Q&A Hero

Q: When reviewing an article from an educational journal, you become concerned about the studys accuracy. With which criteria for judging the quality of a study are you concerned? A. reliability B. validity C. generalizability D. replication

Q: Which of the following statements regarding ethical guidelines for research involving children and adults is false? A. Researchers are required to keep all information confidential, even if they obtain information that threatens the childs well-being. B. Every participant must be given the opportunity to see the results of the study. C. Children in the control group have the right to receive the same treatment as the experimental group if it turns out that the experimental treatment has some beneficial outcome. D. The perceived benefits of a study must outweigh its potential risks and costs in terms of time and effort.

Q: In what ways can teachers beliefs about child and adolescent development affect their instructional methods and practices? (Try to give concrete examples, either hypothetical or drawn from personal experience.) Why is it important for teachers to study theories of development?

Q: Describe the typical differences in math and science performance between students in Japan and students in the United States. What does research suggest regarding the causes of these differences? List the three lessons suggested by James Stigler and his colleagues based on their videotape study of mathematics classrooms.

Q: Discuss four factors that are influencing the current status of children and adolescents in American society today. What are the implications of these trends for schools?

Q: Compare and contrast cognitive and contextual theories of child development. Which theory do you think best explains child development? Why?

Q: What is action research? Discuss the steps involved in action research. Describe the action research study at Billabong Elementary discussed in the text.

Q: Which of the following statements regarding prenatal development is false? A. It covers the period from conception to birth. B. It follows a universal pattern. C. It is directed mainly by environmental influences. D. It is divided into three major stages.

Q: The cell that is formed by the union of sperm and ovum is called a(n): A. zygote. B. chromosome. C. fetus. D. embryo.

Q: Jenny has just found out that her pregnancy involves two fertilized ova that are not genetically identical. Jennys babies will be: A. born with Down Syndrome. B. monozygotic twins. C. dizygotic twins. D. born with hemophilia.

Q: Baldness, hemophilia, and sickle-cell anemia are all examples of disorders caused by: A. dominant genes. B. recessive genes. C. polygenetic traits. D. sex-linked characteristics.

Q: Morrisons (1995) study conducted with old kindergarteners and young first-graders demonstrated that: A. experiments can be conducted in natural settings. B. school-related experiences rather than age alone have a major impact on cognitive development. C. both of these D. neither of these

Q: As a teacher in a predominantly African American school, you are more likely to encounter a student who has which genetic disorder? A. Tay-Sachs disease B. phenylketonuria C. muscular dystrophy D. sickle-cell anemia

Q: The purpose of action research is to: A. understand general principles of child development. B. improve the educational environment for students. C. control unimportant variables that could potentially affect the results of the research. D. examine changes in child development over long periods of time.

Q: For women, the risk of conceiving a child with Down Syndrome increases after age 35 because: A. compared to younger women, older women are less physically fit. B. nature did not intend for women in their forties and fifties to have children. C. there is a greater likelihood that their ova have been exposed to diseases. D. none of these

Q: Cognitive perspectives on human development are described as ______ because they suggest that development is influenced by both nature and nurture. A. continuous B. quantitative C. biased D. interactional

Q: According to the text, ______ is the best-known developmental psychologist in education. A. Sigmund Freud B. Jean Piaget C. Lev Vygotsky D. Albert Bandura

Q: Which is the correct sequence of stages in Piagets theory of cognitive development? A. oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital B. classical, instrumental, operant conditioning C. sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, formal operations D. preoperations, sensorimotor, formal operations, concrete operations

Q: A psychologist believes that cognitive advances in a childs thinking are the result of gradual improvements in the childs attention, memory, and thinking strategies. She would best be described as adhering to ______ perspective. A. the information-processing B. a social-cultural C. a social learning D. the ecological

Q: Who introduced the idea of reciprocal determinism? A. Erik Erikson B. Jean Piaget C. John Watson D. Albert Bandura

Q: As a preschool teacher, when you are working with a child on a new skill you adjust your level of guidance and assistance based on the childs developing abilities. Your approach is most consistent with which theory of child development? A. social learning theory B. ecological theory C. social-cultural theory D. psychoanalytic theory

Q: Which statement is not compatible with Vygotskys theory? A. Children may be able to demonstrate a higher level of cognitive competence under the guidance of more capable peers. B. There are no universal patterns of development since cultures differ in terms of developmental goals for children. C. A childs development is individually constructed. D. Talking and problem solving first occur as a social activity and are then transformed by the child into internal actions and thoughts.

Q: In Bronfenbrenners model of child development, the outermost circle represents the childs ______. A. cultural context B. temperamental, mental, and physical characteristics C. immediate physical and social environment D. social and economic context

Q: Which pair of perspectives would lead to the most similar conclusions about whether a childs development is active or passive? A. maturational and interactional B. interactional and contextual C. behavioral and contextual D. behavioral and interactional

Q: A. as essential truths. B. as mutually exclusive explanations of undisputed facts. C. as ways of thinking and talking about child development, which are best considered in combination with each other. D. none of these Answer: C

Q: Freuds stage of latency, Eriksons stage of industry versus inferiority, and Piagets stage of concrete operations are typically found in what age group? A. infancy B. early childhood C. middle childhood D. adolescence

Q: A ______ is a statement derived from theory that an investigator attempts to validate during a research study. A. case study B. research design C. longitudinal question D. hypothesis

Q: Sheila, a first-grade teacher, believes that her students should not be pressured to follow strict educational regimens; rather, their capacities should be allowed and encouraged to develop naturally. Her beliefs most resemble the ideas of which of the following theorists? A. Rousseau B. Locke C. Freud D. Skinner

Q: Dr. Jones selects a research design that has the advantage of being used with large samples. This design also can be used to test associations between different variables. However, the disadvantage is that the design cannot be used to test cause-and-effect relations. Which design has Dr. Jones selected? A. longitudinal study B. case study C. correlational study D. experimental study

Q: As a fifth-grade teacher, you would expect your students to be experiencing Eriksons stage of ______. A. identity versus role confusion B. industry versus inferiority C. concrete operations D. formal operations

Q: Lewis Termans Genetic Studies of Genius is a well-known example of a ______ study. A. longitudinal B. cross-sectional C. cross-sequential D. triangulation

Q: An experimenter trains Allison to be afraid of rats by making a loud noise whenever a rat is presented to Allison. Allisons fear develops via the process of: A. instrumental conditioning. B. operant conditioning. C. classical conditioning. D. reciprocal determinism.

Q: A school administrator decides to study the effect of the DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) program, where students are required to read for 30 minutes every day in their classroom. She randomly assigns half of the classes to participate in DEAR and the other half to do something else. Later, she compares reading test scores for the two groups. Her research is an example of a(n): A. case study B. natural experiment C. laboratory experiment D. observation

Q: As a third-grade teacher, you decide to reward students with a sticker for each desirable behavior. Which method of conditioning have you selected? A. operant/instrumental conditioning B. critical conditioning C. classical conditioning D. observational conditioning

Q: Behaviorists suggest that children learn through: A. classical and instrumental conditioning. B. imitation and observation. C. both conditioning and imitation/observation. D. neither conditioning nor imitation/observation.

Q: Which of the following statements about poverty and childhood is false? A. The majority of children living in poverty are non-Hispanic whites. B. Rates of poverty are highest among African-American and Hispanic children. C. Poverty rates for children U.S. have been in the range of 10 to 15 percent in the past few decades. D. The United States has the highest child poverty rate of any industrialized country.

Q: Compared to those who entered the teaching field 30 years ago, you should expect to find: A. an increasingly diverse group of children in your classroom. B. educational progress complicated by language barriers for some of your students. C. both increased diversity and language barriers. D. neither increased diversity nor language barriers.

Q: According to the National Center of Educational Statistics, what percentage of young people (ages 3-21) are served by federally supported programs for the disabled? A. 42.7 B. 21.7 C. 14 D. 8.9

Q: At what point in their education do poor students, as a group, begin scoring lower on standardized tests than their middle-class classmates? A. first grade B. seventh grade C. high school D. on first entering school

Q: Which of the following are factors contributing to the educational problems of poor children? A. Comparatively high rates of illness and malnutrition B. Schools with inadequate resources C. Substandard housing D. all of these

Q: The purpose of a developmental theory is to: A. describe how children change as they age. B. describe how different aspects of development are interrelated. C. explain why development occurs in a particular direction. D. all of these

Q: Nate claims that there are critical periods in development when a child must experience certain stimuli in order to develop normally. Nate is taking a stand on which issue in developmental theory? A. nature versus nurture B. stability versus plasticity C. passivity versus activity D. continuity versus discontinuity

Q: Which of the following statements is true? A. Students start school later and stay in school for a shorter period of time, compared to past generations. B. Since 1920 the average school year has decreased from 180 to 120 days. C. Since the early 1900s there have been significant increases in the percentage of children attending school. D. Graduation rates have decreased in the last 50 years.

Q: The tabula rasa perspective is associated with: A. Jean-Jacques Rousseau B. G. Stanley Hall C. John Dewey D. John Locke

Q: As a new teacher entering the classroom today, you should expect to encounter which educational philosophy? A. back-to-basics B. hands-on/real-world C. both back-to-basics and hands-on/real-world D. neither back-to-basics nor hands-on/real-world

Q: Which of the following statements is NOT compatible with the biological perspective on child development? A. Development is always discontinuous. B. Development follows a predictable pattern, unfolding according to a biological timetable. C. The environment plays little role in shaping the path of development. D. Compared to the other theories, this perspective best captures the nativist viewpoint.

Q: Differences in performance on the TIMSS between children from the United States and children from Asian cultures are best explained by: A. Asians superior math and science abilities. B. superior science and math abilities of children in the U.S. C. the fact that Asians have higher IQ scores than children from the U.S. D. different instructional practices of teachers in the U.S. and Asian cultures.

Q: Freud and Erikson are associated with which kind of developmental theory? A. psychoanalytic B. behavioral C. biological D. cognitive

Q: You are a math teacher in middle grades. If you wanted to make your own teaching style match that of Asian educators, you should do all of the following except: A. spend more time explaining and developing new concepts in your mathematics lessons. B. give your students problems they have not seen before that utilize the same concepts as problems you have been working on. C. teach your students to solve particular problems, and then ask them to solve those problems on their own. D. spend more time on mathematics instruction.

Q: Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from Stiglers research on mathematics classrooms? A. A focus on teaching methods is essential for improving education. B. Teaching is a cultural activity. C. There are no quick fixes for improving education. D. all of these

Q: Compared to their counterparts in the United States, Japanese teachers of mathematics are more likely to: A. focus on procedural skills over conceptual understanding. B. teach mathematics as a set of isolated facts and skills to be learned incrementally. C. refrain from showing students how to solve a mathematics problem. D. see their role as breaking down complex tasks into smaller pieces while providing opportunities for practice.

Q: You are a teacher in Japan and are expected to participate in Kounaikenshuu. This means you will: A. engage in school-based professional development activities. B. be required to earn a masters degree. C. participate in at least one continuing-education class per year. D. earn raises based on merit rather than seniority.

Q: In the United States, the number of ______ children has increased faster than those of other racial and ethnic groups. A. African-American B. Latino C. Asian D. Eastern European

Q: Which of the following is not a finding from the U.S. Department of Education study of kindergarten children in the 1998/1999 class? A. About 11 to 12 percent of children are at risk for becoming overweight. B. Fewer than 10 percent of children have difficulty getting along with others. C. 80 percent of children have received regular child care from someone other than a parent. D. About 75 percent of children are read or sung to on a regular basis.

Q: It is important for future teachers to study child development because: A. schools play an important role in childrens intellectual, social, and emotional development. B. teachers instructional decisions are influenced by teachers beliefs about childrens development. C. many teachers appear to have a limited understanding of child development. D. all of these

Q: Which teacher is least likely to actively address students learning problems? A. Alice, who believes that behavioral differences are innate B. Bob, who thinks that learning problems are a result of poor parenting C. Claire, who believes that behavioral differences are a direct result of growing up in different socioeconomic groups D. David, who believes that learning problems stem from previous poor school experiences

Q: In a study examining the influence of teachers beliefs about child development on teaching practices, Smith and Sheppard (1988) found that nearly half of teachers believed that: A. school readiness could be influenced by environmental factors under the teacher or parents control. B. child development was largely or completely outside the influence of parents or teachers. C. school readiness is a complex interaction between the childs maturation and his/her environment. D. none of these

Q: According to the text, adolescents spend about what percentage of their time in school? A. 32 B. 27 C. 55 D. 41