Chapter 6: What We Teach in Schools: Knowledge for What and for Whom?

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Knowledge is created in societies by individuals with ______.

A. power

B. authority

C. cultural capital

D. all of these

2. Which of the following statements is false?

A. Gatekeepers within science can keep major discoveries from being shared with others.

B. Individuals with cultural capital can manipulate and mold knowledge as we know it.

C. Persons who work with knowledge, such as civil engineers who build bridges, have more knowledge than those who create the knowledge such as college professors.

D. none of these

3. ______ includes the taste, confidence, and familiarity that allows the culturally advantaged to reap a higher return on cultural investments than those with less.

A. Economic capital

B. Social capital

C. Cultural capital

D. Human capital

4. Public education curriculum tends to favor ______.

A. middle-class

B. lower-class

C. women

D. none of these

5. Progressive attempts to make educational success more widely available to disadvantaged groups through progressive “culturalist” reforms often are seen as ______.

A. lowering of standards and the undermining of traditional values

B. leveling the playing fields between different ethnic groups

C. being elitist in nature

D. all of these

6. Using the Bible as a textbook was most upsetting to which group?

A. Atheists

B. Democrats

C. Minorities

D. Catholics

7. The Knights of Columbus lobbied for books that would ______.

A. exclude racial minority influence from history books

B. include contributions of immigrants in history books

C. highlight contributions by women in history books

D. all of these

8. Because textbook publishers are private companies, ______.

A. textbooks must appeal to those with political power

B. textbooks must not alienate any majority group

C. textbooks must appeal to consumers

D. all of these

9. Cultural pluralism refers to ______.

A. the practice of looking at knowledge from a selected viewpoint

B. the use in multiple writers to author textbooks

C. the use of the majority viewpoint to appeal to the greatest number of readers

D. none of these

10. The American Legion believed that ______.

A. history repeats itself

B. history should include the accomplishments of minorities

C. the Bible is an appropriate textbook for teaching history

D. history is too important to be left to historians

11. Because of the way ethnocentric knowledge would work, which country portrays United States involvement in World War II as decisive in ending the war?

A. Japan

B. England

C. Sweden

D. none of these

12. Which of the following is true about textbooks in the past?

A. They have been used to teach the importance of what it is to be an American.

B. They have omitted or distorted the contributions of minority groups.

C. They have always been nonpartisan and nonsectarian.

D. Both they have been used to teach the importance of what it is to be an American and they have omitted or distorted the contributions of minority groups

13. According to Wenglinsky, NAEP tests ______.

A. promote a basic skills approach to learning

B. are currently being used as part of NCLB/Race to the Top

C. is easier and cheaper to teach than other tests used for accountability in NCLB/Race to the Top

D. none of these

14. In ______ at both fourth and eighth grade levels, practices that emphasize critical thinking are associated with higher achievement.

A. civics

B. writing

C. mathematics

D. physical education

15. The argument that knowledge is created by those with power and authority is closest to which theoretical perspective studied in Chapter 1?

A. functionalist

B. symbolic interactionist

C. feminist

D. conflict

True/False

1. Ideologies are used to get students to think creatively.

2. Knowledge is socially constructed by people in power and those with authority.

3. Education reform has caused education levels among all classes to increase, and thus is moving toward educational equality.

4. The curriculum taught in public schools is objective knowledge.

5. Objective knowledge should have a greater level of equality of access.

6. During World War I, textbooks were used to reinforce patriotism.

7. Tyack suggests that letting parents pick what their children get taught about history may be one way to cope with the demands on history textbooks.

8. Students who are taught to use higher-order thinking skills do better on NAEP tests than those who were not taught this way.

9. Linear learning, as described by Wenglinsky, involves learning the basics first before moving on to more complex ideas.

10. Learning facts is more important in humanities courses in the elementary classroom than is learning critical thinking skills.