This practice test has 100 multiple-choice questions with four answer choices each, arranged by content area in the order of the Field 72 subareas. Allow 2 hours 30 minutes. Answers and explanations follow in the answer key. During a water-table activity, a preschool teacher pours equal amounts of water into a short, wide cup and a tall, narrow cup while Mateo watches. Mateo insists the tall cup has more water 'because it goes up higher.' Which characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage does Mateo's reasoning BEST illustrate?

Centration, attending to one salient dimension while ignoring others

Egocentrism, assuming that others share his own visual point of view

Animism, attributing lifelike qualities and intentions to the water

Object permanence, recalling that the water exists when out of sight

A first grader measures a rug by placing one shoe down, lifting it, and setting it down again, but she leaves a few centimeters of space between placements. Her count is lower than a classmate's who used the same shoe. Which measurement idea is she still developing?

Iterating a unit, which means placing copies end to end with no gaps or overlaps

Conservation of length, which means an object's length stays the same if moved

Transitivity, which lets two lengths be compared by means of a third length

The inverse relationship between the size of a unit and the number of units

A first-grade teacher asks each child to bring three photographs: one as a baby, one as a toddler, and one from this year. Children arrange the photos in order on a strip of paper and label each one. Which history concept is this activity PRIMARILY designed to develop?

Chronological sequence, understanding that events in a life happen in order and that people change over time

Cause and effect, understanding that each event in a person's life is directly produced by the event before it

Primary source evaluation, judging whether each family photograph is an accurate and credible record

Historical perspective, recognizing that people in the past held values different from those today

Use the information in the table to answer Question 81. Surface Start (°C) After 1 hour (°C) Black paper 20 34 White paper 20 26 Sand 20 31 Water in a cup 20 24 A kindergarten class placed thermometers on four surfaces in the same sunny spot. Every thermometer read 20°C at the start. The table shows the readings after one hour. Which conclusion is BEST supported by the data?

The black paper rose 14 degrees, more than twice as much as the white paper rose.

The sand rose the most, 11 degrees, because sand soaks up sunlight better than paper.

The water rose more than the white paper did, because liquids warm faster in sunlight.

All four surfaces rose by about the same amount, so surface color made no difference.

This practice test has 100 multiple-choice questions with four answer choices each, arranged by content area in the order of the Field 72 subareas. Allow 2 hours 30 minutes. Answers and explanations follow in the answer key. Zainab, age 4, announces that she will build 'the biggest castle in the world' with every block in the room. Her tower falls twice, and she looks discouraged. According to Erikson's psychosocial theory, which teacher response BEST supports her current developmental task?

Acknowledge her plan, help her think through a sturdier base, and invite her to try again

Suggest a smaller structure so that she does not experience the frustration of failure

Rebuild the castle for her so that she can enjoy the finished product with her friends

Remind her that block-area rules limit each child to a set number of blocks per day

A kindergarten teacher is assembling read-alouds for a unit on families. Which collection BEST supports a culturally diverse, inclusive literacy environment?

Books by varied authors showing many family structures, languages, and cultures in daily life

Classic picture books from the teacher's own childhood showing similar two-parent households

Books set in other countries that show traditional costumes worn during festivals and holidays

Books chosen to show one family from each continent, focusing on unusual foods and customs

A first-grade class wants to know whether the classroom door is wider than a heavy bookshelf on the far wall, but neither object can be moved. Which approach BEST reflects indirect comparison of length?

Cutting a string to the door's width and holding it against the bookshelf

Looking at both objects from the middle of the room to estimate which is wider

Measuring the door with cubes and the bookshelf with paper clips to compare

Placing the two objects side by side with their ends lined up to compare

A first-grade teacher finds an older classroom book about early Massachusetts that says, "The settlers found an empty wilderness and built the first towns." Which problem with this sentence BEST explains why it conflicts with current scholarship?

It erases the Indigenous nations who lived on, managed, and named the land for thousands of years

It uses vocabulary such as wilderness and settlers that is too advanced for most first-grade readers

It describes colonial towns, which are not part of history instruction until the later elementary grades

It focuses on Massachusetts rather than presenting the colonization of North America as a whole

A second-grade unit addresses where water is found on Earth and in what forms. Which statement accurately describes how Earth's water is distributed?

Most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is frozen as ice.

Most of Earth's water is fresh water in lakes and rivers, and the rest is in the ocean.

Most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is in the rivers.

Most of Earth's water is frozen as ice, and the ocean holds most of the fresh water.

MTEL Early Childhood (72)

Free MTEL Early Childhood (72) Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the MTEL Early Childhood (72), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Child Development and Learning, Language Development and Emergent Literacy, Emergent Writing Development, Mathematics, Open-Response Work Sample Analysis, Science and Technology/Engineering Concepts, Science and Engineering Instruction.

Question 1 · Child Development and Learning
This practice test has 100 multiple-choice questions with four answer choices each, arranged by content area in the order of the Field 72 subareas. Allow 2 hours 30 minutes. Answers and explanations follow in the answer key.
During a water-table activity, a preschool teacher pours equal amounts of water into a short, wide cup and a tall, narrow cup while Mateo watches. Mateo insists the tall cup has more water 'because it goes up higher.' Which characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage does Mateo's reasoning BEST illustrate?
- A.Egocentrism, assuming that others share his own visual point of view
- B.Centration, attending to one salient dimension while ignoring others
- C.Animism, attributing lifelike qualities and intentions to the water
- D.Object permanence, recalling that the water exists when out of sight
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Centration, attending to one salient dimension while ignoring others
Mateo focuses only on the height of the water, which is centration, attending to one salient dimension while ignoring others; because he cannot also consider the width of the cup, he fails the conservation task. Egocentrism concerns difficulty taking another person's perspective, not judging quantity. Animism would involve treating the water as alive. Object permanence is a sensorimotor achievement that a four-year-old has already mastered and that has nothing to do with comparing quantities.
Question 2 · Language Development and Emergent Literacy
As Gabriel, age 2 and a half, fills a bucket at the water table, his teacher sits beside him and says, 'You are pouring the water. Now you are filling the blue bucket all the way to the top.' Which strategy is the teacher using?
- A.Self-talk
- B.Expansion
- C.Parallel talk
- D.Open-ended questioning
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Parallel talk
The teacher narrates Gabriel's own actions as they happen, which is parallel talk; it supplies vocabulary and sentence models tied to what the child is attending to. Self-talk would describe the teacher's own actions, such as 'I am filling my cup.' Expansion requires responding to something the child has said, and Gabriel has not spoken. Open-ended questioning would invite Gabriel to explain or describe, as in 'What do you think will happen when the bucket is full?'
Question 3 · Language Development and Emergent Literacy
A first grader measures a rug by placing one shoe down, lifting it, and setting it down again, but she leaves a few centimeters of space between placements. Her count is lower than a classmate's who used the same shoe. Which measurement idea is she still developing?
- A.Iterating a unit, which means placing copies end to end with no gaps or overlaps
- B.Conservation of length, which means an object's length stays the same if moved
- C.Transitivity, which lets two lengths be compared by means of a third length
- D.The inverse relationship between the size of a unit and the number of units
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Iterating a unit, which means placing copies end to end with no gaps or overlaps
Each placement plus its gap covers more than one shoe length, so fewer placements are needed and the count is too low. The child is still developing iterating a unit, which means placing copies end to end with no gaps or overlaps, a grade 1 expectation when measuring with same-size nonstandard units. Both children used the same shoe, so the inverse relationship between unit size and count is not involved. Conservation and transitivity matter in measurement but would not explain the specific undercount.
Question 4 · Open-Response Work Sample Analysis
A first-grade teacher asks each child to bring three photographs: one as a baby, one as a toddler, and one from this year. Children arrange the photos in order on a strip of paper and label each one. Which history concept is this activity PRIMARILY designed to develop?
- A.Cause and effect, understanding that each event in a person's life is directly produced by the event before it
- B.Primary source evaluation, judging whether each family photograph is an accurate and credible record
- C.Historical perspective, recognizing that people in the past held values different from those today
- D.Chronological sequence, understanding that events in a life happen in order and that people change over time
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Chronological sequence, understanding that events in a life happen in order and that people change over time
Ordering personal photographs from baby to present builds chronological sequence, the foundation for timelines: children see that events occur in order and that people change over time. A personal timeline is a developmentally appropriate entry point because it uses each child's own experience. The cause-and-effect option overstates the activity; growing older is not caused by the previous photo. Evaluating the photographs' credibility is not the goal of the task. Historical perspective concerns differing values in the past, which the activity does not address.
Question 5 · Science and Technology/Engineering Concepts
Use the information in the table to answer Question 81.
Surface Start (°C) After 1 hour (°C)
Black paper 20 34
White paper 20 26
Sand 20 31
Water in a cup 20 24
A kindergarten class placed thermometers on four surfaces in the same sunny spot. Every thermometer read 20°C at the start. The table shows the readings after one hour. Which conclusion is BEST supported by the data?
- A.The sand rose the most, 11 degrees, because sand soaks up sunlight better than paper.
- B.The black paper rose 14 degrees, more than twice as much as the white paper rose.
- C.The water rose more than the white paper did, because liquids warm faster in sunlight.
- D.All four surfaces rose by about the same amount, so surface color made no difference.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. The black paper rose 14 degrees, more than twice as much as the white paper rose.
Subtracting the starting reading from each final reading gives black paper 14 degrees, sand 11, white paper 6, and water 4. Because 14 is more than twice 6, "the black paper rose 14 degrees, more than twice as much as the white paper rose" is supported, and it reflects the idea that sunlight warms dark surfaces more. The claim that sand rose the most misreads the data, since 11 is less than 14. The claim that water warmed more than white paper reverses the results, because 4 degrees is less than 6.
Question 6 · Child Development and Learning
This practice test has 100 multiple-choice questions with four answer choices each, arranged by content area in the order of the Field 72 subareas. Allow 2 hours 30 minutes. Answers and explanations follow in the answer key.
Zainab, age 4, announces that she will build 'the biggest castle in the world' with every block in the room. Her tower falls twice, and she looks discouraged. According to Erikson's psychosocial theory, which teacher response BEST supports her current developmental task?
- A.Acknowledge her plan, help her think through a sturdier base, and invite her to try again
- B.Suggest a smaller structure so that she does not experience the frustration of failure
- C.Rebuild the castle for her so that she can enjoy the finished product with her friends
- D.Remind her that block-area rules limit each child to a set number of blocks per day
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Acknowledge her plan, help her think through a sturdier base, and invite her to try again
Preschoolers are in Erikson's stage of initiative versus guilt, so adults should support children's plans and efforts. Acknowledge her plan, help her think through a sturdier base, and invite her to try again affirms her initiative while teaching problem solving. Steering her to a smaller structure or rebuilding the castle for her signals that her ideas are too ambitious or that adults must do the work, which can foster guilt or dependence. Citing a rule shuts down her plan without addressing her goal.
Question 7 · Language Development and Emergent Literacy
A kindergarten teacher is assembling read-alouds for a unit on families. Which collection BEST supports a culturally diverse, inclusive literacy environment?
- A.Classic picture books from the teacher's own childhood showing similar two-parent households
- B.Books set in other countries that show traditional costumes worn during festivals and holidays
- C.Books chosen to show one family from each continent, focusing on unusual foods and customs
- D.Books by varied authors showing many family structures, languages, and cultures in daily life
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Books by varied authors showing many family structures, languages, and cultures in daily life
An inclusive collection offers mirrors and windows: children see themselves and learn about others in authentic, everyday contexts. Books by varied authors showing many family structures, languages, and cultures in daily life fulfill this goal. Classic books with similar households leave many children unrepresented. Focusing on costumes, festivals, or 'unusual' foods emphasizes exotic differences, a tourist approach that can reinforce stereotypes rather than build understanding.
Question 8 · Language Development and Emergent Literacy
A first-grade class wants to know whether the classroom door is wider than a heavy bookshelf on the far wall, but neither object can be moved. Which approach BEST reflects indirect comparison of length?
- A.Looking at both objects from the middle of the room to estimate which is wider
- B.Measuring the door with cubes and the bookshelf with paper clips to compare
- C.Cutting a string to the door's width and holding it against the bookshelf
- D.Placing the two objects side by side with their ends lined up to compare
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Cutting a string to the door's width and holding it against the bookshelf
Because the objects cannot be placed together, the class needs a third object. Cutting a string to the door's width and holding it against the bookshelf uses transitivity: if the door equals the string and the string is shorter than the shelf, the door is narrower. This is the grade 1 expectation for indirect comparison. Lining up ends is direct comparison, which is impossible here. Using cubes for one object and paper clips for the other gives counts in different units that cannot be compared.
Question 9 · Open-Response Work Sample Analysis
A first-grade teacher finds an older classroom book about early Massachusetts that says, "The settlers found an empty wilderness and built the first towns." Which problem with this sentence BEST explains why it conflicts with current scholarship?
- A.It erases the Indigenous nations who lived on, managed, and named the land for thousands of years
- B.It uses vocabulary such as wilderness and settlers that is too advanced for most first-grade readers
- C.It describes colonial towns, which are not part of history instruction until the later elementary grades
- D.It focuses on Massachusetts rather than presenting the colonization of North America as a whole
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. It erases the Indigenous nations who lived on, managed, and named the land for thousands of years
The idea of an empty wilderness is a long-standing narrative that conflicts with historical and archaeological evidence. The Wampanoag, Massachusett, Nipmuc, and other nations lived on, managed, and named the land for thousands of years, and earlier epidemics had devastated many communities. Saying the sentence erases these Indigenous nations identifies the bias the objective expects teachers to recognize. Advanced vocabulary is a readability issue, not an accuracy issue. A local focus is appropriate, and colonial history can be introduced in the early grades.
Question 10 · Science and Technology/Engineering Concepts
A second-grade unit addresses where water is found on Earth and in what forms. Which statement accurately describes how Earth's water is distributed?
- A.Most of Earth's water is fresh water in lakes and rivers, and the rest is in the ocean.
- B.Most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is in the rivers.
- C.Most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is frozen as ice.
- D.Most of Earth's water is frozen as ice, and the ocean holds most of the fresh water.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is frozen as ice.
About 97 percent of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and roughly two-thirds of the remaining fresh water is locked in glaciers and ice sheets, so "most of Earth's water is salt water in the ocean, and most fresh water is frozen as ice" is accurate. Children often assume that the lakes and rivers they see hold most water, but rivers contain only a tiny fraction of fresh water. The claim that most water is ice reverses the proportions. This content supports the grade 2 expectation of identifying where water is found and whether it is solid or liquid.

Surface	Start (°C)	After 1 hour (°C)
Black paper	20	34
White paper	20	26
Sand	20	31
Water in a cup	20	24

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