Glossary of Education Terms

A

Anchor chart: A piece of paper or display, often co-created with the class, that 'anchors' a key concept or routine. Stays up so children can refer back to it. (e.g. an anchor chart for the steps of long division.)
Assessment, formative: Quick, low-stakes checks of understanding DURING learning — exit tickets, quick quizzes, mini-whiteboards. The point is to inform what you teach next, not to grade.
Assessment, summative: An end-of-unit or end-of-term check — a test, a final piece of writing — that measures what was learned. Higher stakes than formative.

B

Behavior chart: A class- or individual-level system tracking behavior. Modern practice favors STRENGTHS-based charts that record what's going well, rather than tally-of-failures versions.
Blended learning: Mixing classroom teaching with online or digital resources. Most schools do at least some of this now.

C

CEW (Common-exception words): UK term for 'sight words' — high-frequency words that don't follow regular phonics rules. Children learn them by sight.
Choral response: When the whole class answers a question in unison. Useful for retrieval practice, useless for assessment of individual children.
Cognitive load: How much information a brain can hold and process at once. Effective teaching keeps cognitive load manageable — too much new information at once and learning stops.
Cold call: Picking a student to answer when their hand is NOT up. Used to keep all students thinking. Should always be done warmly, not as 'gotcha'.
Common Core: A US set of academic standards in math and English language arts, used in most US states. Tells you WHAT a Grade 3 child should know, not HOW to teach it.

D

Differentiation: Adjusting your teaching so different children get what they need — through different tasks, different support, or different challenges. Not the same as making the work easier.
Dyslexia: A specific learning difficulty affecting reading and spelling. Has nothing to do with intelligence. Children with dyslexia benefit from explicit phonics, multisensory teaching, and time.

E

ELL (English Language Learner): A student whose first language isn't English. Some schools say ESL (English as a Second Language) or EAL (English as an Additional Language).
Exit ticket: A short written response at the end of a lesson — typically 1–3 questions or a self-assessment. Tells the teacher who got it and who didn't.

F

Feedback, whole-class: Reading the class's work, listing common strengths and errors, then teaching to those points the next lesson. Hugely time-saving compared to individual marking.
Fluency: Being able to read or compute SMOOTHLY and AUTOMATICALLY. The goal isn't speed for speed's sake — it's that automatic skills free up cognitive load for the harder thinking.

G

Growth mindset: The belief that abilities can be DEVELOPED through effort and practice. Coined by Carol Dweck. Often misused to mean 'just believe and you'll succeed' — actually requires deliberate practice.
Guided reading: A small-group reading session where the teacher works closely with a few children at a similar reading level.

H

High-leverage practice: A teaching action that consistently produces big results — like clear modeling, retrieval practice, or one-thing-at-a-time feedback. As opposed to fashionable but lower-impact practices.

I

I do — we do — you do: A common modeling sequence. The teacher does it (I do); the class does it together (we do); each child does it alone (you do). Builds independence gradually.
IEP (Individualized Education Plan): A formal document outlining the goals, supports, and accommodations for a student with special educational needs. Reviewed regularly. Schools and parents work together.
Inclusion: Designing teaching so every child — regardless of need or background — can access and succeed. More than 'putting them in the same room'.
Inquiry-based learning: An approach where children explore questions and topics, often with significant choice. Works well WITH solid foundational teaching; can backfire as a substitute for it.

K

Kinesthetic: Learning that involves physical movement. Useful for some content (music, PE, science investigations) but not a 'learning style' to be matched to specific children — research has not supported that claim.

L

Learning objective (LO): What the children should KNOW, UNDERSTAND or be able to DO by the end of the lesson. Often shared at the start. The clearer it is, the more focused the lesson.

M

Manipulatives: Physical objects that children handle to learn — counters, cubes, fraction strips, number lines. Especially useful in early math.
Metacognition: Thinking about your own thinking. A child who can reflect on HOW they solve problems, not just solve them, learns much faster.
Modeling: Demonstrating exactly how to do something, in front of the class, talking out loud as you go. One of the highest-impact teaching practices, often underused.

N

Norm-referenced: A test where your score is compared to other test-takers (you're 'above average' or 'in the 80th percentile'). Different from criterion-referenced, which compares you to a standard.

O

Open-ended question: A question with multiple possible answers, requiring thought rather than recall. 'Why do you think the character did that?' is open-ended; 'what's their name?' isn't.

P

Phonics: Teaching reading by mapping LETTERS to SOUNDS and blending them. Strongly supported by research as the most effective way to teach decoding to most children.
Plenary: The wrap-up part of a lesson — typically the last 5 minutes — where you check what was learned and consolidate.

R

Retrieval practice: Pulling information OUT of memory (via quizzes, brain dumps, paired discussion) rather than reading it again. One of the best-supported teaching strategies. See: testing effect.
Rubric: A scoring guide that tells children (and parents) exactly what good work looks like — usually a grid of criteria and levels.

S

Scaffolding: Temporary support that helps a child do something they couldn't yet do alone — like training wheels. Removed gradually as the child gains independence.
Scope and sequence: A document showing what you teach and in what order across a year (or several years). Curriculum at a glance.
SEN / SEND: Special Educational Needs (and Disabilities). Umbrella terms for any need that requires extra support — learning, behavioral, sensory, emotional, physical.
Spaced practice: Spreading practice OUT across days/weeks instead of cramming. Much more effective for long-term memory than massed practice.
STEAM / STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts), Math. A bundle of subjects often taught with cross-curricular projects.

T

Testing effect: The well-documented finding that being TESTED on material produces better long-term memory than re-studying the same material. Underpins retrieval practice.
Think-pair-share: Pose a question. Children think alone (30 sec). Then pair up and share (60 sec). Then class discussion. Massively raises participation.
Tier 1 / 2 / 3 vocabulary: Tier 1 = everyday words ('cup'). Tier 2 = high-utility academic words ('analyze'). Tier 3 = subject-specific terms ('mitosis'). Most teaching focuses on Tier 2.

U

UDL (Universal Design for Learning): An approach to designing lessons that work for the WIDEST range of learners by default — multiple ways to engage, multiple ways to represent content, multiple ways to show learning.

W

Working memory: The mental scratchpad where you hold information you're currently using. Limited capacity (usually 4–7 items at once). Overload it, and learning stops. Children's working memory is smaller than adults'.

Z

Zone of proximal development (ZPD): The space between what a child can do alone and what they could do with help. Sweet spot for teaching — too easy is boring, too hard is overwhelming. Coined by Lev Vygotsky.

Glossary of education terms.

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H

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O

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Z

What best describes you?