Study Guide

Field 037: Prekindergarten (Subtest II)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Competency 0011
Understand how young children (birth to five) learn and construct knowledge and how to use this understanding to create opportunities for young children to explore and learn.

Which of the following best characterizes the change children experience when they transition from Piaget's sensorimotor stage of development to the preoperational stage?

  1. a shift from understanding specific concepts to understanding more general ones
  2. a shift from empirical to logical thought
  3. a movement from a reactive form of cognitive processing to a more active one
  4. a movement from an absolute to a relative perspective
Answer
Correct Response: C.
During the sensorimotor stage, children use sucking, grasping, and gross-body activities to learn by reacting to their environment. While transitioning to the preoperational stage, children experience accelerated language development. They can internalize events through thought and act more consciously in their environment.
Competency 0012
Understand how to plan effective and appropriate learning goals and experiences for young children (birth to five).

Use the learning goal below to answer the question that follows.

A preschool teacher decides that the two-year-old children in the program are too young to be expected to achieve the learning goal shown above. Which of the following would be the best substitute goal for this age group?

  1. able to use language to describe the similarities and differences between two people
  2. able to use a balance to compare the weights of different objects
  3. able to use language to describe the process that is used for sorting objects
  4. able to sort objects based on their similarities and differences
Answer
Correct Response: D.
Two-year-olds experiencing typical development have receptive language skills that are more developed than their expressive language skills. Sorting objects is the precursor to talking about sorting objects. The children may perform the action, but they cannot describe it.
Competency 0013
Understand appropriate instructional practices for promoting positive development and learning in all young children (birth to five).

Trisha is a four-year-old with a physical impairment that makes holding crayons and pencils difficult, but she is able to operate a computer mouse quite well. Trisha's parents tell her preschool teacher about the drawing program that Trisha loves to use at home, so the teacher arranges to have the same program installed on the classroom computer. The first time Trisha uses the program during art time, several other children are curious and leave their seats to see what Trisha is doing. Which of the following would be the most appropriate teacher response to the children's behavior?

  1. Remind the children that they have their own art materials to work with and ask them to return to their seats.
  2. Reposition the computer so the children will be less distracted by what Trisha is doing.
  3. Ask Trisha if she would like to show her classmates how the program works and help them try it.
  4. Assure the children that they will each have a chance to try the computer program at a later time.
Answer
Correct Response: C.
Asking Trisha if she would like to share the computer program with her classmates is a way for the teacher to both empower Trisha as an expert and give the class an opportunity to learn something new.
Competency 0014
Understand strategies for promoting positive relationships and supportive interactions.

Many early childhood experts believe that intense individualized intervention is necessary for children who have persistent behavior problems that do not respond to typical guidance practices. This belief is based on evidence that suggests that:

  1. chronic behavior problems are more often related to specific communication disorders than to social and emotional disorders.
  2. family-focused or collaborative school/family interventions are far less effective than medical interventions.
  3. group-guidance strategies are ineffective, even with children who only go through the early stages of challenging behaviors.
  4. challenging behaviors, especially aggressive ones, escalate throughout childhood unless systemic ongoing interventions are implemented.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
Persistent behavior problems demonstrated by a child in preschool are a predictor of delinquency in adolescence. If the noncompliant behaviors have not been altered by age nine, they represent a chronic condition that needs to be addressed with long-term interventions.
Competency 0015
Understand the characteristics, goals, benefits, and uses of various assessment strategies.

The most important reason for using varied assessment methods and formats with young children is that such an approach:

  1. allows teachers to make accurate predictions about children's future academic performance.
  2. helps motivate children to become actively engaged in learning.
  3. promotes teachers' objectivity and fairness in evaluating children's performance.
  4. provides children with multiple avenues to demonstrate their learning.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
This question requires the examinee to demonstrate knowledge of the uses and advantages of different types of informal and formal assessments to evaluate young children's development. Young children of the same age vary significantly in their levels of development across domains. They also vary widely in areas such as learning style, cultural and linguistic background, and life experiences. By using varied assessment methods and formats, teachers create a wide range of opportunities for children to demonstrate their true level of knowledge and skills in their own unique ways.
Competency 0016
Understand how to facilitate physical development in young children (birth to five).

Which of the following physical activities would be most effective for promoting development of body awareness in four-year-olds?

  1. hopping on two feet in a big circle around the room
  2. balancing beanbags on their heads or shoulders while moving in various ways
  3. rolling a ball back and forth to a partner at different speeds
  4. comparing how high they can reach on a wall when standing flat footed and on tiptoe
Answer
Correct Response: B.
Balancing objects while moving engages the entire body and requires the coordination of the senses and major muscle groups. This activity is developmentally appropriate for building children's body awareness.
Competency 0017
Understand how to facilitate emotional and social development in young children (birth to five).

Justine, a typically developing three-year-old child, struggles to maintain self-control when she is at preschool. She has difficulty following the rules and routines of the various activities and areas. The preschool teacher has an upcoming meeting with Justine's family. When asking for the family's support on this issue, which of the following would be the best suggestion for the teacher to make?

  1. Positively reinforce Justine's adherence to behavior rules when she is in settings outside of preschool such as at libraries and stores.
  2. Write a list of rules for Justine to follow at home and post the list in a prominent place such as on the refrigerator door.
  3. Impose consequences on Justine at home for instances of negative behavior at preschool reported by the teacher.
  4. Limit the amount of time Justine spends in unstructured play at home so that she can learn to be more disciplined.
Answer
Correct Response: A.
Ongoing family support is crucial for modifying a child's behavior at school. If Justine receives consistent positive reinforcement from her family for following behavior rules, she is more likely to improve her behaviors across all settings.
Competency 0018
Understand how to facilitate language and literacy development in young children (birth to five).

Six-year-old Felipe sits down with the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and says the title, pointing to each word as he speaks. However, because he treats the two syllables of the word tiny as separate words, his pointing and speaking do not match up, as shown below.

When Felipe complains to his teacher that "it doesn't work right," what would be the teacher's best response?

  1. Explain the difference between a word and a syllable and encourage Felipe to try again with that distinction in mind.
  2. Tell Felipe that tiny is all one word and show him how to make his pointing match the text.
  3. Ask Felipe if it makes sense for the sound of ny to be written as seed and help him search the title for the letter n.
  4. Suggest to Felipe that if his method is not working, he may be doing something wrong and encourage him to try to analyze what the problem might be.
Answer
Correct Response: B.
This question requires the examinee to understand how to facilitate language and literacy development in young children (birth to five). Explaining to Felipe that tiny is all one word and showing him how to use his pointing to indicate the entire printed word is one effective way of helping him understand that a printed word can contain more than one syllable.
Competency 0019
Understand how to facilitate cognitive development in young children (birth to five).

Which of the following would be the best way to promote four-year-old children's understanding of the different roles of people working in the community?

  1. Provide costumes for children to use to dress up as different types of community workers.
  2. Create a map of the town showing all of the buildings where people work.
  3. Assign each child to interview one adult and then report back to the class.
  4. Invite community workers to come into the class and share information about their jobs.
Answer
Correct Response: D.
Asking community workers to talk about their work is a developmentally appropriate way for four-year-old children to add new information to their current understandings about the community.
Competency 0020
Understand how to facilitate creative development in young children (birth to five).

While singing a simple children's song, a caregiver makes eye contact with an infant and gently moves the infant's arms and then legs to the beat of the music. Regular practice of this activity would typically promote the development of the infant's:

  1. awareness of rhythm in music.
  2. ability to express emotions through movement.
  3. ability to assign meaning to words.
  4. awareness of the conventions of interpersonal interactions.
Answer
Correct Response: A.
Regular practice moving an infant's arms and legs to musical beats will habituate the child's muscular response to rhythm and that, in turn, will help to develop the child's cognitive awareness of rhythm.