Review: Chapters 6, 7, 8

Within the context of Vygotsky's perspective of cognitive development, why do students who are gifted often not benefit from regular classroom instruction?

• Because they aren't working within their zone of proximal development

• Because they're too preoccupied by their own self-talk

• Because they're too busy thinking about things they learned from their outside reading to want to learn material presented in the classroom

• Because they are typically more distractible than their nongifted peers

Which one of the following best describes Piaget's concept of equilibration?

• A child assimilates without accommodating.

•  A child accommodates without assimilating.

• A child doesn't encounter any new or challenging ideas.

• A child revises existing schemes to incorporate new experiences.

Three of the following teachers are considering students’ zone of proximal development to help their students learn. Which one is not necessarily providing scaffolding?

• Ms. García allows peer collaboration in a section of a problem that is difficult to students.

• Mr. Klein allows students to see their notes of a procedure until they are ready to follow the steps on their own

• Mr. Morris keeps providing step-by-step guidance when students can work independently.

• Ms. Smith gives her students an exercise to do after modeling and rehearsing.

Which one of the following clearly illustrates Piaget's concept of assimilation?

• A third grader develops the necessary eye-hand coordination for writing letters.

• A sixth grader moves to a different school and does not change styles to fit local fashions.

• A kindergarten child mistakenly writes on the chalkboard using a large white crayon instead of chalk.

• An eighth grader who continually uses the word "awesome" in his compositions is encouraged to use other, more specific adjectives.

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

• High self-esteem

• Interaction with the physical environment

• Accommodation of existing schemes

• Social interaction

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. Ames presents brand new topics every day, expecting the continual novelty to keep students interested and motivated.

• Ms. Baretta makes sure that students have learned one topic very, very well before moving on to another.

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

• Ms. Doherty uses a lot of drill-and-practice exercises, encouraging students to work faster every time.

Which one of the following statements best describes Vygotsky's concept of internalization?

• As children grow older, they develop an increasing ability to think about events in abstract rather than concrete terms.

• With age, children acquire more sophisticated problem-solving skills, largely because their parents and teachers give them increasingly challenging problems to solve.

• Over time, children acquire more self-confidence about their ability to deal with the world.

• Through their social interactions with other people, children acquire new ways of mentally approaching and thinking about a task.

Imagine you are a third-grade teacher. If you look at cognitive development from Piaget's perspective, which stage would best characterize most of your students?

• concrete operational stage

• formal operational stage

• preoperational stage

• sensorimotor stage

Which of the following is NOT an effective way for a teacher to help students develop moral development?

• Question students to see if they are being honest.

• Provide students with several examples of honesty and empathy.

• Promote class discussions about issues around social justice.

• Provide opportunities for students to revise their moral beliefs.

Three of the following strategies should promote students' moral development. Which one might be beneficial in other ways but would not necessarily promote moral development?

• Getting students involved in community service projects

• Asking students to wrestle with difficult moral issues

• Engaging in moral behavior yourself

•  Describing how "good" boys and girls should behave