiment
C) randomized field study
D) laboratory experiment
37) A researcher can understand the results of a single case study by:
A) statistically comparing the experimental and control groups.
B) talking to the participants and noting their ideas.
C) statistically comparing the results from the lab and the field.
D) graphing the results and analyzing the graphs.
38) In single-case experiments, examination of graphed results would generally be used for:
A) deciding about whether results are clear enough to accept.
B) situations in which common sense is at odds with research.
C) selecting experimental methodologies that "meet the eye."
D) determining whether a correlation is statistically significant.
39) A researcher found that students who scored high on a test of reading achievement also scored high on a self-esteem inventory. The researcher can say that reading achievement and self-esteem are:
A) positively correlated.
B) internally correlated.
C) negatively correlated.
D) externally correlated.
40) Which of the following examples depicts a negative correlation?
A) Students who had the highest grade point averages received the highest math scores.
B) Students who studied for the greatest length of time prior to a math test received the highest scores.
C) Students who were absent the least prior to a math test had the highest scores.
D) The amount of time students studied for a math test was unrelated to the scores they received.
41) A researcher has completed a study correlating middle school students' science interests and science achievement. The results of the study will show:
A) how a single student who is low or high on one variable scores on the other.
B) the degree of relationship between the two variables.
C) what happens when one of the two variables is kept constant for two or more groups.
D) how one variable causes the other.
42) When the values of one variable are high, the values of the other are also high. What type of correlation is being described?
A) neutral
B) positive
C) uncorrelated
D) negative
43) A music teacher finds that the amount of time students spend listening to rap music is negatively correlated with grades in music class. Based on these results, the teacher might conclude that listening to rap music
A) causes the high grades.
B) is associated with high grades.
C) causes the low grades.
D) is associated with low grades.
44) A positive correlation would most likely exist between:
A) school achievement and ability to ride a bicycle.
B) singing ability and academic achievement.
C) motivation to learn and academic achievement.
D) hours spent playing video games and writing ability.
45) A student has been absent for many days during a semester; so, the teacher meets with the student's parents. The teacher remarks that the more days absent from school, the worse student’s grades tend to be. What type of correlation is the teacher suggesting there is between attendance and achievement?
A) neutral
B) uncorrelated
C) negative
D) positive
46) A teacher suspects that students who take more time to complete examinations will tend to earn higher scores. If the teacher is correct, the resultant correlation between completion time and performance will be:
A) negative.
B) causal.
C) zero.
D) positive.
47) You are reading a description of a correlational study in which the author concludes that aggression in class causes poor grades. Which of the following reactions to the author's conclusion is appropriate?
A) The author may be correct but cannot make a cause-effect conclusion from a correlational study.
B) The author is incorrect since aggression cannot be measured.
C) The author is correct in making the conclusion.
D) The author's conclusion is wrong since a correlational study cannot demonstrate a relationship between two factors.
48) A type of research in which an observer studies natural events as they occur in a social setting is called
A) quantitative research.
B) descriptive research.
C) correlational research.
D) cause-and-effect research.
49) Why would a researcher conduct an ethnographic study?
A) to explore a new context for conducting research
B) to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables
C) to validate a principle or law
D) to prove a theory
50) An experimenter sits in the back of a classroom for three months in a school for students with special needs. Students' behaviors are observed as a new teaching method is used. What type of study is this?
A) ethnography
B) experimental
C) lab experiment
D) correlational
51) Which of the following procedures is used in descriptive research?
A) random assignment
B) interviews
C) control groups
D) treatments of variables
52) A developmental psychologist observes and then synthesizes observations into a theory showing how individuals develop cognitively over time. What type of research is being conducted?
A) correlational
B) descriptive
C) laboratory
D) experimental
53) A benefit of action research is that:
A) it gives pupils a more active role in research design than they have in other types of descriptive research.
B) professionals are directly involved in the program under study, which may bring great insight to the investigation.
C) the data gathering process meets the highest standards of objectivity.
D) it has higher internal validity than experiments.
54) As educational polices tend to lag behind, an emphasis on 21st century skills is designed to
assist the educator in:
A) thinking about curriculum and teaching methods.
B) the integration of technology and different forms of assessment.
C) both A and B.
D) neither A nor B.
55) Initiative and self-direction are exemplified by which category of 21st century skills?
A) core subjects
B) learning and innovation skills
C) information and media technology skills
D) life and career skills
56) During this type of research a school employee would try out a new strategy, collect data,
and debrief with other personnel on its effective components.
A) descriptive research
B) action research
C) correlational study
D) cooperative research
57) A good example of talking teaching would be to:
A) read a journal.
B) join a book club.
C) get student feedback.
D) none of the above.
58) What is Standard 8 of the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium?
A) knowledge of human development and learning
B) partnership
C) classroom motivation
D) assessment of student learning
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