Study Guide
Field 057: Assessment of Professional Knowledge: Primary Education (PK–5)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions
Domain I–Child Development, Diversity, and Learning
Competency 0001
Understand how students grow and develop, and variations in patterns of the stages of child development and learning, and how to apply this knowledge to promote student achievement.
A fourth-grade teacher is planning an instructional unit about daily life on the Ohio frontier during the era of westward expansion. The teacher wants to connect social studies and English language arts concepts through this unit topic to deepen students’ understanding. When defining the learning objectives for this unit, the teacher should initially consult which of the following resources?
- the state learning standards for the grade level
- the grade-level textbooks and materials
- the literacy specialist for the school district
- the available state assessment questions for each content area
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. The Ohio Learning Standards explain the knowledge and skills that Ohio students in grades Prekindergarten through grade 12 need to have. Since student progress is measured in relation to the Ohio Learning Standards, consultation of the standards should form the basis for learning objectives in the content areas.
Competency 0001
Understand how students grow and develop, and variations in patterns of the stages of child development and learning, and how to apply this knowledge to promote student achievement.
Empirical studies in brain research have identified which of the following activities as most likely to promote cognitive and early literacy development in young children?
- learning to play a musical instrument
- visiting cultural events frequently
- organizing social interactions with peers
- participating in structured team sports
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. Learning to play a musical instrument enhances auditory processing, memory, and pattern recognition, which are skills essential for phonics, decoding, and comprehension. Musical training improves fine motor skills and attention, supporting the foundational and cognitive abilities needed for reading and writing.
Competency 0002
Understand learning processes and methods for providing instructional experiences that promote students’ development, learning, and achievement.
A kindergarten teacher assembles large baskets, plastic jars, soil, twigs, seeds, sifters, pots, pans, and measuring cups and spoons for a classroom center. Which of the following statements best describes a primary benefit of the teacher’s approach to equipping this center?
- The varied materials promote students’ cognitive development by focusing on classification curriculum objectives.
- The rich resources offer a range of challenges to meet developmental levels and interests of all students.
- The unstructured design of the tasks promotes social development by prompting students to apply cooperative skills.
- The multiple resources reinforce high expectations by requiring students to develop ways to support their own learning.
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. Providing a wide range of materials that can be used in different ways encourages students to explore concepts and practice skills according to their abilities and interests. The open-ended nature of the materials supports students at all developmental levels to engage with concepts in a meaningful way.
Competency 0002
Understand learning processes and methods for providing instructional experiences that promote students’ development, learning, and achievement.
Use the conversation below to answer the question that follows.
Teacher: Wow. Look at all of the colors you are using in your painting!
Child: Yeah. I like to use a lot all at once.
Teacher: I can see that. What do you think may happen if you mix the blue and red together? (Pointing to blue and red paint globs on the paper)
Child: Maybe it will make orange. (Beginning to mix)
Teacher: Let’s see. Oh, that looks like my favorite color!
Child: Purple!
Teacher: And look some white paint got in there too. That makes another color.
The teacher’s use of commenting and questioning in the conversation best exemplifies the:
- use of incidental learning to build academic and social language.
- importance of explicitly teaching specific vocabulary in art lessons.
- types of strategies to support product-focused instructional outcomes.
- range of art-related, hands-on activities that can be engaging.
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. The teacher’s commenting and questioning exemplify incidental learning by using a spontaneous moment to build academic and social language. This approach fosters curiosity, introduces relevant vocabulary, and supports concept development in a natural context.
Competency 0003
Understand student diversity and how to provide learning opportunities and environments that are responsive to student differences and diverse families, promote all students’ learning, and foster students’ appreciation of and respect for diversity.
A teacher wishes to promote students’ understanding of and appreciation and respect for diversity and equity. Which of the following approaches would be most effective to support the teacher’s goal in this endeavor?
- recognizing and regularly celebrating all students’ unique individual strengths and valuing their contributions to the classroom community
- focusing attention primarily on similarities rather than differences among individual or groups of students
- planning instructional lessons and activities around the different cultural celebrations of all students’ families throughout the year
- learning different techniques to recognize and resolve misunderstandings that may occur between students
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. When teachers recognize and celebrate students’ unique strengths, they are communicating to students that everyone’s ideas and contributions are important. The teacher’s approach also promotes a classroom climate that respects and values diversity of ideas, skills, and abilities.
Competency 0003
Understand student diversity and how to provide learning opportunities and environments that are responsive to student differences and diverse families, promote all students’ learning, and foster students’ appreciation of and respect for diversity.
Which of the following initial strategies by a teacher would be most effective in promoting an equitable and stereotype-free learning environment?
- seeking feedback informally from students about personal communication techniques
- applying standards consistently to students’ performance and participation
- analyzing pedagogical practices and personal perceptions about students
- engaging with an administrator or school-service colleagues to discuss antibias assessment strategies
- Answer
- Correct Response: C. This initial strategy is a self-reflective approach that allows the teacher to address implicit bias and ensures the instructional decisions and interactions are inclusive, fostering fairness for all students.
Domain II–Assessment, Instruction, and the Learning Environment
Competency 0004
Understand formal and informal assessment instruments and practices, the relationship between assessment and instruction, and how to use assessment to guide instruction and monitor and communicate students’ learning progress.
A teacher uses a formative assessment strategy in which students write a short response to a question about a key concept taught in the day’s lesson. The teacher examines the responses prior to the next lesson. This strategy would most directly support a teacher’s ability to:
- identify differences in students’ background knowledge.
- address gaps in understanding of the content.
- adjust the rigor of assessments based on the level of mastery.
- identify students most likely to require formal accommodations.
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. The formative assessment approach provides the teacher with information about students’ comprehension of the concepts presented in an instructional sequence. Students’ responses to a key question about lesson content enables the teacher to identify student misconceptions or misunderstanding of content. This information helps guide decisions about future instruction.
Competency 0004
Understand formal and informal assessment instruments and practices, the relationship between assessment and instruction, and how to use assessment to guide instruction and monitor and communicate students’ learning progress.
A first-grade teacher takes time to reflect on their notes from various anecdotal observations of students in the learning environment. The teacher should give the highest priority to addressing which of the following actions by students?
- Many students tend to choose the same partner for activities in which students are encouraged to work in pairs.
- Two students frequently appear to be isolated and not included by several of their classmates during center activities.
- Some students are more communicative about their thoughts and feelings than others.
- During small-group activities, students often initiate informal competitions with peers in other groups.
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. Social inclusion is critical to a positive learning environment and students’ emotional and social well-being. Ensuring all students feel connected and included supports their social development, fosters collaboration, and enhances overall engagement in learning.
Competency 0005
Understand principles and methods of curricular and instructional planning and how to design and implement instruction that promotes all students’ development, learning, and achievement.
A third-grade teacher is collaborating with a special education teacher to plan instruction to meet the learning needs of students with disabilities in the class. Which of the following guidelines should the teachers emphasize in this process?
- building on the students’ individual strengths while providing supports to compensate for challenges
- adapting academic standards to ensure that the students are able to reach a high level of achievement
- designing reinforcement activities that the students can work on together in small-group activities
- utilizing similar instructional methods and lesson activities to introduce the students to concepts and skills
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. A strength-based approach identifies areas where students perform well and leverages those areas to support the students in areas where they have particular challenges. For students with disabilities, there is a tendency to focus on what the students cannot do rather than what the students can do with supports. Focusing on students’ strengths promotes a growth mindset in students and builds their sense of self-efficacy.
Competency 0005
Understand principles and methods of curricular and instructional planning and how to design and implement instruction that promotes all students’ development, learning, and achievement.
For students with strong literacy backgrounds in languages other than English, a teacher encourages the students to read and listen to digital books in their home languages during independent reading time. The teacher then has a brief conference with each student to discuss story elements and vocabulary. This instructional practice best demonstrates how technology can effectively be used to:
- incorporate students’ individual interests into curricular planning.
- differentiate and scaffold content instruction for students.
- release learning responsibility to students gradually.
- provide interventions for students that align with grade-level expectations.
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. This practice provides students with access to materials in their home languages. It supports comprehension and engagement while building on their existing literacy skills, allowing the teacher to tailor instruction and bridge learning to English language development.
Competency 0006
Understand principles and methods associated with various instructional approaches and how to apply these principles and methods to promote all students’ development and their achievement of instructional goals.
A teacher is modeling for a third-grade student a strategy to break complex and long texts into smaller and more manageable chunks to read and paraphrase into their own words. This strategy primarily works to strengthen students’ reading comprehension by:
- modifying concepts in a text according to the student’s cognitive level.
- connecting background knowledge of a topic to the text.
- making more efficient use of short-term memory to process information.
- ensuring content is relevant and meaningful to students’ own lives.
- Answer
- Correct Response: C. Individuals can hold only so much information in short-term memory for processing. Chunking information, or breaking complex information into smaller bits, enables students to store information more effectively in their short-term memory. With regard to reading comprehension, this strategy facilitates the organization and synthesis of information for enhanced recall and understanding.
Competency 0006
Understand principles and methods associated with various instructional approaches and how to apply these principles and methods to promote all students’ development and their achievement of instructional goals.
A fifth-grade teacher assigns students to read a brief compare-and-contrast text independently and then discuss the text with a partner. The teacher provides students with summary frames to guide them in summarizing the text. An example of a summary frame is shown below.
short blank space and short blank space have similarities and differences.
First, short blank space and short blank space are the same because they both short blank space .
Additionally, they both short blank space .
On the other hand, short blank space and short blank space have some differences.
They differ in short blank space as well as short blank space .
Another way they are different is short blank space .
In addition to helping students create written summaries, the use of summary frames such as the one shown is likely to be most effective in helping students:
- recall and communicate information accurately.
- construct responses to comprehension questions.
- learn and practice academic language.
- develop abstract reasoning abilities.
- Answer
- Correct Response: C. The use of summary frames provides a structure to help students organize their thoughts and use discipline-specific vocabulary. This type of scaffold supports students in developing the language skills needed to articulate comparisons and contrasts clearly and effectively in writing and discussion.
Competency 0007
Understand principles and practices of motivation and communication and how to apply these principles and practices effectively to promote students’ active engagement and learning.
A fifth-grade student selects just-right books of interest from the classroom library but struggles to read the whole time allotted to reading independently. Though the student begins reading attentively, the student tires easily and closes the book and rests for the remainder of the time. The teacher considers strategies to motivate the student in increasing the time spent reading during this block of time. Which of the following strategies would be most effective for this purpose?
- reminding the student of the rules and routines of reading time, emphasizing the rule of reading the whole time
- arranging a comfortable area for the student to read in quietly with a partner who reads at a similar level
- selecting a number of interesting books for the student to read and assigning the student specific ones to finish each day
- working with the student to set a goal for the number of minutes spent reading each day and working with the student on ideas for meeting that goal
- Answer
- Correct Response: D. Using a goal-setting approach with the student will help the student envision success. Engaging the student in identifying ideas for meeting the goal helps the student buy into the process. When students have choices and input into learning experiences, they are more motivated to participate.
Competency 0007
Understand principles and practices of motivation and communication and how to apply these principles and practices effectively to promote students’ active engagement and learning.
During classroom discussions, a teacher asks higher-order questions such as those listed below.
What do you mean by …?
Could you put that another way?
What do you think is the main issue here?
Could you give an example of …?
This questioning approach is most effective in helping students:
- evaluate the logic of the information they are attempting to convey.
- express their informational knowledge while making connections to their personal interpretations.
- reflect on their understanding of different perspectives related to specific factual or content information.
- consider how they process new information with previously learned information.
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. This questioning approach encourages critical thinking and deeper engagement with the content. By prompting students to explain, analyze, and interpret, the teacher fosters a deeper understanding and application of knowledge.
Competency 0008
Understand how to structure and manage the classroom to establish a safe, inclusive, and positive learning environment; and strategies and methods for promoting all students’ social-emotional competence and development of interpersonal skills.
A fourth-grade teacher walks around the room briefly checking in with students while they complete an assignment. The teacher notices a group engaging in off-task behaviors. Which of the following strategies would be most effective for the teacher to use to encourage the students to return to the task?
- moving to the board and pointing to the objective of the assignment
- walking to other groups that are focused and inquiring how they are doing
- stepping closer to the group and making eye contact with each student
- tapping a student gently on the back and using a finger to gesture “quiet”
- Answer
- Correct Response: C. Using proximity and eye contact are nonintrusive strategies that allow the teacher to respond to off-task behaviors without disrupting other students’ work. These strategies convey to the students the teacher’s awareness of their behavior without calling them out in front of the class and give them the opportunity to correct their behavior and return their attention to their assignment.
Competency 0008
Understand how to structure and manage the classroom to establish a safe, inclusive, and positive learning environment; and strategies and methods for promoting all students’ social-emotional competence and development of interpersonal skills.
A teacher guides fourth-grade students to develop a list of classroom behavior expectations. According to best practices regarding classroom management, which of the following teacher strategies is recognized as an evidence-based practice to support the effective implementation of these guidelines?
- having students regularly reflect on how well they are following the behavior expectations
- emphasizing consistency and fairness toward students in the application of the reinforcement and correction of the behaviors
- eliminating expectations from the posted list as students internalize the expected behaviors
- reviewing the expectations with students at the beginning of every week throughout the school year
- Answer
- Correct Response: B. This approach supports the effective implementation of classroom behavior expectations. It ensures all students understand the expectations and consequences, promoting a positive, equitable learning environment and fostering trust and accountability.
Domain IV–The Professional Environment
Competency 0009
Understand how to establish partnerships and collaborate effectively with students’ families, colleagues, and members of the community to enhance and support students’ development and learning.
Which of the following actions by elementary school teachers provides the best foundation for effective collaboration to promote student learning?
- establishing mutual trust and a shared sense of purpose
- conducting an initial evaluation of each other’s instructional practices
- creating a joint plan for professional development
- integrating their perspectives into a common educational philosophy
- Answer
- Correct Response: A. Collaboration is the act of working with others on an endeavor to achieve a shared goal or outcome. This shared goal or outcome represents the purpose of the collaboration, which involves problem solving, sharing of ideas, and open communication. These activities are most effective when participants in the collaboration trust each other and feel safe in sharing thoughts openly. With these elements in place, teachers will be able to work productively together for students’ benefit.
Competency 0009
Understand how to establish partnerships and collaborate effectively with students’ families, colleagues, and members of the community to enhance and support students’ development and learning.
It would be most appropriate for a teacher to seek a school psychologist’s expertise in the context of which of the following tasks?
- outlining a plan of home interventions to address a student’s identified school attendance concerns
- defining measurable objectives to support the achievement of a student’s long-term academic and future goals
- providing information regarding the interpretation of the results of a student’s additional educational assessments
- determining ways to engage a student’s family in implementing strategies to promote their child’s development
- Answer
- Correct Response: C. School psychologists are trained in understanding and explaining complex assessment data. Their expertise ensures accurate interpretation, which is critical for identifying student needs and planning effective instruction or intervention strategies.
Competency 0010
Understand roles and expectations for professional educators, legal and ethical guidelines, and strategies for continuous professional growth and self-reflection.
A fifth-grade teacher overhears a student that the teacher does not know describing a recent incident in which the student was clearly being threatened and bullied at school. Which of the following statements best describes the ethical responsibility of the teacher concerning this information?
- Because the teacher overheard the incident instead of personally witnessing it, the teacher is not required to report it.
- The teacher should inform the student’s classroom teacher in order for the classroom teacher to determine the most appropriate next steps.
- Because the teacher does not know the student who is talking about the incident, the teacher has no obligation to report it.
- The teacher is charged with protecting all students on the school campus and should report what was heard to the school counselor.
- Answer
- Correct Response: D. All educational staff bear responsibility for the physical and psychological safety of students. Threats and bullying can have a significant negative effect on a student’s social-emotional development. The school counselor has expertise in this area and would be the most appropriate educator to investigate the situation.
Competency 0010
Understand roles and expectations for professional educators, legal and ethical guidelines, and strategies for continuous professional growth and self-reflection.
A teacher was recently observed by their supervisor. The teacher can best use the feedback from this observation to:
- provide documentation for a professional portfolio.
- reinforce professional expertise with the school community.
- examine professional practices in relation to trends in the field.
- define professional goals for improvement or development.
- Answer
- Correct Response: D. Feedback from a supervisor provides specific insights into the teacher’s personal strengths and areas for growth. This process fosters targeted and intentional professional development to enhance teaching effectiveness and student outcomes.