Student as a learner

A high school teacher facilitates a learning project where students work together to design and create rocket boosters. Through her instructional design, what cognitive process is the teacher expecting students to use to complete the task?

• Inductive reasoning

• Creative thinking

• Recall

• Memory

A 9th grade English teacher asks students to role-play a scene from an Ancient Roman gladiator event. Students have to work cooperatively to chose roles, represent different perspectives, and perform in front of classmates. For the role-play to go well, participants must collaborate or uphold the social contract of completing the role-play task. The teacher is implementing which of the following development theories?

• Cognitive learning theory (Piaget)

• Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)

• Moral development (Kohlberg)

• Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom)

An 8th grade teacher is beginning a new geometry unit on triangles. She wants to teach them how triangle math is used in architecture and construction. According to ZPD theory, what is the best activity to prepare students for this new learning?

• Give students a multiple-choice pretest with different units of measurement in the answers. Then review the correct answers as a class.

• Ask one student to explain to the class why triangles are used to build sturdy structures

• Give students a hand out explaining triangles and structures to read independently. Praise them as they retell what they have read to the class.

• Ask students to observe photos of structures and identify what makes them sturdy. Have them experiment by creating strong bridges with different types of shapes.

An 8th grade science teacher wants students to understand the purpose of microorganisms. Considering the developmental stages of 13 and 14 year old students, which is the best activity?

• Assign an article for students to read in a small group and then summarize for the class.

• Give a 60-minute presentation on the features of microorganisms.

• Using a reference handout, have students analyze their lunch to identify good and bad mircoorganisms in and around their food.

• Show students a photo of a rotting log and ask them to discuss in their small groups what they see.

A teacher is working on encouraging and cultivating critical thinking during her science block. The students are learning about cells. What would be the most effective way to increase creative thinking?

• Fill out a worksheet by labeling parts of a cell.

• Build a model of a cell and label it.

• Write a comic strip about a cell and all the adventures it encounters

• Draw a picture of a cell and label its parts.