MAHA TAIT key terms

Teaching that matches a child's age, individual traits and social context. It rejects pushing skills too early and expects primary teachers to plan tasks within what learners can do with support.

The gap between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with help from a more capable person. It justifies guided practice, peer tutoring and teacher scaffolding in primary classrooms.

Temporary support a teacher or peer gives so a learner can complete a task just beyond independent reach. Support is gradually withdrawn as competence grows, shifting responsibility to the child.

The stage from roughly seven to eleven years when children reason logically about visible objects and events. They master conservation and classification but still struggle with abstract hypothetical reasoning.

Understanding that quantity, mass or number stays the same when appearance changes, such as water poured into a taller glass. Its absence in younger children explains typical errors in primary maths.

An organised mental framework a learner uses to interpret new experience. Teachers activate prior schemas before a lesson and help children revise them when new information conflicts with old assumptions.

Two ways schemas change: assimilation fits new experience into an existing framework, while accommodation reshapes the framework itself. Both drive cognitive growth and explain why misconceptions persist until directly challenged.

The view that learners build knowledge actively by connecting new input to what they already know. It favours hands-on activity, questioning and discussion over pure lecture and rote memorisation.

A sequence from obedience-based morality, through conformity to group expectations, to principled reasoning about justice. Primary children usually reason in terms of rewards, punishment and fairness to themselves.

The theory that learning is first social and then internalised, with language as the main tool. Talk, collaboration and cultural tools are treated as central, not incidental, to cognitive development.

Self-directed talking aloud that children use to plan and regulate actions, later becoming silent inner speech. Teachers should accept it rather than demand silence during problem solving.

A lifespan sequence of conflicts, each resolved positively or negatively. In the primary years the key conflict is industry versus inferiority, so repeated failure or ridicule can damage a child's confidence.

Drive to act that comes from interest, curiosity or satisfaction in the activity itself. It sustains learning better than rewards and punishments, which can weaken it once removed.

Gardner's proposal that ability is not one general factor but several relatively separate domains, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily and interpersonal. It supports varied classroom activities but is not a validated diagnostic tool.

A preferred way of taking in information, often labelled visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. Evidence for matching teaching to styles is weak, so the term should be used cautiously in answers.

Schooling in which children with disabilities and other marginalised groups learn in ordinary classrooms with necessary adaptations. It requires curriculum modification, accessible materials and teacher collaboration, not mere physical placement.

A written plan for a learner with special educational needs, stating present levels, measurable goals, supports and review dates. It is prepared with parents and specialists and guides day-to-day classroom adjustments.

Deliberately varying content, process, product or environment so learners at different levels can progress. It is planned in advance, not improvised after a lesson fails.

Ongoing gathering of evidence about learning to adjust teaching while the unit is still running. Examples include exit tickets, oral questioning and error analysis, with feedback that tells the learner what to do next.

An assessment approach covering scholastic and co-scholastic areas throughout the year using multiple tools. Its purpose is to reduce exam anxiety and support improvement rather than rank children.

A scoring guide listing criteria and graded descriptions of quality. Sharing it beforehand makes expectations transparent and helps children self-assess against stated standards.

Awareness and regulation of one's own thinking, such as planning, monitoring and checking. It grows through teacher modelling, think-alouds and structured reflection after tasks.

The ability to notice and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, such as blending or deleting phonemes. It is auditory and oral, and it underpins later phonics learning.

Teaching the relationships between letters or letter groups and the sounds they represent. Systematic phonics supports early decoding in alphabetic scripts and complements whole-word recognition.

A broader sensitivity to the sound structure of language covering syllables, rhymes and onset-rime as well as phonemes. It develops before formal reading and is a strong predictor of reading success.

Converting written symbols into spoken sounds to recognise words. Fluent decoding frees attention for meaning, so slow or inaccurate decoding is a common cause of poor comprehension.

Reading accurately, at a reasonable pace and with expression. Fluency bridges word recognition and comprehension, and it improves through repeated reading of familiar, well-matched texts.

Building meaning from text by linking words, sentences and background knowledge. It requires vocabulary, inference and monitoring, and is assessed through literal, inferential and evaluative questions.

Drawing a conclusion not stated directly, using clues in the text plus prior knowledge. Teaching inference explicitly moves learners beyond literal recall toward interpretive reading.

Two fast reading strategies: skimming for general gist and scanning for a specific detail such as a date or name. Both are useful for reference material and timed comprehension tasks.

An approach that organises lessons around meaningful interaction rather than grammar drills alone. Fluency, authentic tasks and learner talk are central, with accuracy addressed as needed.

Lesson design in which learners complete a real-world task, such as planning a trip, and language is taught as it becomes necessary. The task outcome, not a grammar point, drives the sequence.

Acquisition is unconscious, meaning-focused exposure in natural settings; learning is conscious study of rules, typically in classrooms. The distinction warns against assuming taught rules automatically become fluent use.

A learner's evolving rule system that is neither the first language nor the target language, and which changes over time. Errors are often signs of active rule testing rather than carelessness.

Systematically examining learner errors to infer the underlying rule or gap. It separates systematic errors, which need teaching, from slips and attempts, which need encouragement rather than correction.

A teacher's response to a learner error, ranging from recasts and clarification requests to explicit correction. Immediate correction suits accuracy work; delayed correction better protects fluency activities.

The principle that a digit's value depends on its position, so in 3,472 the 4 means four hundred. It underpins written algorithms, rounding and decimal notation in the primary curriculum.

Exchanging ten units of one place for one unit of the next, as when ten ones become one ten. Concrete materials such as bundles or base-ten blocks make the procedure meaningful.

Moving from handling real objects, to drawings, to symbols alone. This progression builds understanding before procedure and is standard in primary mathematics teaching.

Any physical object used to model mathematical ideas, such as counters, beads, fraction strips or geometric solids. It is effective when linked explicitly to the written symbol it represents.

A line marked with evenly spaced numbers used to represent order, magnitude and operations. It supports mental arithmetic, negative numbers and later work with fractions and decimals.

Understanding multiplication as scaling or repeated groups rather than only repeated addition, including inverse division. It is needed to compare quantities and to work with fractions and ratio.

The idea that a quantity can be split into parts that recombine to the same total. It is the foundation for addition and subtraction facts, fractions and algebraic thinking.

Using a learner's written work and talk to locate the specific misconception behind repeated errors, then teaching to it. It treats errors as information, not simply as marks lost.

A cycle of questioning, predicting, testing fairly, observing and concluding. At primary level it is taught through simple controlled comparisons with one variable changed at a time.

An investigation in which only the variable under study is changed while all other conditions are kept the same. It teaches children why a single trial or changed conditions cannot support a conclusion.

An observation is what is directly sensed or measured; an inference is an explanation drawn from it. Separating the two is a core science skill and a frequent source of misconception.

A food chain traces one path of energy from producer to consumer; a food web links many chains in an ecosystem. Both show that removing one organism affects others.

Producers make their own food using sunlight, as green plants do; consumers eat other organisms. The distinction introduces energy flow and interdependence in environmental studies.

An organism such as bacteria or fungi that breaks down dead matter and returns nutrients to the soil. Decomposers close the nutrient cycle and are essential to composting and soil fertility.

Biodegradable waste is broken down by microorganisms; non-biodegradable waste such as plastic persists for long periods. The distinction guides waste segregation and environmental action projects.

The continuous movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. It explains rainfall, drought and why conserving groundwater matters locally.

Renewable resources can be replenished within a human lifetime, such as sunlight or wind; non-renewable ones like coal cannot. The distinction frames discussions of energy choices and sustainability.

A diet supplying energy, body-building and protective nutrients in appropriate proportion, plus water and fibre. It is taught through local food groups rather than imported examples.

Illness caused by a missing or insufficient nutrient, such as anaemia from low iron or night blindness from vitamin A shortage. Symptoms are linked to specific foods that prevent them.

A disease that spreads from person to person through air, water, food, vectors or contact. Prevention teaching covers handwashing, safe water, immunisation and vector control.