FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What concept in Piaget's preoperational stage explains that mass, weight, and volume do not necessarily change even if they appear to have?

1. Symbolic thought

2. Conservation

3. Reversibility

4. Centration

The correct answer is: Conservation

The concept of conservation in Piaget's preoperational stage refers to the understanding that certain properties of objects, such as mass, weight, and volume, remain unchanged even when they are transformed or appear to be altered in some way. For instance, when liquid is poured from a short, wide glass into a tall, narrow one, a child in the preoperational stage may think that there is more liquid in the narrow glass because it looks taller, despite the fact that the amount of liquid has not changed. This concept is crucial in educational settings as it highlights the cognitive limitations of young children, who may struggle with understanding that some properties are conserved despite superficial changes. Recognizing the role of conservation helps teachers better tailor their instruction to meet the developmental needs of their students and guide them toward more sophisticated reasoning as they grow. The other options relate to different cognitive processes; for example, symbolic thought involves the ability to use symbols to represent objects or ideas, while reversibility pertains to the understanding that some processes can be undone or reversed. Centration is a tendency in children to focus on one aspect of a situation while ignoring others. While relevant in the context of child development, these concepts do not specifically address the idea of maintaining mass, weight,