Question 1

Central to Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development is the idea that children increasingly make better sense of their world:

Accepted Answer

A)   Through the mental processes of assimilation and accommodation
B)   By repeatedly encountering both pleasant and unpleasant events in their daily lives
C)   Through their independent explorations of their physical and social environments
D)   By interacting with more experienced people who mediate their understandings D

Question 2

Students in a fourth-grade reading group are reading a passage about snakes. Their teacher asks, "Who can think of a good title that summarizes what this passage is about?" After hearing several good suggestions, the teacher says, "The author says that snakes are helpful to farmers. What evidence does she give to support her statement?" If we consider Vygotsky's concept of internalization, we might predict that such a discussion will:

Accepted Answer

A)   Be more beneficial for students who are working outside their zones of proximal development than for students working inside their ZPDs.
B)   Help students develop a greater interest in learning for its own sake.
C)   Help students develop effective reading comprehension strategies e.g., summarizing, looking for supporting statements) .
D)   Be confusing and counterproductive for students who are not yet capable of abstract thought. C

Question 3

Describe a cognitive apprenticeship, and identify at least five features that effective cognitive apprenticeships are likely to have. Use a concrete example to illustrate your discussion.

Accepted Answer

A cognitive apprenticeship is a learning model that focuses on the development of cognitive skills through hands-on experience and guidance from a more experienced individual. This approach is based on the idea that learning is not just about acquiring knowledge, but also about developing the ability to think and problem-solve in a particular domain.

Five features that effective cognitive apprenticeships are likely to have include:

1. Scaffolding: Effective cognitive apprenticeships provide structured support and guidance to learners as they engage in authentic tasks. This scaffolding helps learners gradually build their skills and understanding, allowing them to take on more complex challenges over time.

2. Modeling: In a cognitive apprenticeship, the expert or mentor demonstrates the cognitive processes and strategies involved in a particular task or problem. This modeling helps learners understand how to approach and tackle similar challenges themselves.

3. Coaching: Mentors in cognitive apprenticeships provide ongoing feedback and encouragement to learners, helping them reflect on their own thinking and problem-solving processes. This coaching helps learners develop metacognitive skills and self-regulation.

4. Articulation: Effective cognitive apprenticeships encourage learners to articulate their thought processes and reasoning as they work through tasks. This verbalization helps learners clarify their understanding and allows mentors to provide targeted support and feedback.

5. Reflection: Cognitive apprenticeships emphasize the importance of reflection on learning experiences. Learners are encouraged to think critically about their own thinking and problem-solving, identifying areas for improvement and setting goals for further development.

To illustrate these features, consider a cognitive apprenticeship in a scientific research lab. A novice researcher works alongside an experienced scientist, who provides scaffolding by breaking down complex research tasks into manageable steps. The mentor models effective research strategies and problem-solving approaches, while also coaching the novice through experiments and data analysis. The novice articulates their reasoning and hypotheses to the mentor, who provides feedback and encourages reflection on the research process. Through this apprenticeship, the novice gradually develops the cognitive skills and expertise needed to conduct independent research.

Question 4

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

Accepted Answer

A)   As children grow older, they develop an increasing ability to think about events in abstract rather than concrete terms.
B)   With age, children acquire more sophisticated problem solving skills, largely because their parents and teachers give them increasingly more challenging problems to solve.
C)   Over time, children acquire greater self-confidence about their ability to deal with the world.
D)   Through their social interactions with other people, children acquire ways of mentally approaching and thinking about challenging tasks.

Question 5

Three of the following are examples of communities of practice. Which of the following is not?

Accepted Answer

A)   Graduate students studying molecular biology
B)   Girls participating in a church youth group
C)   Adult males waiting for a light to change at a street corner
D)   Teachers working at an elementary school

Question 6

If you wanted to take a Vygotskian approach to teaching students a new study strategy, you would be most likely to:

Accepted Answer

A)   Initially work collaboratively with students in applying the strategy, gradually withdrawing your support as they become more proficient in using it.
B)   Explain how the human memory system works and relate the strategy to effective memory processes.
C)   Show students how little they can remember when they use their current, ineffective strategies, thereby motivating them to learn the new strategy.
D)   Wait until students are at least 11 or 12 years old and thus capable of abstract thought.

Question 7

Describe reciprocal teaching and its effects on student achievement. Explain its effectiveness using principles of learning from cognitive psychology, being sure to address metacognition in your discussion.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe reciprocal teaching and its effects on...

Question 8

In three of the following situations, interactions with peers might promote considerable learning. In which situation is an interaction with an adult rather than with peers) more likely to be beneficial?

Accepted Answer

A)   Learning how to use a microscope correctly
B)   Contrasting different interpretations of a poem
C)   Identifying the pros and cons of a democracy
D)   Exploring various ways of solving a mathematical problem

Question 9

Pick a topic that you might effectively teach through a cooperative learning approach. Then, using guidelines presented in the textbook, describe how you will:
a. Form your cooperative groups
b. Foster interdependence of group members
c. Assess what students have learned

Accepted Answer

The answer of Pick a topic that you might effectively...

Question 10

Which one of the following scenarios best reflects the basic idea of social constructivism?

Accepted Answer

A)   Two students discuss possible interpretations of the proverb "A stitch in time saves nine."
B)   A teacher assigns a laboratory activity using cumbersome equipment that students can only use successfully by working in pairs.
C)   When a student borrows a classmate's marker without asking and then forgets to put the cap back on, leaving it dried out and useless by the following morning, her teacher reminds her of one of the class rules: "Respect other students' property."
D)   Four students in a study group divide the day's reading assignment into four sections. Each student reads a section and then teaches the material to the other group members.

Question 11

Identify a particular instructional objective that students might be able to achieve through one of the following approaches to instruction:
-Class discussion
-Reciprocal teaching
-Cooperative learning
-Peer tutoring
-A community of learners
In three or four paragraphs, explain in specific terms what the instructional unit would involve. Be sure that your discussion incorporates guidelines presented in the textbook regarding the instructional method you've chosen.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Identify a particular instructional objective that students...

Question 12

Nine-year-old Ricky has recently learned how to solve long division problems, and he still struggles with especially difficult problems. At his mother's request, he helps his 8-year-old sister Lucy with the simple long division problems she must do for her math homework. From the perspective of Vygotsky's theory, which one of the following is most likely to result?

Accepted Answer

A)   Ricky's own long division skills will improve because he will internalize the instructions he gives Lucy.
B)   Ricky will gain nothing from helping his sister because doing long division is outside his zone of proximal development.
C)   Ricky's own long division skills will decrease, because any mistakes that Lucy makes will "corrupt" his own mathematical thinking.
D)   By helping Lucy with her long division problems, Ricky will be able to practice using the central conceptual structure that underlies his mathematical thinking.

Question 13

From a Vygotskian perspective, scaffolding serves what purpose in instruction?

Accepted Answer

A)   It gives children an idea of what they need to do to get good grades.
B)   It keeps school tasks within children's actual developmental levels.
C)   It lets children learn by watching one another.
D)   It supports children as they perform difficult tasks.

Question 14

Kiley is having trouble learning the steps involved in using a microscope correctly. If we consider Vygotsky's description of how children can help themselves through difficult tasks, we should suggest that Kiley:

Accepted Answer

A)   Practice each step separately many times over
B)   Go through the procedure in slow motion a few times
C)   Talk herself through the steps
D)   Learn the reasons why each step is important

Question 15

Which one of the following is the best example of dynamic assessment?

Accepted Answer

A)   Mr. Thiessen asks Macy to show him how to use a microscope properly.
B)   Ms. Ursinas asks her students to work in 3-person groups to write a paper describing the effects of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
C)   Ms. Vincenti gives her students 20 multiple-choice questions; she then gives 20 additional, more difficult questions to students who've done very well on the first set, as a way of assessing the upper limits of their knowledge.
D)   Mr. Warren observes and records how Erica's logical thinking changes over time as she experiments with a pendulum.

Question 16

If you were interested in how a child's culture influences cognitive development, you would be most likely to consider _______ approach to cognitive development.

Accepted Answer

A)   Piaget's
B)   Vygotsky's
C)   neo-Piagetian theorists'
D)   information processing theorists'

Question 17

Which one of the following statements best describes intersubjectivity?

Accepted Answer

A)   Recognizing that one does not know, and ultimately never can know, everything there is to know about a topic
B)   The point at which a teacher understands the nature of a child's existing knowledge about a topic
C)   The point at which a child acquires the same knowledge about a topic that a teacher or other expert has
D)   A mutual understanding between two people that each one knows what the other one is seeing, thinking, or feeling

Question 18

Three of the following are definite examples of scaffolding. Identify the situation in which no scaffolding is described.

Accepted Answer

A)   Ms. Ayotte likes to challenge her students by giving them group research projects. She puts her students in groups of three or four students each, and she gives each student a topic to research. She sends the groups to the school library to find out as much as they can about their topic, and then has each group give a report to the entire class.
B)   Mr. Bender is teaching a unit on beginning tennis. In the early stages of teaching a correct tennis swing, he uses an automatic ball server that serves balls with consistent speed, height, and direction. He also continually reminds students to "Keep your eye on the ball" and "Hold your arm straight." Later in the unit he begins to serve the balls himself, varying the speed, height, and direction of the serves. And he reminds students of what to do much less frequently.
C)   Ms. Carrera helps students solve math word problems by providing visual illustrations of the elements of the problem and by showing them similar problems that have been worked out correctly. As the weeks go by, she provides fewer and fewer visual illustrations and fewer and fewer worked-out examples, until eventually the students can solve the problems without either form of assistance.
D)   Mr. Donaldson's students are just beginning to learn how to take notes in class. For the first few weeks Mr. D. begins class by handing out a detailed outline about the topic for the day. By December he is handing out an outline covering only the main points of the day, encouraging students to fill in the blank spaces on the sheet with ideas relative to each point. By May, students are writing down main points and relevant details on their own.

Question 19

Eight-year-old Julie lives in a rural area where many people are farmers or in some other way make their living through agriculture. After a lengthy summer drought, it begins to rain heavily one day in late July. "Thank goodness!" Julie hears her father exclaim. "Our prayers have finally been answered!" Julie makes a mental note of the cause-effect relationship her father has implied-in particular, that prayer can lead to rain. This situation illustrates Vygotsky's belief that:

Accepted Answer

A)   Adults pass along to children the ways in which their culture interprets events.
B)   Children's level of potential development is always a bit higher than their actual developmental level.
C)   Children acquire more knowledge and skills when scaffolding is kept to a minimum.
D)   Thought and language are distinct processes in the early years of life.

Question 20

Which one of the following is the best example of a mediated learning experience?

Accepted Answer

A)   Mr. O'Brien insists that students sit quietly at their desks before she dismisses them for lunch.
B)   Mr. James reflects on the lesson he taught earlier in the day. "I suspect that most of my students still don't understand the concepts I was trying to teach them," he thinks.
C)   Mr. Lucas asks his students to read Chapter 5 in their textbooks over the weekend. "You'll find that the chapter is more challenging than previous ones," he says.
D)   As Ms. Robinson takes a group of children hiking, she gathers leaves from maple, oak, and elm trees and points out the ways in which the leaves from the trees are distinctly different.

Exam 11: Contemporary Contextual Frameworks