Glossary Tips
Read these 49 Glossary Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Teaching tips and hundreds of other topics.
authentic assessment
authentic assessment
Here is a type of assessment that reflects the incorporation of tasks that are meaningful,challenging, and dependent on a student's application of prior knowledge. These tasks usually are at the student's ability level and tend to address their learning styles.
Sponge Activities
sponge activities
These are activities that are used when you finish a lesson earlier than expected, while students are standing in line, or any other time when you are faced with those extra minutes of nothing to do. The activities are often quick, enjoyable ones that may require student recall or application.
Predicting
predicting
making forecasts of future events or conditions based upon observations or inferences
systemic reform
systemic reform
Change that takes place in all levels and aspects of the educational process. People who are part of this process (for example,teachers, students, and parents) are affected by such a change.
criterion-referenced assessment
criterion-referenced assessment
This type of assessment is designed to determine what a student understands, knows, or can do in response to specific performance objectives.
disequilibation
disequilibation
the moment at which you have encountered a new or unique idea that does not yet fit into any existing schema, and a new schema has yet to be developed
Reading Excellence Act
Reading Excellence Act
This act focuses upon the improvement of K-3 reading instruction in elementary schools that serve the nation's neediest children. It is based upon scientifically based reading research. This Act is behind the Reading Excellence Program that includes the following objectives:
Teach each child to read by the end of third grade.
Provide reading readiness skills at the early childhood level.
Expand the number of high quality family literacy programs.
Sensori-Motor Interlligence
Sensori-Motor Intelligence
This is the first of Piaget's stages of
cognitive development.
Usually occuring from birth to two years of age, babies organize their physical action schemes, such as sucking,grasping, and hitting in order to deal with the immediate world.
scaffolding
scaffolding
Here teachers model learning strategies desired,then slowly pass responsibility to students,who must create their own questions.
facilitator
This is considered the type of role a teacher needs to assume in order to effectively utilize standards-based curricula. In this situation, the teacher acts as a coach, encouraging the student to take more responsibility for the learning that takes place. The teacher does not always stand in front of the classroom giving out facts, rather, the student has a far more active role in the learning that occurs.
prior knowledge
prior knowledge
Considered previous knowledge students can apply to new skills and concepts addressed.
Data Gathering
data gathering
process of direct observing some object that is present and recording these observations. These recordings may include graphs,drawings,or notes.
critical thinking
critical thinking
This type of thinking is highly reflective
and reasonable.
accomodation
accomodation
modification of mental concepts to fit new material or to create new schema
informal knowledge
informal knowledge
Knowledge children acquire through experiences outside of a school setting.
higher order thinking
higher order thinking
This type of thinking requires the comprehension of difficult concepts and the application of occasionally conflicting information in order to solve a problem.
portfolio assessment
portfolio assessment
Method where a collection of student work is assessed. The work usually reflects progress the student has made over a period of time.
equilibration
equilibration
after your schema has changed to fit all information, a state of balance is achieved
open-ended question
open-ended question
A question that gives students the opportunity to respond in different ways. It is an excellent way to help students see that there is not always just one answer to a question.
collaborative learning /cooperative learning
collaborative learning /cooperative learning
Students are placed in small groups to complete a specific assignment. The group is usually scored on the basis of objectives that revolve around group dynamics.
Metacognition
metacognition
student's ability to reflect upon their knowledge of a given subject
Concrete Operations
Concrete Operations
Third in Piaget's stages of Cognitive Development.
Children,from 7 to 11 years of age, have the capacity to think systematically, but only when they can refer to concrete objects and activities.
standardized test
standardized test
Assessment that is administered and scored exactly the same way for all students .
problem solving
problem solving
Method of learning where students consider strategies for solving a problem and evaluate their own thinking-usually collaboratively-in the process of solving this problem.
manipulatives
manipulatives
Usually physical objects that are to be used within the context of problem solving or clarification of abstract concepts.
Communicating
communicating
using the written and spoken word,graphs, drawing,diagrams,or tables to transmit information and ideas to others
curriculum frameworks
curriculum frameworks
Guidelines on what should be taught in order for students to acquire specific skills.
Formulating A Hypothesis
formulating a hypothesis
making educated guesses based on observations and inferences about the same class of objects or events
curriculum
curriculum
An instructional plan that outlines what students will know, how they are to acquire such knowledge, what the role of the teacher is, and the context within which such instruction is to occur.
Formal Operations
Formal Operations
Fourth in Piaget's stages of Cognitive Development
Young people, from ages 11 to adulthood, develop the capacity to think systematically on a purely abstarct and hypothetical plane.
assimilation
assimilation
incorporation of new concept into existing concept; integration of new material with an already existing schema.
inquiry
According to the National Science Education Standards,
inquiry refers to :
1.the abilities students should develop to be able to design and conduct scientific investigations and to the understandings they should gain about the nature of scientific inquiry,
and,
2. the teaching and learning strategies that enable scientific concepts to be mastered through investigations.
GEAR UP for College Program
GEAR UP for College Program
This is a long-range college preparation and awareness program that gives low-income students and their families pathways to college by partnering middle and high schools with colleges and community organizations.
constructivism
constructivism
This approach stresses that students learn by fitting new knowledge with what they already know.
holistic scoring
holistic scoring
In this type of scoring, a single overall score is assigned to a performance. A score guide or anchor papers are usually used in this process.
Preoperational Thought
Preoperational Thought
This the second of Piaget's stages
of Cognitive Development.
From ages 2 to 7, children learn to think, use symbols and internal images,however, the thinking is usually unsystematic and illogical. It is most different from adult thinking.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Lynne Christen |
