JTET Paper 1 key terms

The gradual growth of a child's thinking, memory, reasoning and problem-solving abilities from infancy to adolescence. In primary classes it decides whether a topic should be taught with concrete objects, pictures or abstract symbols.

The gap between what a learner can do alone and what the same learner can do with help from a more skilled person. Instruction is most useful when pitched inside this gap, not far below or far above it.

Temporary support a teacher or capable peer gives while a child attempts a new task, such as prompts, worked examples or steps written on the board. The support is withdrawn gradually as the child takes control.

An arrangement in which children with disabilities, different home languages or disadvantaged backgrounds learn together in the same regular classroom, with the school changing its methods, materials and seating to meet their needs.

A written plan for one child with special needs that records present levels of performance, specific learning goals, the accommodations and materials required, and dates for review, prepared together with parents and specialists.

A lasting difficulty in one area such as reading, spelling or arithmetic that appears despite average intelligence, regular attendance and ordinary teaching, and is not explained by poverty, illness or lack of schooling.

A school assessment system that is continuous, using short tests, projects and observation across the year, and comprehensive, covering scholastic subjects plus co-scholastic areas such as attitudes, values, health and participation.

Assessment carried out while learning is still going on, used to give feedback and to change the next lesson. It is low-stakes, often oral or observational, and is not meant mainly for grading or reporting.

The drive to do an activity for its own sake because it is interesting, enjoyable or satisfying, rather than for rewards, marks or fear of punishment. It usually produces longer-lasting engagement than external pressure.

Howard Gardner's proposal that people differ in several relatively independent abilities, including linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic, so one test score cannot capture a child's whole ability.

The process through which a child learns the language, customs, values, roles and behaviour expected in a society, mainly through family, neighbourhood, peers and school.

The four language skills, normally developed in the order listening, speaking, reading and writing. Primary language teaching should give daily practice in all four rather than drilling grammar rules in isolation.

Understanding a text by using prior knowledge, context and expectations to predict meaning before decoding individual words. It works together with bottom-up decoding of letters and sounds.

The view, adopted in NCF 2005, that a child's home language or dialect is an asset in learning rather than a barrier, and can be used as a bridge to the school language.

Moving between two languages inside the same lesson or even the same sentence. In a multilingual classroom it can help a child grasp a concept quickly and should not be treated automatically as a mistake.

The links that hold a text together, such as pronouns, conjunctions, repeated words and connectors like 'however' or 'as a result', so that sentences read as one connected piece rather than isolated statements.

The principle that every subject teacher is also a language teacher, because pupils must read, write, discuss and define terms in mathematics, EVS and every other subject, not only during the language period.

The smallest unit of sound that can change meaning in a language; for example, the difference between /p/ and /b/ separates 'pin' from 'bin' in English.

A method of teaching early reading that connects letters and letter groups to the sounds they represent, so that a child can blend sounds and decode unfamiliar printed words.

Reading quickly over a text to get its general idea or gist without attending to every word. It is used for previewing a chapter or deciding quickly whether a passage is relevant.

Reading quickly through a text looking only for one specific item such as a date, name or figure and ignoring everything else. It is useful for finding a name in a list or a number in a table.

The ability to use a language appropriately and effectively in real situations, combining grammatical accuracy with suitable vocabulary, register and social rules for the occasion and the listener.

Reading text accurately, at a reasonable speed and with expression, without effortful word-by-word decoding, so that the reader's attention can be spent on meaning rather than on recognising letters.

The value a digit gains from its position in a number; in 3,472 the 4 means four hundred while the 7 means seventy. It underpins regrouping, written algorithms and decimal notation.

An intuitive understanding of how numbers work: their size, order, approximate value, and how operations change them. Children with number sense can judge whether a written answer is reasonable.

A straight line marked with evenly spaced numbers used to show order, addition, subtraction, fractions and negative numbers. It gives children a visual model of magnitude and of distance between numbers.

Teaching a mathematical idea first with real objects, then with pictures or drawings, and finally with symbols and rules alone. Skipping the early stages leaves many primary children memorising procedures without understanding.

Any physical object such as counters, beads, sticks, base-ten blocks or fraction strips that children handle to build a mathematical idea before they work with symbols on paper.

Studying a pupil's wrong answers to find the consistent rule or misunderstanding behind them. The pattern across several sums, not a single slip, tells the teacher what must be retaught.

Working out an approximate answer or size before or instead of an exact calculation, for example by rounding to the nearest ten. It builds number sense and helps children judge whether a computed answer is plausible.

Unease, tension or avoidance that some learners feel towards mathematics, often after repeated failure or public speed tests, which can block working memory. Untimed work, mixed-ability tasks and treating errors as learning points reduce it.

The thinking and doing skills children use in environmental studies, such as observing, classifying, measuring, predicting, inferring and communicating, which matter as much as the facts they memorise.

Carefully using the senses to notice and record details of an object, plant, animal or event, then describing what was actually seen without adding guesses. It is the starting point for most EVS enquiry.

The way living things and their surroundings rely on one another, for example plants on sunlight and soil, animals on plants and other animals, and people on both. It is a central idea of EVS.

The sequence in which energy passes from one living thing to another, starting with a green plant and moving to plant-eaters and then to animal-eaters; arrows show the direction in which energy travels.

A feature or behaviour that helps a plant or animal survive in its particular surroundings, such as thick fur in cold regions, spines on desert plants or gills in fish.

The natural home of a plant or animal, providing the food, water, shelter and conditions it needs. Different habitats such as pond, forest, desert or field support different living things.

Understanding about plants, animals, weather, farming or health that children already hold from their family and community; EVS teaching can build on this knowledge rather than replacing it.