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No matter how long you’ve been in education, you’ve most likely stumbled over the meaning of a few educational words and phrases. That’s why we’ve created EdWords, a glossary of key terms in education that goes beyond the common buzzwords. Each page in this glossary explores a different term, what it means, how it’s used, and how it can be put into practice.
Accelerated learning refers to a collection of instructional approaches specifically designed to support students who are performing below desired expectations. This “umbrella” term, with several specific approaches related to it, is relatively new to education (circa 2018), but it has risen quickly in prominence. It is referenced in CARES- and ESSER-related funding guidance from the US Department of Education, as well as in guidance documents from various states related to recovery from pandemic-related disruptions.
Balanced instruction helps students enjoy learning together while still receiving individualized instruction.
Bilingual education refers to the teaching of academic content in two languages — in a native and second language.
Blended learning provides a digital framework that puts students in control of a particular element of their learning, whether it’s place, path, or pace.
Collaborative learning creates an environment in which students work together to solve a problem, complete, a task, or produce a project.
Continuous learning is the belief that every student deserves to have learning continue, even if in-person schooling is interrupted.
A criterion-referenced test is designed to measure a student’s academic performance against some standard or criteria that is predetermined before students begin the test.
Differentiation refers to learning experiences in which the approach or method of learning is adjusted to meet the needs of individual students, focusing on the ‘how’ of personalized learning.
In dual language instruction, students develop academic skills in their native language, while building skills in a different language.
Emergent bilinguals are students who are continuing to develop their home language while also learning an additional language.
Formative assessments help paint a portrait of what students know and understand, as well as topics that they are having difficulty grasping.
Growth measures a student’s progress between two or more points of time to demonstrate their progression toward goals or benchmarks, even if the student has not yet achieved proficiency.
In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point.
One of the three main elements of personalized learning, individualization is when the pace of learning is adjusted to meet the needs of each student. The emphasis becomes mastery of the content. With individualization, each student shares the same overall learning goals, but individual students are able to progress through learning objectives at different speeds. For example, some students may take a little longer on topics they haven’t quite grasped, but can move quickly when they have demonstrated mastery.
Individualized instruction refers to a method of teaching that tailors content, instructional technology, and pace to the abilities and interests of each learner.
An interim assessment is a test administered at different intervals during the school year to check students’ grasp on content and guide future instruction.
The Lexile® Framework for Reading is a scientific approach to measuring reading ability and the text complexity of reading materials.
Mastery is the point at which students have not only met specific benchmarks but also gained a complete understanding of the content and can consistently demonstrate the skill.
Mathematical discourse is more than simply talking about math. It is a set of tools and practices that make both learners’ and teachers’ thinking visible.
Scores from norm-referenced tests are used to compare students’ progress to others in their peer group.
Productive struggle is developing strong habits of mind, such as perseverance and thinking flexibly, instead of simply seeking the correct solution.
Proficiency is the documented evidence that a student has met the required level of skill and knowledge set by benchmarks.
Progress monitoring is a formal protocol necessary to collect valid and reliable data to chart students’ performance against expected outcomes.
“Self-teaching” is based on work by David Share that was first published in 1995. Share coined the term to reflect those aspects of comprehensive literacy that students acquire on their own if they do enough reading.
Student agency refers to learning through activities that are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated with appropriate guidance from teachers.
Summative assessments serve as a way to evaluate students’ proficiency at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it to state or national standards and benchmarks.
Test anxiety is when someone feels anxious, nervous, or worried about an upcoming assessment or project. Test anxiety is fairly common. However, when we put too much pressure on ourselves, it can be detrimental.
The Science of Reading is science—conclusive, research-proven ideas about how to teach reading drawn from developmental and educational psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience on reading.
Transadaptation is the process of adapting text that has been written in one language into another language. Transadaptation goes beyond a simple word-for-word translation.
Whole class instruction is about learning together: teachers and students at the same time, in the same space, and with each person focused on the same learning goals.
The Zone of Proximal Development is used to describe the relationship between a student’s learning and his or her cognitive development.
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