Terms and Definitions

Developed by: W. Huitt
Last Revised: April 2012


Academic Learning Time The amount of time students are academically engaged and successfully covering content that will be tested.
Adaptive System A system capable of receiving, interpreting, and acting upon internal or external data that allows the system to increase its capacity to thrive and/or flourish.

Affect

A feeling or emotion as distinguished from cognition, thought, or action.
Affective Domain A hierarchical taxonomy of levels of interest, commitment, and valuing.
Ages & Eras of Humanity Refers to major changes in the context and living of human beings over the last several hundred thousand years of human history: paleolithic (stone age; hunter/gatherer). agricultural (early and late), industrial (modern), information and conceptual (post-modern).
Achievement The development of a capacity or potential; the development of a competence.

Anthropology

The scientific study of human origins and behavior.
Aptitude The potential one has to learn and/or develop.
Arts Products, entities, or artifacts developed with the explicit intention of demonstrating aesthetic qualities and/or personal, social, or cultural values.
Assessment 1. The collection of data to describe or better understand a topic or an issue.
2. The ongoing process of making an appraisall or determining the state of some phenomena.

Attitude

A state of mind or a disposition to think in a certain way.
Behaviorism The philosophical position that overt behavior and its direct connection to environmental events is the proper approach to the study of animals including human beings.
Belief A conclusion and/or position regarding the reality of a particular phenomena.

Brain

 

Brilliant Star

 

Citizenship

 
Classroom Characteristics  
Classroom Management  
Classroom Processes  

Cognition

The structure and function of the mental processes related to thinking and knowing.
Cognitive Constructivism  
Cognitive Development  
Cognitive Domain  
Cognitivism  
Community  
Complexity  

Conation

 
Constructivism Learning occurs by the individual creating new knowledge and connecting it prior knowledge (i.e., information exists within constructs built by the individual.)
Connectivism  
Criterion-referenced Evaluation  

Development

An increase in the differentiation and integration of capacities.

Education

The influence of the environment on learning and development:
1. Formal education -- schooling.
2. Informal education -- involves somewhat structured guidance of learning, but is done without a lot of formal structure, such as a workshop or Sunday School. 
3. Non-formal education -- teaching and learning occurring in "teachable moments;" begins at birth and ends at death.
Direct Instruction  

Educational Psychology

A subdiscipline of the fields of both education and psychology that studies the patterns of effective teaching and learning taking place in formal educational environments and the influences thereon.
Effective Classrooms Classrooms where students meet the expected standards.
Effective Schools Schools where students meet the expected standards.

Emotion

1. An intense feeling; a complex and usually strong subjective response, as love or fear; a state of agitation or disturbance.
2. The application of mental processes to the world of feelings, interpersonal relationships, and inanimate objects to which the person is attached.
3.  Complex, subjective experience that has many components (i.e., physical, cognitive, organizing, and expressive), as well as highly personal, subjective meanings.
Emotional Development  
Emotional Intelligence  
Empathetic Listening  
Engaged Time  
Evaluation  
Family/Home Environment  
Feeling Sensation perceived by the sense of touch; an indefinite state of mind; an affective state of consciousness, such as that resulting from emotions, sentiments, or desires; an emotional state or disposition; nonintellectual or subjective human response.
Flourish  
Formative Evaluation  
Friends  
Global Context  
Goals  
Grades  
Grouping Methods  
Happiness  
History  
Humanism  
Humanistic Learning Theories  
Human Nature  
Individual Differences  
Information Processing  
Instruction  
Instructional Methods  
Instructional Planning  
Instructional Strategies  
Instructional Techniques  
Intelligence  

Interpersonal

 

Intrapersonal

 
Interpretivism  

Knowledge

 
Languish  

Learning

 
Learning Objectives  

Learning Style

 
Mastery Learning  
Measurement  

Metacognition

 
Mind  
Model  

Moral Character

 
Motivation  
Multi-cultural Education  

Neurology

 
Norm-referenced Evaluation  
Objective  
Optimism  
Outcomes-based Education  
Paradigm  
Parent Involvement  

Perception

 

Personality

 

Philosophy

 

Physical

 
Positive Emotion  
Positivism  
Pragmatism  

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind and behavior (or behavior and mental processes), especially as it relates to individual human beings.
Psychomotor Domain  
Reductionism  
Reliability  

Religion

 

Schooling

Teaching and learning that takes place in formal environments; formal education.
School Characteristics  
School Processes  
Science  
Scientific Method  
Scientism The philosophy or worldview that science, using empirical methods, is the final arbiter in all discussions regarding reality, including the nature and behavior of human beings.

Self

 

Self-concept

 

Self-efficacy

 

Self-esteem

 

Self-regulation

 

Sensation

 
Situated Cognition  
Student Processes  

Skill

 

Social

 
Social Cognition  
Social Learning  
Social Constructivism  

Sociology

The scientific study of the structure, function, process, and development of human groups and society.

Spiritual

 
Student Characteristics  
Student Processes  
Student Success  
Study Methods  
Subjective  
Subjective Well-being  
Summative Evaluation  
System  
Systems Philosophy  
Systems Theory  
Teacher Characteristics  
Teacher Processes  

Teacher Efficacy

 

Teaching

 

Temperament

 

Thinking

Thrive  

Transpersonal

 
Validity  
Values  

Volition

 

Well-being

 

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