A
Academic – Occupation Integration: means connecting academic knowledge and skills to work – related applications
Achievement: this takes into account the standards of attainment reached by pupils and the progress they have made to reach those standards
Anchored Instruction: is a technology-based learning approach which stresses the importance of placing learning within a meaningful, problem-solving context. A form of situated learning, anchored instruction uses context– stories or micro— to situate the learning and application of knowledge.
Assessment as Learning: Assessment as learning actively involves students’ reflection on their learning and monitoring of their own progress. It focuses on the role of the student as the critical connector between assessment and learning, thereby developing and supporting metacognition in students.
Assessment for Learning: Assessment for learning involves frequent, interactive assessments designed to make student understanding visible. This enables teachers to identify learning needs and adjust teaching accordingly. It is an ongoing process of teaching and learning.
Assessment of Learning: Assessment of learning involves strategies to confirm what students know, demonstrate whether or not they have met curriculum outcomes, or to certify proficiency and make decisions about students’ future learning needs.
Attained Curriculum: Attained Curriculum refers to the student outcomes based from the intended and implemented curriculum. It is described as performance indicators measured by different assessment tools.
Attainment: this is the standard of academic attainment, typically shown by test and examination results
B
Bodily/Kinesthetic Learner: The ability to handle one’s body with skill and control, such as dancers, sports stars, and craftspeople. Students who excel in this intelligence are often hands-on learners. Activities related to this intelligence include the use of manipulative, involvement with hands-on activities (weighing, measuring, building), and permitting students to participate in activities that require movement or relate physical movements to mathematical concepts.
C
Classroom Assessment and Reflection: the teacher and student collaboratively gather information and reflect on learning through a systematic process that informs instruction.
Constructivism: Constructivism is a theory of knowledge founded by Jean Piaget. This theory argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from interaction between their experiences and ideas. Audrey Gray said that in a constructivist classroom, the learners are actively involved, the environment is democratic, the activities are interactive and student – centered, and the teacher facilitates a process of learning in which students are encouraged to be responsible and autonomous.
Contextual Teaching and Learning: is the integration of knowledge into real life applications. It is the translation of theoretically-based pedagogy into practice. It is the framework wherein which those who are learning are facilitated in their connecting what is learned to the real world.
Contextualized Instruction: is a set of teaching, learning and assessment practices that are aimed directly at developing the skills and knowledge that students need to deal with specific situations or perform specific tasks, and that they have identified as important and meaningful to themselves “right now” in their everyday lives.
Course of Study: A course of study is a set of well – organized student learning experiences based from the program of study and field of study. It is offered in the whole academic year in which students show attainment at the end of each school year. Courses of study are named with the subject from the program and field of study and designated with the grade level of the student. For example, in English, the course of study can be named as English 1, English 2, and so on; in Math, the courses are named as Math 1, Math 2, and so on.
Curriculum Integration: is a design that supports the need for learners to be actively involved in their learning, through being part of the decision-making process (Dowden, 2006; Drake, 1998; Etim, 2005; Fraser & Charteris, 1998; Whyte & Strang, 1998)
D
Distinguished Performance Judgement: Evidence selected shows a high degree of understanding, knowledge, and/or performance; rationale provides a developed and convincing explanation for inclusion; portfolio overall is well-written and well-designed, presents a coherent and compelling case of achievement.
E
Embedded Instruction: is an approach used to promote child engagement, learning, and independence in everyday activities, routines, and transitions.
Emerging Performance Judgement: Evidence selected shows a moderate degree of understanding, knowledge, and/or performance; rationale may be incomplete or inconsistent, provides an underdeveloped explanation for inclusion; portfolio overall shows effort at organization but is not yet a fully developed case of achievement; quality of writing is inconsistent.
Enriching Curriculum: The best way to enhance the school curriculum is to engage students to activities or learning opportunities with real life integration and problem solving that focuses on real life applications.
Evaluation: Evaluation is the process of analyzing, reflecting upon, and summarizing assessment information, making judgments or decisions based on the information gathered. Evaluation is conducted within the context of the outcomes, which should be clearly understood by learners before teaching and evaluation take place. Students must understand the basis on which they will be evaluated and what teachers expect of them.
F
Field of Study: A field of study refers to a well – organized set of program, course and other experiences where learning takes place that is normally offered in several grade levels and school year. These are also considered as the standard subjects in school such as English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Arabic, Music, Arts, PE, etc.
Functional Context Education: is defined as instructional strategy that integrates the teaching of literacy skills and job content to move learner more successfully and quickly toward their education and employment goals.
H
Hidden Curriculum: The hidden curriculum is the set of unintended lessons, learning experience or even values that is taught beyond the intended curriculum that are learned by the students in the classroom.
I
Implemented Curriculum: Implemented curriculum is the set of instructional strategies used at a school to deliver the content knowledge as defined in the intended curriculum.
Instructional Relevance: a teacher’s ability to facilitate learning experiences that are meaningful to students and prepare them for their futures.
Instructional Rigor and Student Engagement: a teacher supports and encourages a student’s commitment to initiate and complete complex, inquiry-based learning requiring creative and critical thinking with attention to problem solving.
Integrative Curriculum: is an education that is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject-matter lines, bringing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association to focus upon broad areas of study. It views learning and teaching in a holistic way and reflects the real world which is interactive. (Shoemaker, 1989)
Intended Curriculum: Intended Curriculum is the set of standards that set the expectations of academic achievements of students at the end of every grade level. The most common intended curricula worldwide are the American curriculum and national curriculum.
Interdisciplinary Course: focuses on a theme, issue, historical period or culture and studies it from 2 or more disciplinary perspectives; the faculty member present an in-depth discussion and analysis of these 2 or more disciplines; and when students are evaluated on their recognition of and ability to deal with these 2 or more disciplines.
Interdisciplinary Curriculum: combines several school subjects into one active project or is organized to cut across subject-matter lines, bringing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association.
Interdisciplinary Education: is an educational approach in which two or more disciplines collaborate in the learning process with the goal of fostering inter-professional interactions that enhance the practice of each discipline.
Interdisciplinary Learning: enables teachers and learners to make connections across learning through exploring clear and relevant links across the curriculum. It supports the use and application of what has been taught and learned in new and different ways.
Interdisciplinary Program: offers major and/or minor courses of study that allow students to explore connections between traditional academic areas, and to pursue their emerging scholarly interests in the intersections between multiple disciplines and methodologies.
Interdisciplinary teaching: is a method, or set of methods, used to teach a unit across different curricular disciplines.
Interdisciplinary Thinking: is the capacity to integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single disciplinary means.
Interdisciplinary Understanding: is when individuals integrate knowledge and modes of thinking from two or more disciplines in order to create products, raise questions, solve problems, and offer explanations of the world around them in ways that would not have been possible through single disciplinary means (Boix Mansilla & Gardner, 1996)
Interpersonal Learner: The ability to pick up on the feelings of others. Students who excel in this intelligence like to communicate, empathize, and socialize. Activities related to this intelligence include using cooperative-learning groups, brainstorming ideas, employing a creative use of grouping (including heterogeneous, homogeneous, self-directed, and so forth), and using long-range group projects.
Intrapersonal Learner: Understanding and being in touch with one’s feelings is at the center of this intelligence. Activities related to this intelligence include encouraging students to be self-reflective and explain their reasoning, using journal questions to support metacognition, and giving students quiet time to work independently.
J
Journal: Journals provide an opportunity for students to express thoughts and ideas in a reflective way. By recording feelings, perceptions of success, and responses to new concepts, a student may be helped to identify his or her most effective learning style.
K
Knowledge of Content: a teacher’s understanding and application of the current theories, principles, concepts and skills of a discipline.
L
Learning Climate: a safe environment supported by the teacher in which high, clear expectations and positive relationships are fostered; active learning is promoted cultivates cross cultural understandings and the value of diversity.
Learning to Learn: ‘Learning to learn’ is the ability to pursue and persist in learning, to organize one’s own learning, including through effective management of time and information, both individually and in groups. This competence includes awareness of one’s learning process and needs, identifying available opportunities, and the ability to overcome obstacles in order to learn successfully. This competence means gaining, processing and assimilating new knowledge and skill as well as seeking and making use of guidance. Learning to learn engages learners to build on prior learning and life experiences in order to use and apply knowledge and skills in a variety of contexts: at home, at work, in education and training. Motivation and confidence are crucial to an individual’s competence.
Lesson Plan: A lesson refers to the students’ learning experience with focus on specific set of learning outcomes that is typically achieved by the students at the end of the period. This lesson is presented as lesson plan and is the subset of the unit plan.
Logical/Mathematical Learner: Ability to recognize logical or numerical patterns and observe patterns in symbolic form. Enjoys problems requiring the use of deductive or inductive reasoning and is able to follow a chain of reasoning. Encourage this intelligence by organizing and analyzing data, designing and working with spreadsheets, working on critical-thinking and estimation problems, and helping students make predictions based upon the analysis of numerical data.
M
Modified Curriculum: Modified Curriculum defines what the school will do in order to support the objectives stated in the student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). It modifies the core content standards and outcomes using different materials from other students. It also provides activities to develop modified student outcomes in the context of regular classroom setting.
Musical/Rhythmic Learner: The ability to produce and/or appreciate rhythm and music. Students may enjoy listening to music, playing an instrument, writing music or lyrics, or moving to the rhythms associated with music. Activities related to this intelligence include using songs to illustrate math skills and/or concepts and connecting rational numbers to musical symbols, frequencies, and other real-world applications.
N
Naturalist Learner: Naturalist intelligence deals with sensing patterns in and making connections to elements in nature. These students often like to collect, classify, or read about things from nature—rocks, fossils, butterflies, feathers, shells, and the like. Activities related to this intelligence include classifying objects based upon their commonalities, searching for patterns, and using Venn diagrams to help organize data.
O
Observation (formal or informal): This technique provides a way of gathering information fairly quickly while a lesson is in progress. When used formally, the student(s) would be aware of the observation and the criteria being assessed. Informally, it could be a frequent, but brief, check on a given criterion.
P
Paper and Pencil Assessment: These techniques can be formative or summative. Whether as part of learning, or a final statement, students should know the expectations for the exercise and how it will be assessed. Written assignments and tests can be used to assess knowledge, understanding and application of concepts.
Percentile Rank: A percentile rank is typically defined as the proportion of scores in a distribution that a specific score is greater than or equal to. For instance, if you received a score of 95 on a math test and this score was greater than or equal to the scores of 88% of the students taking the test, then your percentile rank would be 88. You would be in the 88th percentile. Alternatively, percentile rank is sometimes defined simply as the proportion of a distribution that a score is greater than.
Problem-Based Learning: is a student-centered pedagogy in which students learn about a subject through the experience of solving an open-ended problem.
Proficient Performance Judgement: Evidence selected shows an acceptable degree of understanding, knowledge, and/or performance; rationale provides a clear and acceptable explanation for inclusion; portfolio overall is well-written and well-organized, presents a coherent case of achievement.
Program of Study: A program of study refers to the set of learning experiences that are offered for a specific group of students over several years and normally covers different fields of study. In AMS, the students are engaged to studying the trilingual education program in English, French and Arabic languages that starts as early as Kindergarten level. Mathematics and Science are being offered from Grade K – 12.
Progress: this is the extent to which pupils have progressed in their learning from their starting points and capabilities
R
Recommended Curriculum: The recommended curriculum (previously known as ideological curriculum as per Goodland model). It identifies the skills, concepts and content that will be emphasized throughout the learning process. A recommended curriculum is often presented by the authority to schools as a policy recommendation with a list of goals and a sequence content that suggest the graduation requirements.
S
Situated Cognition: is a theory that suggests that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts.
Supported Curriculum: The supported curriculum is the curriculum as reflected in the shaped by the resources allocated to support and deliver the written curriculum. There are 4 kinds of resources. The time allocated to a given subject at a particular level of schooling. The time allocated by the classroom teacher within that overall subject allocation to particular aspects of the curriculum. Personnel allocations as reflected in a resulting from class – size decisions. The textbooks and other learning materials provided for use in the classroom.
T
Theme Based Instruction: is an instructional method of teaching in which emphasis is given on choosing a specific theme for teaching one or many concepts.
U
Unacceptable Performance Judgement: Evidence selected shows minimal degree of understanding, knowledge, and/or performance; rationale provides little and/or irrelevant explanation for inclusion; portfolio overall is not yet organized to present a case; quality of writing interferes with ideas. May be too little to assess.
Unit Plan: A unit of study is a well – organized set of interconnected student learning experiences that is part of a course of study. These units of study are normally organized in the scope and sequence of each subject.
V
Verbal/Linguistic Learner: Appreciates and understands the structure, meaning, and function of language. These students can communicate effectively in both written and verbal form. Encourage this intelligence by using class to discuss mathematical ideas, using journals to explore mathematical ideas using words, making written and oral presentations, and doing research projects.
Visual/Spatial Learner: Perceives the visual world with accuracy; can transform and visualize three dimensions in a two-dimensional space. Encourage this intelligence by using graphs and making sketches, exploring spatial visualization problems, relating patterns in math to visual and color patterns, using mapping activities, and using manipulative to connect concrete with abstract.
W
Work-based learning: refers to any formal higher education learning that is based wholly or predominantly in a work setting.
Writing-to-Learn Activities: are short, informal writing tasks that help students think through key concepts or ideas central to a course. Quite often, these activities require very little class time or can be assigned as short, out-of-class writing.
Written Curriculum: The written curriculum is a specific and comprehensive plan which intends to ensure that the educational goals of the system are being accomplished at a school. The written curriculum has mediating, standardizing and controlling functions. First, it represents a useful compromise between what that educators think should be taught and what teachers believe can be taught. It minimizes the gap between the expectations of administrators and the preferences of teachers. Written curriculum standardizes “what is taught” at different schools who follows the same recommended curriculum.