ABCTE PTK COMPREHENSIVE EXAM QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔A teacher notices that a student often misbehaves after she is given a reading
assignment, most likely because the student has poor vocabulary skills and is not a
competent reader. What should the teacher do? - ✔✔Start designing a plan that will
help the student build reading and language skills. Answer Explanation: Some
educational problems seem to be at the root of the misbehavior and choice B puts
attention on finding educational solutions to them.
✔✔Students monitor a United States Geological Survey (USGS) website and collect
information about recent volcanoes and earthquakes. Which of the following learning
goals is met by this activity? - ✔✔Accurately observe natural events. Answer
Explanation: The activity gathers reliable information about natural events, but does not
call for analysis and inference.
✔✔Which of the following instructional methods MOST effectively conveys information
to an entire group of students at once? - ✔✔Lecture Answer Explanation: The most
efficient way to impart information that the entire group needs is through lecture. It also
gives the opportunity to teach students to listen attentively and take notes.
✔✔A fifth-grade science lesson describes how the position and tilt of the earth cause
seasons. Which of the following activities would be MOST effective in this lesson? -
✔✔Model the revolution of the earth around the sun using a flashlight and globe.
Answer Explanation : Using concrete objects to illustrate concepts boosts student
understanding, especially in the context of a demonstration, rather than in a more
passive medium such as video.
✔✔What kind of graphic organizer is MOST helpful during a brainstorming session in
which students are supposed to come up with topics for a term paper? - ✔✔Cluster
diagram Answer Explanation: A cluster diagram is a nonlinear graphic organizer that
allows for and even stimulates creative thinking and free association—both of which
make brainstorming more productive.
✔✔What is the main goal of establishing rules at the beginning of the school year? -
✔✔Setting expectations for appropriate behavior from the students. Answer
Explanation: At the beginning of the year, students need to know a teacher's
expectations for appropriate behavior in the classroom and what the consequences of
inappropriate behavior are.
✔✔Which of the following activities, designed for a high school genetics course,
contains the highest-level thinking skills? - ✔✔Students predict genetic traits of offspring
based on the genetic characteristics of its parents. Answer Explanation : This activity
requires the students to apply knowledge, rather than just collect or organize it.
,✔✔Which of the following strategies is useful when a student is in the acquisition stage
of learning? - ✔✔The teacher demonstrates the target skill. Answer Explanation:
Demonstrating the skill is a way of introducing it.
✔✔What would be the BEST response when a student repeatedly interrupts a question-
answer exercise with inappropriate jokes that distract from the exercise? - ✔✔Tell the
student not to speak unless giving an appropriate response and set a consequence for
further misbehavior. Answer Explanation: Setting a consequence for further bad
behavior is the best way to deal with students who otherwise would continue to
misbehave.
✔✔What should a teacher do when a student gives an incorrect response during a
question-and-answer group session? - ✔✔Say, "Let me put it another way," and
rephrase the question. Answer Explanation: Strategic rephrasing involves breaking
down the question into smaller chunks or laying emphasis on key ideas to help the
student think it through for himself. It's also an inoffensive way to tell a student to think
some more.
✔✔A rule relationship is an excellent method for organizing knowledge. Which of the
following is an example of a rule relationship? - ✔✔The fact that all reptiles are
vertebrates Answer Explanation: Rule relationships are the backbone of organizing new
materials.
✔✔A set of data with a low standard deviation - ✔✔is tightly grouped around the mean.
Answer Explanation: Standard deviation describes the average distance a number in
the data set is from the mean of the set. In other words, it describes the spread of the
data. The lower the standard deviation, the more tightly the data is grouped around the
mean of the data set.
✔✔The goal of a science lesson is to identify birds using a taxonomic key, which
classifies the birds based on their distinguishing features. To provide practice, the
teacher plans to use video tapes showing different birds in natural habitats. How should
the teacher help students learn to use the taxonomic key? - ✔✔Summarize the process,
work through the first several steps to identify a particular bird as an example, and then
let the students use the key themselves. Answer Explanation: Learning a skill that
includes several steps or parts is best approached through mastering a few steps at a
time.
✔✔The interquartile range of a data set - ✔✔describes how spread out the middle of
the data is. Answer Explanation: By definition, the interquartile range is the first quartile
subtracted from the third quartile (the medians of the "top" and "bottom" halves of a set
of data that is, itself, divided at the median).
, ✔✔When commenting on short essays written by students, which of the following would
be the BEST strategy? - ✔✔Make note of both the strengths and weaknesses. Answer
Explanation: The general principle in commenting on student writing is to be
simultaneously encouraging and instructive.
✔✔While teaching a unit on ancient Greek architecture, which of the following would be
MOST important? - ✔✔Familiarizing students with relevant architectural terminology.
Answer Explanation: A teacher must teach the vocabulary necessary for understanding
a particular subject. The other answers are useful, but not completely necessary.
✔✔How should students involved in a group project be graded? - ✔✔Each group
member should be given individual grades based on his or her performance in the
group. Answer Explanation: Holding each student accountable for his or her work
ensures the highest level of group participation.
✔✔Which of the following activities, when used to begin a class period, engages
students most effectively? - ✔✔Listening to the teacher tell a relevant story or case
study. Answer Explanation: A relevant story or case study immediately establishes a
focal point and direction for the lesson, while providing a context so that students can
immediately understand where the material "fits."
✔✔A teacher is working on instructional objectives for a science unit, including one that
reads, "Students will map the locations of recent earthquakes." Which of the following
modifications would BEST improve the objective? - ✔✔Specifying how students will
map the required information Answer Explanation: The teacher needs to indicate how
she intends the students to map the earthquakes, not just that she intends it to happen.
✔✔Statements that are meant to address or halt inappropriate classroom behavior
should always be - ✔✔delivered promptly. Answer Explanation: To be effective, a
reprimand must immediately follow the bad behavior that needs correcting. Some
discussions of behavior can be handled privately, but they need not always be.
✔✔Which scenario indicates reliability but not validity - ✔✔A fish market scale always
underweights a product by 3.2 pounds. Answer Explanation: A scale that is consistently
off is a measure that is reliable but not valid.
✔✔During the first week of class, the teacher asks her students to write a nongraded,
one-page paper about the event that has most impacted their lives. What is the primary
purpose for this activity? - ✔✔To gauge the students' current writing abilities Answer
Explanation: The aim of the exercise is to motivate the class with a nongraded
assignment that allows the teacher to assess each student's composition skills and to
get to know each student better.
ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔A teacher notices that a student often misbehaves after she is given a reading
assignment, most likely because the student has poor vocabulary skills and is not a
competent reader. What should the teacher do? - ✔✔Start designing a plan that will
help the student build reading and language skills. Answer Explanation: Some
educational problems seem to be at the root of the misbehavior and choice B puts
attention on finding educational solutions to them.
✔✔Students monitor a United States Geological Survey (USGS) website and collect
information about recent volcanoes and earthquakes. Which of the following learning
goals is met by this activity? - ✔✔Accurately observe natural events. Answer
Explanation: The activity gathers reliable information about natural events, but does not
call for analysis and inference.
✔✔Which of the following instructional methods MOST effectively conveys information
to an entire group of students at once? - ✔✔Lecture Answer Explanation: The most
efficient way to impart information that the entire group needs is through lecture. It also
gives the opportunity to teach students to listen attentively and take notes.
✔✔A fifth-grade science lesson describes how the position and tilt of the earth cause
seasons. Which of the following activities would be MOST effective in this lesson? -
✔✔Model the revolution of the earth around the sun using a flashlight and globe.
Answer Explanation : Using concrete objects to illustrate concepts boosts student
understanding, especially in the context of a demonstration, rather than in a more
passive medium such as video.
✔✔What kind of graphic organizer is MOST helpful during a brainstorming session in
which students are supposed to come up with topics for a term paper? - ✔✔Cluster
diagram Answer Explanation: A cluster diagram is a nonlinear graphic organizer that
allows for and even stimulates creative thinking and free association—both of which
make brainstorming more productive.
✔✔What is the main goal of establishing rules at the beginning of the school year? -
✔✔Setting expectations for appropriate behavior from the students. Answer
Explanation: At the beginning of the year, students need to know a teacher's
expectations for appropriate behavior in the classroom and what the consequences of
inappropriate behavior are.
✔✔Which of the following activities, designed for a high school genetics course,
contains the highest-level thinking skills? - ✔✔Students predict genetic traits of offspring
based on the genetic characteristics of its parents. Answer Explanation : This activity
requires the students to apply knowledge, rather than just collect or organize it.
,✔✔Which of the following strategies is useful when a student is in the acquisition stage
of learning? - ✔✔The teacher demonstrates the target skill. Answer Explanation:
Demonstrating the skill is a way of introducing it.
✔✔What would be the BEST response when a student repeatedly interrupts a question-
answer exercise with inappropriate jokes that distract from the exercise? - ✔✔Tell the
student not to speak unless giving an appropriate response and set a consequence for
further misbehavior. Answer Explanation: Setting a consequence for further bad
behavior is the best way to deal with students who otherwise would continue to
misbehave.
✔✔What should a teacher do when a student gives an incorrect response during a
question-and-answer group session? - ✔✔Say, "Let me put it another way," and
rephrase the question. Answer Explanation: Strategic rephrasing involves breaking
down the question into smaller chunks or laying emphasis on key ideas to help the
student think it through for himself. It's also an inoffensive way to tell a student to think
some more.
✔✔A rule relationship is an excellent method for organizing knowledge. Which of the
following is an example of a rule relationship? - ✔✔The fact that all reptiles are
vertebrates Answer Explanation: Rule relationships are the backbone of organizing new
materials.
✔✔A set of data with a low standard deviation - ✔✔is tightly grouped around the mean.
Answer Explanation: Standard deviation describes the average distance a number in
the data set is from the mean of the set. In other words, it describes the spread of the
data. The lower the standard deviation, the more tightly the data is grouped around the
mean of the data set.
✔✔The goal of a science lesson is to identify birds using a taxonomic key, which
classifies the birds based on their distinguishing features. To provide practice, the
teacher plans to use video tapes showing different birds in natural habitats. How should
the teacher help students learn to use the taxonomic key? - ✔✔Summarize the process,
work through the first several steps to identify a particular bird as an example, and then
let the students use the key themselves. Answer Explanation: Learning a skill that
includes several steps or parts is best approached through mastering a few steps at a
time.
✔✔The interquartile range of a data set - ✔✔describes how spread out the middle of
the data is. Answer Explanation: By definition, the interquartile range is the first quartile
subtracted from the third quartile (the medians of the "top" and "bottom" halves of a set
of data that is, itself, divided at the median).
, ✔✔When commenting on short essays written by students, which of the following would
be the BEST strategy? - ✔✔Make note of both the strengths and weaknesses. Answer
Explanation: The general principle in commenting on student writing is to be
simultaneously encouraging and instructive.
✔✔While teaching a unit on ancient Greek architecture, which of the following would be
MOST important? - ✔✔Familiarizing students with relevant architectural terminology.
Answer Explanation: A teacher must teach the vocabulary necessary for understanding
a particular subject. The other answers are useful, but not completely necessary.
✔✔How should students involved in a group project be graded? - ✔✔Each group
member should be given individual grades based on his or her performance in the
group. Answer Explanation: Holding each student accountable for his or her work
ensures the highest level of group participation.
✔✔Which of the following activities, when used to begin a class period, engages
students most effectively? - ✔✔Listening to the teacher tell a relevant story or case
study. Answer Explanation: A relevant story or case study immediately establishes a
focal point and direction for the lesson, while providing a context so that students can
immediately understand where the material "fits."
✔✔A teacher is working on instructional objectives for a science unit, including one that
reads, "Students will map the locations of recent earthquakes." Which of the following
modifications would BEST improve the objective? - ✔✔Specifying how students will
map the required information Answer Explanation: The teacher needs to indicate how
she intends the students to map the earthquakes, not just that she intends it to happen.
✔✔Statements that are meant to address or halt inappropriate classroom behavior
should always be - ✔✔delivered promptly. Answer Explanation: To be effective, a
reprimand must immediately follow the bad behavior that needs correcting. Some
discussions of behavior can be handled privately, but they need not always be.
✔✔Which scenario indicates reliability but not validity - ✔✔A fish market scale always
underweights a product by 3.2 pounds. Answer Explanation: A scale that is consistently
off is a measure that is reliable but not valid.
✔✔During the first week of class, the teacher asks her students to write a nongraded,
one-page paper about the event that has most impacted their lives. What is the primary
purpose for this activity? - ✔✔To gauge the students' current writing abilities Answer
Explanation: The aim of the exercise is to motivate the class with a nongraded
assignment that allows the teacher to assess each student's composition skills and to
get to know each student better.
