Skip to contentLearning terminology glossary
- Aims
- The overall intentions or purpose of a learning programme.
- CPD
- Continuing Professional Development — ongoing learning and training for practitioners.
- Differentiation
- Adapting teaching and learning to meet the individual needs of learners.
- E-learning
- Learning delivered or supported through electronic technologies.
- ESOL
- English for Speakers of Other Languages.
- Expert learner
- A learner who can manage their own learning effectively.
- ILT
- Information and Learning Technology — technology used to support teaching and learning.
- Individual review
- A one-to-one meeting between a learner and their tutor to review progress.
- Individualisation
- Tailoring learning to the individual learner's needs and goals.
- Initial assessment
- An assessment at the start of a programme to identify a learner's starting point.
- Learning cycle
- A model of the stages learners go through when acquiring new knowledge or skills.
- Learning outcomes
- Statements describing what a learner will know, understand or be able to do on completion.
- Learning preferences
- The ways in which individual learners prefer to learn.
- Learning programme
- A planned series of learning activities designed to achieve specific outcomes.
- Motivational dialogue
- A conversation designed to encourage and motivate a learner.
- Objectives
- Specific, measurable steps towards achieving broader aims.
- Peer assessment
- When learners assess each other's work against agreed criteria.
- Reflection
- Thinking critically about an experience in order to learn from it.
- Self-assessment
- When learners assess their own performance against agreed criteria.
- Session plan
- A structured plan for a single teaching session.
- SMART
- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound — criteria for objectives.
- Summative assessment
- Assessment carried out at the end of a learning programme to measure achievement.
- Team teaching
- Two or more teachers collaborating to deliver a session together.
