Burkina Agrégation Secondaire key terms

Constitutional principle that the state treats all citizens equally regardless of religion, keeps public institutions neutral, and guarantees freedom of conscience and worship within limits set by law.

Membership in a political community that carries rights, duties and participation in public life, exercised through voting, paying taxes, obeying law and engaging in civic action.

Transfer of administrative powers and resources from central government to elected local authorities such as communes and regions, giving them legal autonomy over defined local matters.

Legally distinct public body with its own elected council, budget and competences, covering a defined territory such as a commune, province or region within the national state.

Political order in which public power is itself bound by law, courts can review administrative acts, and citizens may challenge arbitrary decisions through independent judicial procedures.

Deliberate departure from ordinary expression used for expressive effect, such as metaphor, anaphora or hyperbole, identifiable and analysable within a text.

Recurring tonal and emotional orientation of a text, for example tragic, comic, epic or didactic, signalled by lexical choices, syntax and imagery rather than by subject alone.

Methodical reading that identifies a text's structure, enunciation, lexicon, syntax and stylistic devices in order to build an argued interpretation supported by quotations.

Formal essay that answers a literary question through a reasoned thesis, organised parts and conclusion, each claim illustrated by precise references to works studied.

Structured written commentary on a short literary passage, moving from observation of textual features to interpretation, organised by thematic or stylistic axes rather than by linear paraphrase.

Smallest sound unit that distinguishes meaning in a language, such that substituting it in a word produces a different word, as with French /p/ and /b/ in 'pain' and 'bain'.

Variety of language chosen according to social situation and audience, ranging from formal written style to informal colloquial speech, marked by vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Study of language in use beyond the sentence, examining how cohesion, coherence, turn-taking and context shape meaning in spoken or written communication.

Chain of deductive reasoning in which each step follows necessarily from stated premises, axioms or previously proved results, leading to an unavoidable conclusion.

Statement proved true by a valid mathematical argument from accepted definitions and axioms, as distinct from a conjecture, which remains unproved however plausible.

Single case that satisfies a statement's hypotheses but falsifies its conclusion, and therefore suffices to prove that a general assertion is false.

Sequence of numbers whose terms approach a fixed limit ever more closely, so that beyond some rank every term stays within any prescribed distance of that limit.

Sum of kinetic and potential energy of a system, conserved when only conservative forces act and diminished by friction, which converts it into thermal energy.

Process in which reactant species are transformed into products through breaking and forming of bonds, conserving atoms and charge while redistributing energy.

Process by which chlorophyll-bearing organisms convert light energy, carbon dioxide and water into organic matter and oxygen, forming the base of most food chains.

Model of inheritance in which discrete hereditary factors segregate and assort independently during reproduction, explaining ratios of traits observed in successive generations.

Conquest and political domination of a territory by a foreign power, accompanied by economic exploitation, administrative control and cultural transformation of the subject population.

Process by which colonised peoples recovered political sovereignty, through negotiation, armed struggle or both, and built new states with their own institutions.

Traces from the past, written, material or oral, that historians select, criticise and interpret in order to construct evidence-based accounts of past events.

Process by which neighbouring states pool institutions, rules and markets, as in the West African economic union, to foster trade, stability and collective bargaining power.

Reasoned activity of supporting or refuting a claim with evidence and inference, aiming at rational persuasion rather than mere assertion or emotional pressure.

Statement that appears self-contradictory or contrary to received opinion yet may express a truth, often used in philosophy to expose hidden assumptions in ordinary reasoning.

Capacity to judge one's own actions as right or wrong and to feel bound by that judgement, shaped by reason, education, social norms and personal reflection.

Set of coordinated decisions and actions taken by public authorities to address a problem in a sector such as education or health, with objectives, resources and evaluation.

Field studying how resources are allocated to schooling, how education affects productivity and inequality, and how costs and benefits of schooling can be measured.

Political theory holding that legitimate authority rests on an agreement among free persons to submit to common rules in exchange for protection of rights and collective order.

Approach in which learners construct knowledge through investigation, problem-solving and cooperation, with the teacher designing situations rather than merely transmitting content.

Precise statement of what learners should be able to do at the end of a lesson, expressed in observable behaviour so that achievement can be assessed.

Assessment carried out during learning to identify difficulties and adjust teaching, providing feedback to learners rather than a final grade for certification.

Adjustment of content, pace, materials or grouping to learners' varied needs and levels, so that each can progress toward common essential objectives.

Set of principles guiding conduct in a profession, including integrity, fairness, confidentiality and respect for learners, grounded in law and shared values rather than personal preference.

Framework legislation that sets the general aims, structures and principles of an education system, leaving detailed application to regulations and ministerial decisions.

Body of duties and standards governing teachers' professional behaviour, covering fairness, honesty, confidentiality and the proper exercise of authority over learners.