Glossary of Terms

Authentic Learning

Blended Learning

Education integrating on-line with face-to- face activities so that technology not only supplements but also transforms students’ learning.

Caves, Campfires and Watering Holes

Examples of archetypal learning spaces suited to different forms of interaction and popularised by school planners and designers including Prakash Nair and Randall Fielding, and the futurist David Thornburg. The concepts have been used to inform the design of both physical and virtual environments.

Collaborative Learning

Approaches involving shared intellectual effort by two or more learners engaged in a common task, so that all students can maximise their learning through interaction, shared understanding and creation.

Collaboration Spaces

Environments suited to social, interactive activities, typically conducted in pairs or small groups. Students engaged in collaborative learning benefit from each other’s differing resources, abilities and prior knowledge. Spaces need to be versatile to suit asymmetrical roles and learning styles.

Constructivist Pedagogies

Teaching practices that acknowledge how students construct knowledge and meaning through their experience, and how the role of the educator is to develop students’ learning skills through experimentation and collaboration. Pioneers of constructivist pedagogies include Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky, and Freire amongst others.

Deep vs. Surface Learning

Deep-holistic immersive learning through an understanding of issues in the round, as opposed to the superficial reproduction of information.

Engaged Schools

Schools developing a diverse range of programs to make schools more engaging places to learn through activities such as inter-disciplinary project-based learning, learning outside the four walls of the classrooms, acknowledging students’ extended learning relationships, and encouraging parents and local employers as active partners in education.

Experiential Learning

Learning acquired through reflection on direct experience. David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model emphasises a four stage cycle of learning: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualisation and Active Experimentation.

Inquiry-Based Learning

Approach grounded in the writings of John Dewey where knowledge is built up from experience and process. Students engage in self-directed activities to identify what they need to learn and find resources to increase their understanding. Common approaches include fieldwork, case studies, and individual or group research, often using on-line resources.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Much like activities in the real world, interdisciplinary learning brings together subjects from across the curriculum in a mutually supportive manner and easily lends itself to project based learning.

Learning Modalities

How students use their senses in learning. Educators commonly refer to four modalities: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile.

Learning Styles

Recognition that individual students differ in how they learn and their preferences for different modes of learning, for example David Kolb’s “Experiential Learning Model” and Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences”.

Lifelong Learning

Acknowledgement that learning does not just occur prior to entering the workforce but should sustain an individual throughout their life and career. The approach is associated both with promotion of vocational learning amongst older students, and the need to reinforce long-term versatile learning skills and a love of learning, rather than a specific curriculum.

Multiple Intelligences

Theory developed by Howard Gardner which acknowledges how students learn following differing cognitive abilities: musical–rhythmic and harmonic, visual–spatial, verbal–linguistic, logical–mathematical, bodily–kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal, naturalistic, and existential.

Pedagogy

The art, science and practice of teaching. There are different pedagogical models that teachers prescribe to.

Personalised Learning

Differentiating the pace, approach or setting to suit the individual needs of each learner, often affording a degree of choice regarding what, when and how a subject is learned.

Practice-Based Learning

Learning through practical activities modelled on professional, work-place or other real world scenarios and fieldwork.

Problem-Based Learning

Learning about a subject through problem solving, generally in groups. Students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information to resolve the problem. The role of the instructor is as a facilitator, supporting, guiding, and monitoring the learning process.

Project-Based Learning

Active and engaged learning where students explore real- world problems and challenges to obtain a deeper knowledge of the subjects studied.

Reflective Practice

Systematic self-improvement through educators studying their own teaching methods to determine which practices work best for students.

School within School

Creation of small learning communities within a larger school, each with separate educational programs, to achieve a greater sense of intimacy, improve communication, social commitment, and better meet the need of specific student cohorts.

Stage not Age

Progression based on each student’s personal stage of development and attainment, rather than age-based cohorts.

Team Teaching

Group of teachers, often representing different areas of educational approach or subject knowledge, working together to plan, conduct, and evaluate learning activities for the same group of students.

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