You will find that educators use educational terms in many different
ways. The following terms can help you understand how terms have been
used in this manual.
| anecdotal |
Containing anecdotes, which are short narratives
of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. |
| approaches |
Approaches describe a general philosophy or paradigm from
which an instructional model is developed. An example might be holistic versus behavioristic approaches
to teaching and learning. See entries for holistic and behavioristic. |
| behavioristic |
Behavioristic approaches to learning focus on
the outcome behaviors as separate skills that have been mastered. |
| branching |
Branching is a technique for organizing ideas
in which the student writes the topic in the middle of the page and
then connects ideas to this topic.
|
| dyslexia |
A learning disability characterized by confusion
when reading printed text, thus making it difficult to successfully
develop reading skills.
|
| holistic |
Holistic approaches to learning look at the
combination of all effects of learning - attitudinal changes, skills
mastered, changes in self-confidence, and all other results of
a learning experience.
|
| manipulatives |
Learning aids that students can touch, feel,
hold. An example would be to measure the top of a classroom table
to learn the concept of length, width, area, and so forth.
|
| metacognition |
Metacognition is the act of being aware of
one's own thought processes.
|
| methods |
Methods are ways of organizing people for
learning - as individuals, as small groups, or as total groups. |
| model |
To model is to show by example. |
| paradigm |
An especially clear example; a standard. |
| paraphrase |
To restate or explain in your own words the
text from a passage or work of poetry or prose. |
| personal dictionary |
A notebook for writing and keeping new words
and their definitions as they are encountered in any reading activity
or situation. |
| portfolios |
Collections of students' own work which they
keep. Teachers can collect portfolios to assess and evaluation
them. Grades should not be assigned to portfolios because they
are more "works in progress." |
| skills |
Skills are learner outcomes - the abilities
of learners that can be observed. |
| techniques (strategies) |
Techniques or strategies refer to ways of
organizing the interaction of learners and curriculum content.
Examples include - language experience stories, free writing, story
mapping, and so forth. |
| Web and cluster |
Use Use Webs and clusters for organizing thoughts.
A Web has a center, the main idea, with outlying topics and subtopics.
A cluster is like a cluster of grapes with the stem, the main idea,
and the grapes, the topics and subtopics. |
Note: The International Reading Association is compiling an annotated
glossary of adult education terms. This glossary will be included with
a future revision of The Adult Basic Education Toolkit.
