The Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning fosters excellence in teaching and learning at Mars Hill University by providing resources, enrichment opportunities, faculty development, and strategies that support quality and innovative instruction.
Active learning refers to a broad range of teaching strategies which engage students as active participants in their learning during class time with their instructor. Typically, these strategies involve some amount of students working together during class, but may also involve individual work and/or reflection. These teaching approaches range from short, simple activities like journal writing, problem solving and paired discussions, to longer, involved activities or pedagogical frameworks like case studies, role plays, and structured team-based learning.
Definition from: https://cei.umn.edu/active-learning
In education, the term assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational needs of students.
Asynchronous learning is a general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that do not occur in the same place or at the same time.
The term at-risk is often used to describe students or groups of students who are considered to have a higher probability of failing academically or dropping out of school. The term may be applied to students who face circumstances that could jeopardize their ability to complete school, such as homelessness, incarceration, teenage pregnancy, serious health issues, domestic violence, transiency (as in the case of migrant-worker families), or other conditions, or it may refer to learning disabilities, low test scores, disciplinary problems, grade retentions, or other learning-related factors that could adversely affect the educational performance and attainment of some students.
In education, the term authentic learning refers to a wide variety of educational and instructional techniques focused on connecting what students are taught in our classes to real-world issues, problems, and applications. It could also refer to leaning in the real-world setting that the skills will be applied.
Backward design, also called backward planning or backward mapping, is a process that educators use to design leaning activities and experiences and instructional techniques to achieve specific learning goals. Backward design begins with the objectives of a unit or course—what students are expected to learn and be able to do—and then proceeds “backward” to create opportunities for students to achieve those desired goals.
The term blended learning is generally applied to the practice of using both online and face-to-face learning experiences when teaching students. In a blended-learning course, for example, students might attend a class taught by a professor in a traditional classroom setting, while also independently completing online components of the course outside of the classroom
Bloom’s taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding. Educators have typically used Bloom’s taxonomy to inform or guide the development of assessments, instruction, and trajectories of learning.
Brain-based learning refers to teaching methods, lesson designs, and school programs that are based on the latest scientific research about how the brain learns, including such factors as cognitive development—how students learn differently as they age, grow, and mature socially, emotionally, and cognitively.
Classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to keep students on-task, organized, focused, attentive, engaged, and academically productive during a class.
A classroom observation is a formal or informal observation of teaching while it is taking place in a classroom or other environment. Typically conducted by fellow teachers or instructional specialists. Classroom observations are often used to provide teachers with constructive critical feedback aimed at improving instructional techniques.
Community-based learning refers to a wide variety of instructional methods and programs that educators use to connect what is being taught in schools to their surrounding communities, including local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and natural environments.
source: https://www.edglossary.org/community-based-learning/
In education, the term continuous improvement refers to any school- or instructional-improvement process that unfolds progressively, that does not have a fixed or predetermined end point, and that is sustained over extended periods of time.
Criterion-referenced tests and assessment activities are designed to measure student performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or standards.
The term demonstration of learning refers to a wide variety of potential educational projects, presentations, or products through which students “demonstrate” what they have learned, usually as a way of determining whether and to what degree they have achieved the expected course and university student learning outcomes.
Differentiation refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course or classroom.
In general usage, the term direct instruction refers to instructional approaches that are structured, sequenced, and directly taught to students.
In education, the term equity refers to the principle of fairness. While it is often used interchangeably with the related principle of equality, equity encompasses a wide variety of educational models, programs, and strategies that may be considered fair, but not necessarily equal. It is has been said that “equity is the process; equality is the outcome,” given that equity (what is fair and just) may not, in the process of educating students, reflect strict equality (what is applied, allocated, or distributed equally).
Source: https://www.edglossary.org/equity/
A widely used adjective in education, evidence-based refers to any concept or strategy that is derived from or informed by objective evidence—most commonly, educational research or metrics of school, teacher, and student performance.
Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or have not learned yet.
A mindset, according to Dweck, is a self-perception or “self-theory” that people hold about themselves. Believing that you are either “intelligent” or “unintelligent” is a simple example of a mindset. People may also have a mindset related to their personal or professional lives—“I’m a good teacher” or “I’m a bad parent,” for example. People can be aware or unaware of their mindsets, according to Dweck, but they can have a profound effect on learning achievement, skill acquisition, personal relationships, professional success, and many other dimensions of life.
An interim assessment is a form of evaluation that educators use to (1) evaluate where students are in their learning progress and (2) determine whether they are on track to performing well on future assessments like the end-of-course exams.
Learning environment refers to the diverse physical locations, contexts, and cultures in which students learn.
When used in the singular, learning pathway refers to the specific courses, academic programs, and experiences that individual students complete as they progress in their education toward graduation.
Learning trajectories and progressions often refer to the cumulative development of learning of a specific subject. The term learning progression refers to the purposeful sequencing of teaching and learning expectations across multiple developmental stages, ages, or grade levels. They outline what skills are prerequisite for other skills and what skills should follow.
Educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic-support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students. Also called student-centered learning.
More at: https://www.edglossary.org/student-centered-learning/
Locus of control is a psychological concept that refers to how strongly people believe they have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives. In education, locus of control typically refers to how students perceive the causes of their academic success or failure in school.
Mastery-based learning refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education.
Measurement error in education generally refers to either (1) the difference between what a test score indicates and a student’s actual knowledge and abilities or (2) errors that are introduced when collecting and calculating data-based reports, figures, and statistics related to schools and students.
Source: https://www.edglossary.org/measurement-error/
Multicultural education refers to any form of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds.
Norm-referenced refers to standardized tests that are designed to compare and rank test takers in relation to one another. Norm-referenced tests report whether test takers performed better or worse than a hypothetical average student, which is determined by comparing scores against the performance results of a statistically selected group of test takers, typically of the same age or grade level, who have already taken the exam.
The term opportunity gap refers to the ways in which race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, familial situations, or other factors contribute to or perpetuate lower educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment for certain groups of students.
The study of teaching, including research both on how students learn and best practices by educators.
In education, the term professional development may be used in reference to a wide variety of specialized training, formal education, or advanced professional learning intended to help administrators, teachers, and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skills, and effectiveness.
A professional learning community, or PLC, is a group of educators who meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students. The term is also applied to schools or teaching faculties that use small-group collaboration as a form of professional development.
Project-based learning refers to any programmatic or instructional approach that utilizes multifaceted projects as a central organizing strategy for educating students. When engaged in project-based learning, students will typically be assigned a project or series of projects that require them to use diverse skills—such as researching, writing, interviewing, collaborating, or public speaking—to produce various work products, such as research papers, scientific studies, public-policy proposals, multimedia presentations, video documentaries, art installations, or musical and theatrical performances, for example. Unlike exams, homework assignments, and other more traditional forms of academic coursework, the execution and completion of a project may take several weeks or months, or it may even unfold over the course of a semester or year.
In education, the term relevance typically refers to learning experiences that are either directly applicable to the personal aspirations, interests, or cultural experiences of students (personal relevance) or that are connected in some way to real-world issues, problems, and contexts (life relevance).
Source: https://www.edglossary.org/relevance/
The term rigor is widely used by educators to describe instruction, schoolwork, learning experiences, and educational expectations that are academically, intellectually, and personally challenging.
A rubric is typically an evaluation tool or set of guidelines used to promote the consistent application of learning expectations, SLOs in the classroom, or to measure their attainment against a consistent set of criteria. These provide a useful tool to use in formative assessments.
In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. This can be thought of as the effective teaching cycle:
1) where the teacher models the task
2) then the students and teacher do it together
3) then the students do it on their own in groups
4) finally, they do the work independently.
Stereotype threat refers to the risk of confirming negative stereotypes about an individual’s racial, ethnic, gender, or cultural group.
In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.
Source: https://www.edglossary.org/student-engagement/
The term student learning outcomes typically refers to the desired course outcomes that an instructor intends for students to achieve.
Educational programs, experiences, instructional approaches, and supports that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students. Also called learning-centered teaching.
More at: https://www.edglossary.org/student-centered-learning/
Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year.
Synchronous learning is a general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that occur at the same time, but not in the same place.
Educational tests are considered biased if a test design, or the way results are interpreted and used, systematically disadvantages certain groups of students over others, such as students of color, students from lower-income backgrounds, students who are not proficient in the English language, or students who are not fluent in certain cultural customs and traditions.
Value-added measures, or growth measures, are used to estimate or quantify how much of a positive (or negative) effect individual teachers have on student learning during a course.