Foundations of Education

Adaptations

The changes made by a teacher candidate to a lesson or assessment components, usually to the lesson format or to a test that allows students to participate in the lesson or the assessment.

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP):

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires all schools, districts/local education agencies (LEAs), and states to
show that students are making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The law requires a set target for all students and student subgroups to meet in a progressive nature that would result in all students scoring at or above the proficient level on the state’s assessment by 2014.

Assessment:

A process of observing, monitoring, measuring, analyzing, evaluating, documenting, and reflecting for the purpose of adjusting teaching to impact learning, resulting in improved performance.

Large-scale assessments:

Assessments which are developed by testing experts,
standardized, and administered to individuals across the state or country (e.g. Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test, NAEP, SAT/ACT).

Classroom assessments:

Assessments used by teachers to support and evaluate
learning in their classrooms (e.g. essays, unit tests, science projects).

Diagnostic assessment:

A process of gathering information about students’ prior
knowledge and understandings before instruction begins.

Formative assessment:

A process for gathering evidence of student learning while
instruction is taking place; that evidence is then used to adapt the instruction to meet the learning needs.

Summative assessment:

A process for evaluating student learning at the culmination of a specific body of learning or a given period of time to determine if the intended learning goals have been met.

Formal assessment:

A process for gathering evidence of student learning to make
general instructional decisions using a standardized, published test or instrument that includes specific procedures for administration and interpretation.

Informal assessment:

A process for gathering evidence of student learning to make
general instructional decisions using casual, informal techniques that do not require specified procedures for administration and interpretation.

Assessment tool:

An instrument used to measure intended student learning
formally or informally.

Baseline data:

A collection of measurement (e.g., facts and statistics), collected
before intervention or before the start of teaching that can be used for planning or analysis. This data can be collected through various measures (e.g. percent accuracy, rate and intervals, frequency, and duration). Baseline data (e.g., facts and statistics) should always depict the data that has been extracted from the method of assessment (e.g. pre-test, survey, oral fluency, writing sample) and serve as a starting point for instruction. Its purpose is to be described and referenced before the lesson(s) to compare what the students learned after the lesson(s).

Classroom demographics:

The makeup of a classroom in terms of the diversity of
the students.

Classroom management:

The wide variety of skills and techniques that teacher candidates use to keep students organized, orderly, focused, attentive, on task, and academically productive.

Content-area vocabulary:

Academic language (words) used for the subject being studied; the particular language of the content area or discipline that is used in the classroom, in curricular materials, and in presentations.

Constructivism:

A learning theory based on the idea that learners are not passive
observers; they actively shape and sculpt information and create meaning and understanding.

Cultural and linguistic assets:

Perceiving students’ cultural and linguistic differences as strengths and resources as opposed to challenges and problems. Leveraging students’ cultural and linguistic assets (e.g., prior cultural knowledge, community/cultural/familial experiences, bilingualism, etc.) can help support the development of a learning experience that is engaging, personalized, and meaningful.

Differentiation:

Different or altered learning activities employed by the teacher
candidate within a lesson to meet the needs of students, allowing them to process constructs or make sense of concepts and ideas.

Diversity:

The differences among groups of people and individuals based on age, gender, culture, language, race, ethnicity, religion, exceptionalities, or socioeconomic status.

English-language learner (ELL):

A student who uses a primary language other than English, and who is developing proficiency in English.

Evidence of learning:

The data gathered through formal and informal assessment strategies that demonstrate student progress toward the learning goals.

Flexible grouping:

The range of instructional options for instruction, including whole class, small group, and independent activities.

Funds of knowledge:

Knowledge and skills that have been collected and developed through experiences with one’s family, community, and/or culture and represent a critical, functional component of daily life (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). Examples include knowledge and skills related to agriculture, business, household management, construction, repair, and medicine (contemporary or folk).

Graphic representations of collected data:

A visual way that data have been gathered and visually displayed (e.g., spreadsheet, graph, pie chart, scatter gram, color coding).

Higher-order thinking:

Critical, reasonable, reflective thinking that goes beyond basic observation of facts and memorization; it focuses on deciding what to believe or do by questioning assumptions and using a process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information.

Individualized Education Program (IEP):

A plan created in accordance with the law to guarantee that a child who has a disability receives specialized instruction and related services.

Instructional challenges:

Identified difficulties during instruction that need to be addressed to best meet the needs of all learners.

Instructional decision making:

The use of student achievement data to support the choice of instructional strategies used. This can be done before, during, or after a lesson.

Knowledge of students:

Knowledge of students means that educators continue to acquire information about students’ daily cultural practices, lived experiences, home language(s), ways they communicate their ideas and opinions, unique gifts, talents, and learning needs to inform the design of a rigorous, relevant, and student-centered instructional program.

Learning activities:

The experiences (e.g., lab work, classroom stations, small group work, large group discussions) provided to students that support and facilitate student learning.

Learning environment:

A well-designed learning environment is one that is created by educators with their students to include mutually agreed-upon norms, agreements, and affirmations that support warm, inclusive, and welcoming interactions.

Learning goals:

The intended learning that students should master, based on standards and curriculum, as a result of instruction.

Learner needs:

The identified needs of individual students or subgroups, as determined by daily observation and assessment data, that suggest modifications to instruction. For example, if a student cannot sit still for very long, the teacher candidate will allow the student to stand. For visual and auditory learners, the teacher candidate will show and tell students the instructions.

Learning outcomes:

Statements that describe the learning that students will or have accomplished and can reliably demonstrate. Learning outcomes may include knowledge, skills, and dispositions and are more specific than goals.

Learning theory:

The conceptual frameworks (e.g. constructivism, sociocultural theory) that explain how information is taken in, processed, and remembered during learning.

Lived experiences:

Cumulative knowledge about the self, others, and the world gained through first-hand personal involvement, rather than second- or third-hand accounts.

Modifications:

The small changes made to the instruction by a teacher candidate to facilitate learning for specific students’ needs (e.g., moving a student to the front of the room).

Monitor:

A way to continuously track how students are doing academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally.

Multidimensional tasks:

Complex educational activities for students which…

a. include more than one answer or more than one way to solve the problem;

b. are intrinsically interesting and rewarding;

c. allow different students to make different contributions;

d. use multimedia;

e. involve sight, sound, and touch;

f. require a variety of skills and behaviors;

g. require reading and writing;

h. and are challenging.

Prior knowledge:

Students’ pre-existing knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes, which influence how they attend, interpret, and organize incoming information.

Protocols, norms, and agreements:

Guidelines and “contracts” co-defined by both educators and students that help shape the classroom community and build trusting, supportive relationships. Can include agreed-upon understandings on how to treat one another, engage in discussions, what is “okay” and what is “not okay”, etc.

Research-based instructional strategies:

Approaches that are grounded in recent, quality research and used by the teacher candidate in the classroom to meet the learning needs of the students and improve achievement.

Rubric:

Written criteria for evaluating a performance that indicate the qualities by which levels of performance can be differentiated and that anchor judgments about the degree of success on an assessment.

InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers:

These standards articulate expectations of performance for the professional educators. The standards are based on theories of teaching and learning and share the expectation that educators will continuously acquire new academic achievement for all students. They are based on a developmental sequence that defines a professional continuum that illustrates how educators’ knowledge and skills mature and strengthen throughout their career. Professional teachers and leaders are expected to exercise good professional judgment and use the standards to inform and improve their own practices.

Scaffolds:

Temporary instructional supports (e.g. activating prior knowledge, modeling new skills, mapping concepts) that teachers put in place to help students accomplish new tasks and develop new understandings they could not typically achieve on their own.

Sociocultural theory:

A learning theory that suggests social interaction and cultural environment play a pivotal role in learners’ cognitive development.

Student engagement:

A psychological investment by the students in learning that goes beyond earning formal indicators of success to incorporating and internalizing content and understanding. Engaged students typically appear willing, interested, and involved and gain satisfaction from their accomplishments.

Student teaching:

Pre-service clinical practices for professional education candidates who are preparing to teach.

Supportive interactions:

The ways a teacher provides emotional and/or academic classroom support to help children develop and feel comfortable in the classroom. This could include teacher sensitivity, classroom behavior, and cognitive/instructional development through concept development, feedback, and modeling.

Teacher candidate:

An individual enrolled in a program at the baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate level leading to initial licensure/certification as a classroom teacher.