Becoming a Teacher - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from 'Becoming a Teacher' text covering reflective practice, caring pedagogy, learning theories, curriculum design, assessment models, and inclusive education.

Reflective Practitioner

A teacher who engages in an active, persistent, and careful examination of their teaching actions and underpinning beliefs with the aim of continuously improving their practice and understanding of themselves and their learners.

Reflection in Action

Reflection that occurs while engaged in practice, where a teacher continuously monitors and adjusts their teaching plans in real time based on how they read the classroom situation.

Reflection on Action

Reflection that takes place after a teaching experience, where a teacher reviews, assesses, and attempts to make sense of what happened to learn from it and inform future actions.

Reflection for Action

Planning and thinking ahead before teaching to anticipate what might be encountered, how to respond, and what actions need to be taken.

Meta-thinking

Kemmis's term for thinking about thinking, performed in important situations requiring careful consideration of the relationship between thoughts and actions before acting.

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK)

Shulman's concept describing the merging of subject content knowledge with pedagogical knowledge so that teachers understand how best to arrange and teach specific content to make it meaningful for diverse learners.

DATA Process

A four-step reflection process made up of Description (what happened), Analysis (why it happened), Theorising (improving practice), and Action (testing theory in practice).

Guided Reflection Protocol

A reflection process adapted from Hole and McEntee structured around five key questions: What happened?, Why did it happen?, Reflection, What might it mean?, and What are the implications for my teaching practice?

Reflective Journal

A regular record kept by a teacher to detail vivid weekly events, personal assumptions, preoccupations, successes, and challenges to foster personal and professional growth.

Teaching Philosophy

A distinctive statement crafted by a teacher outlining their ultimate goals, conceptual approach to teaching, underlying rationale, and core values.

SACE Code of Professional Ethics

The professional code set out under the South African Council for Educators Act No. 31 of 2000 that details the ethical standards, values, and responsibilities required of all registered educators.

Critical Education Theory

A set of assumptions and beliefs that critically analyzes educational systems to uncover unequal practices, challenge dominant power relations, and promote social justice and social change.

Pedagogy of Care

An educational approach wherein teachers commit to accountability, responsibility, and designing learning environments where care is expressed in a responsible and moral way.

Relational Ethic

Noddings' concept of care rooted in natural relationships, focusing on the dynamic interaction between the 'one caring' (teacher) and the 'cared-for' (learner).

Engrossment

An element in Noddings' caring relationship characterized by non-selective attention focused entirely on the cared-for for the duration of the caring interval.

Displacement of Motivation

An element in Noddings' caring relationship wherein the motive energy of the 'one caring' flows in the direction of the needs and projects of the 'cared-for'.

Participation

Shor's value in a learner-centred curriculum that establishes interactive conditions for learners to engage in caring relationships with teachers and peers.

The Affective Component

Shor's value in a learner-centred curriculum that explicitly recognizes and affirms the vital connection between learners' emotions and cognitive learning processes.

Problem Posing

Shor's pedagogy that undercuts the traditional transmission of facts by offering academic subject matter for comment, critique, and dialogue in a safe classroom environment.

Border Knowledge

Knowledge created by those on society's margins (influenced by class, race, gender, or illness) that falls outside traditional, dominant academic boundaries.

Behaviourism

A psychological approach, strongly influenced by B.F. Skinner, that explains observable behaviour as learned through external environmental stimuli, responses, rewards, and punishments.

Negative Reinforcement

In behaviourism, the strengthening of a desired behaviour through the removal or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus.

Extinction

In behaviourism, the withholding of reinforcement for a disruptive or unwanted behaviour until that behaviour gradually disappears.

Schemes (Schemata)

In Piaget's cognitive theory, internalised mental systems or structures developed from physical or cognitive experiences in the external world.

Assimilation

In Piaget's theory, the adaptation process of fitting new information or experiences into existing cognitive schemes.

Accommodation

In Piaget's theory, the adaptation process of altering or modifying existing cognitive schemes when new information does not fit existing frameworks.

Equilibration

The cognitive process of searching for a balance between assimilation and accommodation when new learning experiences create cognitive conflict (disequilibrium).

Sensori-motor Stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development ($0-2$ years), where intelligence takes the form of physical motor actions and object permanence develops.

Pre-operational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development ($2-7$ years), where thinking is intuitive, egocentric, and guided by perceptual judgments rather than logical operations.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development ($7-12$ years), where logical thinking develops regarding direct, concrete experiences, including categorization and reversibility.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development ($12-15$ years), characterized by abstract, logical, systematic, and hypothetical 'if-then' reasoning.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

In Vygotsky's theory, the distance between a learner's actual developmental level (independent problem solving) and their potential developmental level under adult guidance or peer collaboration.

Mediation

The instructional process through which a competent, nurturing human mediator guides a learner across their ZPD from actual to potential developmental levels.

Scaffolding

Targeted activities and support frameworks constructed by a teacher or mediator to assist learners in mastering concepts within their ZPD.

Activity Theory

Vasily Davydov's expansion of Vygotsky's work, viewing activity as interaction between people and the world mediated by symbolic psychological tools like writing.

Spontaneous Concepts

Vygotsky's term for empirical, unsystematic concepts acquired naturally from a child's everyday experiences.

Scientific Concepts

Vygotsky's term for systematic, logical, and rule-bound theoretical concepts acquired through formal, structured classroom instruction.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's theory proposing that intelligence consists of varied distinct modalities, including verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, naturalistic, spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and existential.

Information Processing Model

A cognitive model conceptualizing the human mind as actively taking in (input), organizing/storing (processing), and expressing (output) information through sensory, working, and long-term memory.

Metacognition

The awareness and understanding of one's own thinking processes, involving planning, monitoring, and self-regulating learning strategies.

Constructivism

A learning perspective emphasizing the active role of the learner in constructing knowledge and building meaning rather than passively receiving transmitted information.

Contextualism

The view that thought and experience are intertwined with the specific social and environmental context in which they occur.

Classroom Discourse

The coherent, structured sequence of spoken or written language used by teachers and learners to mediate instruction and negotiate meaning.

Curriculum

Derived from Latin currere ('run'), referring broadly to all planned and guided learning experiences, aims, content, methodology, and assessment provided by a school.

Syllabus

A concise statement or table of contents setting out the list of topics, headings, and subject content to be covered.

Official (Intended) Curriculum

The prescribed curriculum plan or blueprint established by educational authorities detailing explicit learning goals and content.

Enacted Curriculum

The nonofficial, implicit curriculum as actually implemented and experienced in classroom practice by teachers and learners.

Covert Curriculum

Teaching that is implicit but deliberate on the part of an educator or school to develop specific attitudes and skills (e.g., play in early childhood education).

Hidden Curriculum

Unintended, implicit learning that occurs through spending time in the social and physical environment of schools and classrooms.

Assessed Curriculum

The specific knowledge and skills measured to determine learner achievement or outcome attainment.

Organising Principle

The central reference point or framework used to select, sequence, structure, pace, and assess content and knowledge in a curriculum.

Tyler's Curriculum Model

A linear, technical-production model of curriculum design organized sequentially around defining objectives, selecting experiences, organizing experiences, and evaluating outcomes.

Stenhouse's Curriculum Model

A process-based approach to curriculum viewing proposals as descriptive suggestions subject to ongoing change through research conducted by the 'teacher as researcher'.

Freire's Curriculum Approach

A pragmatic, political curriculum approach focusing on dialogue, conscientisation, and social/intellectual liberation for marginalized learners.

Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS)

The single comprehensive national policy document in South Africa adjusting content outlines, specific aims, and assessment requirements per subject for Grades R-12.

Learning Programme

A phase-long process for planning, managing, and organizing classroom teaching, learning, and assessment across grades.

Assessment

The process of collecting, analysing, and interpreting information to assist in making decisions about learner progress and performance.

Evaluation

The systematic acquisition and assessment of evidence to judge the overall worth, merit, or progress of a performance, product, or program.

Formative Assessment

Process-oriented daily assessment aimed at monitoring learning, providing feedback, and deepening understanding during the instructional event.

Summative Assessment

Product-oriented assessment conducted at the conclusion of an instructional period to grade, certify, or measure overall achievement.

Assessment for Learning (AFL)

Assessment practices focused on continuous improvement, integrating constructive feedback into dialogue to assist learners in self-regulating and deepening their learning.

Assessment of Learning (AOL)

Standardized or high-stakes testing conducted primarily to evaluate, certify, and report what learners have achieved at specific milestone points.

Traditional Model of Assessment

An assessment model focused on measuring student acquisition and exact reproduction of taught information against fixed scoring keys.

Criterion-referenced Model

An assessment model where learner performance is judged directly against pre-specified standards or criteria rather than compared to peers.

Norm-referenced Model

An assessment model that evaluates and ranks a learner's performance by comparing it directly to the average performance of peers in the same class or cohort.

Constructive Alignment

John Biggs' design principle ensuring that learning outcomes, learning activities, and assessment methods are explicitly aligned with one another.

Deep Learning Approach

Learning with the active intention to develop personal understanding, relate new ideas to prior knowledge, integrate principles, and evaluate evidence.

Surface Learning Approach

Learning focused on passively memorising and reproducing content as required by assessment criteria without understanding underlying patterns.

Authentic Assessment

Assessment tasks requiring higher-order thinking and practical integration in realistic, real-world contexts (e.g., portfolios, presentations).

Self-assessment

The process wherein learners judge their own performance, take ownership of their learning, and identify areas for improvement against established criteria.

Peer Assessment

The process wherein learners evaluate and provide feedback on the work of their classmates using shared criteria, acting as instructional resources for one another.

Rubric

A transparent scoring tool containing criteria and descriptors along a performance continuum used to evaluate complex learner tasks.

Dynamic Assessment

An interactive assessment framework based on a test-teach-retest model to evaluate a learner's potential level of achievement and ZPD.

Inclusive Education

The practice and process of creating supportive classrooms and schools that welcome and meet the diverse needs of all learners, regardless of background or ability.

Traditional Medical Model

An educational discourse viewing learning difficulties as objective, inherent deficits or impairments within individual learners that require segregated clinical treatment.

Social Rights Model

A holistic educational discourse viewing education as a human right, attributing learning barriers to systemic factors and advocating institutional transformation and inclusion.

White Paper 6

The South African policy document on Special Needs Education outlining strategies to build an inclusive education system through converted resource centres, full-service schools, and district support teams.

Full-service Schools

Ordinary schools specially resourced and equipped to address a wide range of barriers to learning within an inclusive education setting.

District-Based Support Teams (DBSTs)

Departmental professional teams that promote inclusive education by offering training, curriculum support, resource distribution, and management to assist schools in addressing learning barriers.

Institution-Level Support Teams (ILSTs)

Teams established at learning centers to coordinate support services for internal learners, teachers, and school structures.

Amanuensis

An assessment accommodation practice wherein a scribe writes down dictated responses for a learner who experiences physical or writing barriers.

Bio-ecological Model

Bronfenbrenner's model explaining human development through dynamic, reciprocal interactions between individual person factors, process factors, context, and time across environmental systems.