Glossary

Accessible: presenting information in a manner that everyone, regardless of ability, culture, language, etc., may understand it

Assistive communication technologies: symbols, strategies, and techniques to enhance the communication process, e.g,. sign language, images, communication boards, and both manual and electronic devices.

Atypical social behaviors: abnormal ways of relating to others, e.g., verbal aggression, avoiding eye contact, being overly attached to an object

Communication differences: when two people communicate in different ways, e.g, language, modality (verbal, written, etc.), or tone, that make it difficult for them to completely understand one another

Conflict resolution: a way of settling a disagreement between two people

Co-curricular activities: informal learning experiences that happen alongside planned instruction, e.g., debate team, school newspaper and chess club

Cooperative learning: learning groups containing students of different levels of academic ability engaging in a variety of activities to improve their understanding of a subject

Culturally responsive pedagogy: "instruction from the perspective of students’ diversity as strengths rather than deficits" (Kieran & Anderson, 2019).

Differentiated instruction: proactively modifying curriculum, teaching methods, resources, learning activities, or assignment requirements to better meet learning needs of a variety of students (Smale et al., 2019)

Diverse learners: learners from different linguistic, socio-economic and/or socio-cultural backgrounds, or with physical and/or intellectual differences

Historically underrepresented students: socio-cultural and socio-economic groups of students that make up only a small fraction of a learning community

Implicit biases: unconscious attitudes or stereotypes towards a person or group of people

Inaccessible content: barriers to understanding information in the context or format in which it is presented, e.g., small text for a visually impaired person, a video presented without closed captioning for a deaf person

Inclusive instructional strategies: actions that remove curriculum barriers and present instructional information in ways that engage all learners equitably (Latham, 2020)

Inclusive learning communities (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020): a learning environment where:

  • students feeling more "personally connected to one another and committed to each other’s growth and learning" (Darling-Hammond et al., 2020, p. 106)

  • peers offering greater assistance

  • increased collaboration

  • increased student feelings of competence and agency

Inquiry-based learning: letting students explore learning topics they are curious about

Instrument bias - failing to consider race, culture, ethnicity, gender, and other diversity variables during assessment design (Marbley et al., 2008)

Intercultural competence: cognitive, emotional and social skills needed for effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures (Gruczkun, 2018)

Marginalized learners: students from culturally and linguistically different backgrounds and those from families of low socio-economic status who are not afforded the same learning opportunities as students from English speaking white middle class families

Mindfulness: "the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us" (Bayes-Fleming, N., 2018, para. 1)

Neurodiverse: variation in cognitive function or ways of thinking. Neurodiverse learners typically have a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, dyslexia or other learning disability or mental health condition

Peer acceptance: the degree to which children are liked versus disliked by their peers and included versus excluded from participation in the peer group.

Personal Biases: opinions in favor of or against a person or group

Point-of-view video modeling: using video to directly teaches a skill or behavior for neurodiverse learners to imitate and apply in naturalistic settings (Lee, 2015)

Privileges: advantages or benefits afforded to members of dominant groups

Prosocial behaviors: actions intended to benefit others

Service learning: active learning that provides learners with a variety of experiences that benefit others in addition to meeting curriculum learning objectives (Clevenger-Bright et al., 2020)

Social identity: how a person sees themself or others see them in regards to common social groupings, e.g., gender, class, race, etc.

Social Scenarios: example situations designed to help neurodiverse students develop their ability to interact with others in an appropriate manner

Stigmatization: describing someone or something as not worthy of approval

Teacher efficacy: teacher confidence in improving student learning outcomes

Theory of mind: the ability to understand other's knowledge, beliefs, emotions, and intentions, and to use that understanding to navigate social situations (Durkin & Conti-Ramsden, 2008; Cheang et al., 2019)

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): a framework that "guides the design of instructional goals, assessments, methods, and materials that can be customized and adjusted to meet individual needs" (CAST, 2019).