FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

Which cognitive process allows children to think of the whole and its parts simultaneously during the concrete operations stage?

1. Class inclusion

2. Conservation

3. Symbolic thought

4. Reversibility

The correct answer is: Class inclusion

Class inclusion is the cognitive process that enables children to understand that a whole can consist of various parts or categories at the same time, which is a key characteristic of the concrete operational stage of cognitive development as described by Jean Piaget. During this stage, which typically occurs between the ages of 7 and 11, children gain the ability to group and categorize objects based on shared characteristics, recognizing that one group can be a subset of a larger category. For example, a child may understand that there are both dogs and cats within the broader category of pets, thereby grasping how the parts (dogs and cats) relate to the whole (pets). This ability to simultaneously comprehend the relationship between parts and whole signifies a significant advancement in logical thinking. The other cognitive processes listed, while important, do not specifically address the simultaneous consideration of the whole and its parts. Conservation refers to understanding that quantities do not change even when their shape does, symbolic thought involves using symbols to represent objects or concepts, and reversibility permits the understanding that objects can return to their original state after being changed. Each of these processes plays a distinct role in cognitive development, but they do not encompass the broader understanding inherent in class inclusion.