BORIGLOS.doc - 1 Glossary ABC model of learning. A model that considers antecedents in the environment that elicit desired behavior, which is then strengthened when followed by appropriate consequences. Accelerated curriculum. Programs for the gifted and talented that offer advanced courses and/or grade skipping. Accommodation. Altering or adjusting cognitive structures affected by new information. Active listening. A technique whereby the listener summarizes essential aspects of what the speaker has tried to say or the feeling the speaker tried to convey. Active responding. Learner behavior that emphasizes asserting, volunteering, or actively seeking out information. Adaptation. As identified by Piaget, a central drive of humans to adapt to the world as they experience it. Adaptive behavior. Skills that most people learn without formal instruction, such as personal care, feeding, and social skills. Advance organizer. A summary of the concepts, generalizations, and themes to be learned, presented at a general and inclusive level. Affectional bonds. Long-lasting bonds between a child and a parent. Age-equivalent scores. The obtained scores of those in a norming sample who are of various ages. Antecedents. Stimuli present in an environment that make a behavior more likely to occur. Anticipatory set. An organized framework usually presented to learners at the beginning of a lesson that helps them relate past with present learning and that places the lesson into a context that the learners can relate to and focus on. Applied behavior analysis. An approach to classroom management that applies behavioristic principles to modify behavior in socially important areas. Assimilation. Expanding or enriching cognitive structures with new information or perceptions. BORIGLOS.doc - 2 Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A disorder that has its onset before age 7, lasts at least six months, and is characterized by an inability to sustain attention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, and deficits in rule-governed behavior. Attention deficit. Difficulty staying with or completing an activity over a period of time; becoming easily bored and uninterested in activities relative to others. Attribution theory. A perspective on motivation that assumes that people seek to understand why they succeed or fail. Authentic assessment. Testing that covers the content that was taught in the manner in which it was taught and that targets specific behaviors that have applicability to advanced courses, other programs of study, or careers. Authentic problems. Problems encountered in the real world for which the expected solution is uncertain and the task then yields multiple solutions, each with advantages and disadvantages. Automaticity. Learning a procedure so thoroughly that it can be carried out quickly with little thinking or effort. Behavioral schemata. Patterns of action or sequences of behavior that the child uses to explore and respond to objects in her environment. Behavioral setting. The immediate environment in which a behavior occurs. Behaviorism. A school of thought in psychology whose cardinal tenet is that any conclusion made about human development must be based on scientific observations of overt behavior and the observable events that strengthen and elicit it. Case study. An intensive study of persons or situations singly or in small numbers. Categorization. The process by which the mind simplifies information that enters short-term memory. Causal schemata. Beliefs about the sequential nature of observed data in which effects are attributed to causes. Centering. The questioning by a member of a group about how that individual will personally benefit from the group; a preoccupation with fairness. BORIGLOS.doc - 3 Classical conditioning. The process by which an unconditioned, neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response are paired repeatedly to become a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response. Classroom management tradition. An approach emphasizing the organization and management of instructional activities in order to prevent misbehavior. Clinical method. Research that studies a small group of subjects in everyday, natural settings. Coaching. An aspect of instruction by which the teacher helps learners master particular skills through the skillful use of practice and prompts. Coercive power. Leadership based on punishment or coercion. Cognitive apprenticeship. The notion that learners can best become more skilled at gathering and using knowledge for themselves by observing experts. Cognitive strategies. General methods of thinking that improve learning across a variety of subject areas. Cognitive style. The means by which individuals process and think about what they learn. Commanding stimuli appeal. The use of assertive commands or statements by an instructor to focus learner attention. Communication disability. An impairment that involves speech, language, vision, or hearing. Comprehension monitoring. Cognitive strategies that help learners derive meaning from what they read. Conceptual conflict. The result when our existing beliefs or ways of explaining things don’t produce the outcomes we predicted. Concerns theory. A view that conceptualizes the teacher’s growth and development as a process of passing through concerns for self (teacher) to task (teaching) to impact (pupil). Concrete operational stage. The third of Piaget’s cognitive developmental stages, characterized by an understanding of the laws of conservation and a readiness to engage in other mental operations using concrete stimuli. BORIGLOS.doc - 4 Conditioned response. In classical conditioning, a response that is elicited by some previously neutral stimulus; occurs by pairing the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned stimulus. A stimulus that through the conditioning process has acquired the power to generate a conditioned response. Congruent communication. Communication that uses statements that are directed at a learner’s actions, that reflect an accurate or honest evaluation of learner performance, that help learners believe in themselves and their own abilities, and that attribute learner achievement to internal rather than external factors. Consequences. Stimuli or events that follow behavior; consequences can be negative or positive. Constructivism. An approach to learning in which learners are provided the opportunity to construct their own sense of what is being learned by building internal connections or relationships among the ideas and facts being taught. Content validity. A measure of the degree to which a test covers all the content that was taught in the manner in which it was taught. Continuous reinforcement schedule. Reinforcement of every occurrence of a behavior. Control group. The baseline group against whom changes in the experimental group are compared. The experimental group’s stimulus is withheld from the control group. Cooperative learning. A teaching method that uses heterogeneous groups of learners who are responsible for one another’s learning with respect to a common goal. Cooperative learning. The assignment of students of varying abilities and ethnicities and of both genders to small groups with a common goal in which each member has a role. Correlational study. Research that tries to determine whether a relationship exists between two variables. Correlation coefficient. A numerical index on a −1.0 to +1.0 scale that indicates the degree to which two sets of scores are related. Criterion-referenced grading. The linking of grades to a standard of mastery or achievement. BORIGLOS.doc - 5 Cultural compatibility. The goal of designing instruction to incorporate relevant features of the learners’ culture. Culturally responsive teaching. Instructional methods designed to be compatible with the learning and cognitive styles of a particular ethnic or cultural group. Decay theory. A theory that holds that information dissolves or dissipates from our working memory unless it is rehearsed. Declarative knowledge. Verbal information: the facts, concepts, principles, and theories we learn from lectures, studying textbooks, or watching television. Deficiency/growth needs theory. A theory of motivation that posits that humans have an innate hierarchy of needs that drives all activity. Deficit model. A view of parent participation that assigns the blame for the lack of participation on parents attitudes, temperament, and conditions. Dependent variable. The variable that is the presumed effect of an independent variable. Descriptive research. A means of measuring variables through questionnaires, interviews, or systematic observation, or a combination of these practices. Developmental stage. A period of development during which a person’s physical, mental, or psychological functioning is different from the periods preceding and following it. Developmental theories. Theoretical approaches for explaining the process of human development. The four major theories are biological, learning, cognitive-developmental, and psychoanalytic. Direct explanation teaching. A variety of teaching methods that make explicit to learners at the outset of a lesson the academic competencies, strategies, generalizations, or procedures to be taught. Direct instruction. Instructional methods that present information explicitly through lecturing, questioning, and demonstration. Direct instruction is particularly suited to the acquisition of facts, rules, and action sequences. BORIGLOS.doc - 6 Discovery learning. The organization of knowledge