Glossary Definitions Flashcards
(50 cards)
5 to 7 year shift
Major transition in cognitive abilities that gradually occurs between 5 and 7 years of age, resulting in increased ability to think logically, self-regulate, and solve problems
Absorbent mind
Maria Montessori’s image of the child as actively learning from sensory experiences
Abstraction
The concept that anything can be counted
Academic discourse
The language of school, which is important for school success
Accommodation
When new information or experience doesn’t fit within an existing concept (scheme), the child must modify it or construct a new scheme
Accommodations
Changes in assessment procedures, materials, or setting to eliminate barriers related to the child’s disability that might keep children from demonstrating their full capabilities
Accountability
The process of holding teachers, schools, or programs responsible for meeting a required level of performance
Accreditation system
NAEYC’s voluntary system for identifying high-quality early childhood centers and schools serving children from birth through kindergarten
Acculturation
The process whereby children learn expected rules of behaviors
Achievement tests
Tests designed to measure what children have leanred in general or in a content area such as reading or mathematics
Acknowledging
Giving positive verbal or nonverbal attention that promotes the child’s persistence and effort
Adaptation
The mental process of altering concepts (schemes) in response to experience, which occurs in two was: Through assimilation and accommodation
Advance organizers
Ways of introducing new information that serve as a bridge between what the student already knows and the new learning
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Persistent exposure to violence, adults’ substance abuse, physical, emotional or sexual abuse, or neglect that creates toxic stress
Advocacy
Aiding a cause that you believe in
Age appropriate
Age-related human characteristics that allow teachers to make general predictions within an age range about what materials, interactions, and experiences will be safe, interesting, challenging, and within reach for children, and thus likely to best promote their learning and development
Aggressive communication
Speaking the truth in a hurtful way
Alignment or Continuity
Coordination of the curriculum and experiences from one level of education to the next in order to build on hat children have already learned and to ease transitions for students between schools and school levels
Alliteration
Two words beginning with the same sound
Alphabetic principle
The understanding that there is a systematic relationship between letters and sounds, and that all spoken sounds and words can be represented by a liited set of agreed-on symbols called letters
Anecdotal records
Short descriptions written by teachers and based on observations of incidents or anecdotes involving one or more children
Anti-bias education
Learning experiences and teaching strategies that are specifically designed not only to prepare all children for life in a culturally rich society, but also to counter the stereotyping of diverse groups, and to guard against expressions of bias
Apprenticeship
The process of children learning by observing adults and more accomplished peers performing tasks and by practicing the skills themselves with adult guidance and support
Approaches to learning
Behaviors or typical patterns that children use in learning situations that include both how they feel about learning–their level of enthusiasm, interest, and motivation– and how they engage with learning–their curiosity, initiative, and creativity
