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Study Guide

Sample Selected-Response Questions
Field 87: Professional Knowledge—Adult Education

Practice Questions

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Subarea I–Understanding Adult Learners

Objective 0001: Understand the unique characteristics and needs of adult learners and the processes by which adult learners acquire knowledge and skills.

1.  An adult education teacher's class includes a number of students who experience a high level of anxiety about participating in class. The teacher speaks with the students individually and learns that, in general, they feel anxious about their ability to respond to questions appropriately or communicate their ideas effectively. Which of the following approaches by the teacher would best help address this issue?

  1. incorporating partner and small-group formats for discussions
  2. eliminating the use of whole-class discussions of lesson content
  3. varying assignment formats used as a method for increasing attention
  4. providing an outline of activities at the beginning of each lesson
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

2.  Which of the following statements best explains why project-based learning experiences are particularly appropriate for adult learners?

  1. Adult learners prefer project-based learning experiences because they are able to explore different approaches and outcomes.
  2. Effective instruction for adult learners focuses on the process of learning, which is a key element in project-based learning experiences.
  3. Adult education teachers are better able to address multiple content standards using project-based learning experiences.
  4. Many adult learners have not fully developed abstract reasoning abilities and need project-based learning experiences to scaffold this development.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 0002: Understand the significance of diversity and how to create a respectful classroom environment.

3.  An adult education class includes students from diverse cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic circumstances. Given these characteristics, it is most important for the teacher to be aware of which of the following issues related to instructional planning and delivery?

  1. Students will perceive education as the path to success.
  2. Students will have similar motivations for enrolling in the class.
  3. Students will benefit from a highly structured learning environment.
  4. Students will possess widely varying knowledge and experiences.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

4.  Which of the following initial strategies by an adult education teacher would be most effective in promoting an equitable learning environment?

  1. informally seeking feedback from students about personal communication techniques
  2. consistently applying standards for student performance and participation
  3. critically analyzing andragogical practices and personal perceptions about students
  4. periodically reflecting on questions designed to enhance self-awareness
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 0003: Understand procedures and practices for creating learning environments that ensure active engagement and support adult learners in meeting rigorous academic standards and their personal learning goals.

5.  Which of the following practices by an adult education teacher would contribute most to a productive learning environment for students?

  1. defining explicit routines for the operation of the classroom
  2. implementing an equal balance of individual and group activities
  3. providing time during each class for team-building activities
  4. creating a running agenda of activities for each day's lesson
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

6.  An adult education teacher observes that students' motivation appears to be diminishing. The teacher wants to find a way to reengage students in an upcoming series of science lessons. In determining an appropriate course of action to achieve this goal, the teacher should begin by considering which of the following questions?

  1. How can I make the content relevant to students' personal experiences and needs?
  2. Which techniques will best help students recall information accurately?
  3. What type of incentives will be most useful in helping students persist with their learning?
  4. Is the content so complex that students are giving up before trying to learn?
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

7.  Recently, two students in an adult education class failed an important assessment. The adult education teacher met with the students and expressed the following message.

"My job as your teacher is to help you achieve this learning objective, so let's figure out how to make that happen. If you're not learning the way I teach, let's explore ways of teaching that will help you learn. We can discuss tutoring, learning strategies, and motivation as part of this exploration."

The teacher's message to the students is likely to be most effective in achieving which of the following outcomes?

  1. communicating high expectations for the students' learning
  2. conveying the negative implications of failure for the students' futures
  3. preparing the students for accountability standards in the workplace
  4. releasing responsibility for learning and success to the students
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Subarea II–Instructional Practice

Objective 0004: Understand a variety of assessments and strategies to monitor progress and guide instructional decisions to ensure adult learners' continuous growth.

8.  Diagnostic assessments are most appropriately used to:

  1. demonstrate the teacher's accountability for students' learning.
  2. identify students' specific skill needs related to a given standard.
  3. adapt pace or methods based on students' responses.
  4. measure students' growth following an instructional unit.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

9.  Students in an adult education class will be completing a long-term, multi-part project on self-selected science topics. The adult education teacher is aware that some of the students may require support in managing this type of project. Which of the following steps by the teacher would best help students self-monitor their progress in completing the project?

  1. assigning students partners who will check in with each other and provide assistance with the project as needed
  2. requiring students to maintain a written log documenting the work they complete each day during the project
  3. reviewing the project requirements with students weekly to remind them which project components they should have completed
  4. providing students with an outline of the project's various components that includes interim due dates for each component
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 0005: Understand instructional strategies for creating learning experiences that make content accessible and meaningful while engaging adult learners in critical thinking and problem solving.

10. An adult education teacher assigns students to read a brief compare-and-contrast text independently and then discuss the text with a partner. The teacher then provides students with summary frames to guide them in summarizing the text. An example of a summary frame is shown below.

blank and blank have similarities and differences.
First, blank and blank are the same because they both blank.
Additionaly, they both blank.
On the other hand, blank and blank have some differences.
They differ in blank as well as blank.
Another way they are different is blank.

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:

  1. recall and communicate information accurately.
  2. construct meaning from their reading.
  3. learn and practice academic language.
  4. develop their abstract reasoning abilities.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

11. Prior to introducing a new topic, an adult education teacher organizes students into small groups and charges them to brainstorm a list of what they know about the topic to share with the class. Using a small-group strategy for this purpose is an effective technique primarily because:

  1. participation by individual students is likely to be greater in this type of low-risk setting.
  2. motivation to learn is greater when students believe they have foundational knowledge about a topic.
  3. attention to the learning task is maintained for a longer period when students engage with others.
  4. interaction with classmates more fully activates students' background knowledge of the topic.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

12. Prior to beginning a new social studies unit, an adult education teacher has students work in pairs to brainstorm concepts and vocabulary related to the unit topic. The teacher then groups the student pairs into larger groups of four to six students and asks students to compile their brainstormed lists into a group list. Finally, the teacher brings the groups together to share their lists, and the teacher leads the class in creating a web of concepts and vocabulary related to the unit topic. This strategy is likely to be most effective in achieving which of the following instructional goals?

  1. helping students make interdisciplinary connections
  2. activating students' prior knowledge
  3. motivating students' interest in learning about the topic
  4. prompting student reflection
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 0006: Understand planning for effective instruction based on content standards, instructional resources, assessment data, and specific needs of adult learners.

13. An adult education class includes students aged 17–56 who have had to leave school for various reasons. According to assessment data, the students' reading levels range from an ABE level 2 to ABE level 4. The teacher wants to ensure that instruction in an upcoming unit is responsive to students' instructional levels. Which of the following approaches would help ensure this outcome?

  1. assigning students to groups based on their skill needs for the duration of the unit
  2. allowing students to help determine due dates for unit assignments
  3. developing tiered assignments that address unit concepts at different levels of complexity
  4. reducing the cognitive levels of the standards that will be addressed in the unit
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

14. Which of the following statements represents a measurable objective for a mathematics lesson on measurement?

  1. Students will view a video about various measurement systems.
  2. Students will understand the purpose and uses of different types of measurement.
  3. Students will appreciate the role of measurement in various career fields.
  4. Students will use provided measurements of a prominent building to construct a scale model.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 0007: Understand the use of effective instructional strategies for adult learners.

15. Which of the following statements best describes the primary benefit of adopting an interdisciplinary approach to instruction?

  1. Students are more engaged in the instruction process because they are focusing on topics that are of personal interest to them.
  2. Students are better able to demonstrate their learning due to the multiple pathways provided by cross-content instruction.
  3. Interdisciplinary instruction provides a meaningful way for students to use knowledge learned in one context as a knowledge base in other contexts in and out of school.
  4. Interdisciplinary instruction enables teachers to streamline students' learning by addressing multiple learning standards in different content areas.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

16. During discussions of lesson content, an adult education teacher uses 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:

  1. evaluate the logic of the message they are attempting to convey.
  2. express the knowledge that they have but may have not fully internalized.
  3. reflect on different perspectives related to a specific topic.
  4. consider how they integrate new information with previously learned information.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Subarea III–Working in the Professional Environment

Objective 0008: Understand how to communicate and collaborate with colleagues to enhance learning opportunities and improve adult learner outcomes.

17. Adult education teachers make regular use of curriculum-based measurement. This practice is likely to be most effective for which of the following purposes?

  1. ensuring that teachers have adequate information to reflect on their professional practices
  2. providing teachers with highly relevant data to monitor students' progress and inform instructional decisions
  3. helping teachers effectively differentiate instruction to meet individual student learning needs
  4. enabling administrators to evaluate teachers' professional knowledge and skills in delivering instruction to diverse groups of students
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

18. A team of adult education teachers is meeting to analyze progress monitoring data for students. Which of the following tasks should be the primary focus of this meeting?

  1. evaluating the appropriateness of the instructional pace for students
  2. sharing instructional resources and materials related to targeted learning standards
  3. identifying student activities to be added or eliminated from future lessons
  4. comparing students' performance in relation to the targeted learning standards
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.
Objective 0009: Understand strategies for using reflective practices and continuous professional learning to strengthen the effectiveness and quality of instruction.

19. An adult education teacher has made a commitment to read and analyze information in professional journals on a regular basis. This practice would be most useful in helping the teacher achieve which of the following goals?

  1. evaluating personal effectiveness as an adult education teacher
  2. understanding and applying ethical guidelines
  3. remaining current on issues in the field of adult education
  4. identifying and addressing personal biases
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

20. An adult education teacher was recently observed by a supervisor. The teacher can best use the outcomes of this observation to:

  1. determine professional goals to address areas for improvement.
  2. reinforce professional expertise with the school community.
  3. examine professional practices in relation to trends in the field.
  4. provide documentation for a professional portfolio.
Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.