Praxis PLT: Early Childhood cheat sheet

Piaget's preoperational stage (about ages 2-7): symbolic play and language emerge, but thinking is egocentric, animistic, and lacks conservation and reversibility.

Piaget's concrete operational stage (about ages 7-11): conservation, classification, seriation, and reversibility appear, but reasoning is tied to concrete objects, not abstractions.

Erikson's early-childhood stage is initiative versus guilt (about ages 3-6); the school-age stage is industry versus inferiority (about ages 6-12).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with adult or peer support; the ZPD is where instruction should target.

Scaffolding is temporary, graduated support that is faded as competence grows; private speech (self-talk) guides behavior and later becomes inner speech.

Kohlberg's preconventional level (stages 1-2) is motivated by punishment avoidance and self-interest; conventional level (stages 3-4) by approval and rule maintenance.

Maslow's hierarchy orders needs from physiological and safety through belonging and esteem to self-actualization; lower needs generally dominate until met.

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent's workplace), macrosystem (culture), chronosystem (time).

Gardner's multiple intelligences include linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic; they are not learning-style modalities.

Direct instruction fits well-structured content (phonics, algorithms); discovery and inquiry fit ill-structured content where exploration is the goal.

Cooperative learning requires positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction, social skills, and group processing; unstructured group work lacks these.

Bloom's revised taxonomy orders objectives: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create; verbs in a written objective signal the intended cognitive level.

A well-stated behavioral objective names the observable performance, the conditions of performance, and the criterion for success.

Task analysis decomposes a terminal skill into prerequisite subskills taught in sequence, from entry level to mastery.

Wait time of roughly three to five seconds after a question increases response length and participation; calling on students before the pause reduces rehearsal quality.

Higher-order questions (analysis, evaluation, creation) require more processing than recall questions; a mix is appropriate but recall should not dominate.

Differentiation adjusts content, process, or product based on readiness, interest, or learning profile; it is not the same as tracking.

Formative feedback is most effective when it is specific, timely, and addresses the task and the process rather than the person.

Validity is the degree to which an assessment measures what it claims; reliability is consistency of scores across occasions, forms, or raters.

A test can be reliable without being valid, but it cannot be valid without being reliable.

Norm-referenced scores compare a student to a norm group; criterion-referenced scores compare performance to a defined standard or objective.

Standard error of measurement estimates the band of score variation around an observed score and is used to build confidence intervals.

Formative assessment is used during instruction to adjust teaching; summative assessment is used after instruction to judge achievement.

Diagnostic assessment identifies specific skill deficits and prerequisite gaps before or during instruction.

A rubric states performance criteria and levels; analytic rubrics score criteria separately, holistic rubrics give one overall score.

Percentile rank is the percentage of the norm group scoring at or below a given score; it is not the percentage of items answered correctly.

Accommodations change how a student accesses an assessment (extended time, read-aloud) without changing what is measured; modifications change the content or standard.

Reflective practice cycles through description of a problem, analysis, planning an alternative, implementation, and re-evaluation of results.

Professional learning communities rest on shared mission, collaborative inquiry into student data, and collective responsibility for results.

Action research is a systematic, teacher-conducted cycle of question, data collection, analysis, and instructional change within one's own setting.

Mentoring and induction support beginning teachers; peer coaching and lesson study support experienced teachers through observation and feedback.

FERPA protects the privacy of education records; parents generally have the right to inspect records, and directory information may be released unless the parent opts out.

Under IDEA, parents are full members of the IEP team and must give informed consent before initial evaluation and placement.

Mandated reporting laws require educators to report suspected child abuse or neglect to designated authorities; internal notification alone does not satisfy the duty.

Title I funds target schools with high poverty to support disadvantaged students; Title III addresses English learners.

Teacher leadership includes serving on committees, presenting professional development, mentoring, and advocating for students and families.

For multiple-choice items, read the stem and predict the answer before reading options; then eliminate options that are true but do not answer the question.

Distractor analysis: an option that is factually true but off-target is a common trap; an option containing absolutes such as 'always' or 'never' is often wrong.

For 'which is the best' items, all options may be defensible; select the one that most directly addresses the stem's stated problem or goal.

For constructed response, budget time by point value and answer every required part; an unanswered bullet cannot earn credit.

Constructed-response answers should name the concept, define it accurately, and apply it to the specific scenario given in the prompt.

Cite the specific theorist, principle, or term the scenario illustrates, then explain the mechanism, then state the instructional implication.

When a prompt asks for two examples, supply exactly two clearly labeled examples; extra unlabeled examples often do not earn additional credit.

Scenario questions on the PLT test pedagogical reasoning, not recall of trivia; the correct answer is the defensible instructional decision, not the most creative one.

If a scenario asks what the teacher should do first, prioritize assessment or relationship-building steps before instructional intervention.