OTET Paper 1 key terms

An assessment approach that judges learning regularly throughout the year rather than in one final test, and covers scholastic subjects along with attitudes, values and skills. Teachers record observations, projects and classwork to build a full picture of each child.

Assessment carried out during teaching to find out what learners have understood and to adjust instruction immediately. Feedback is descriptive and low-stakes, so pupils treat mistakes as information rather than as punishment.

Assessment conducted at the end of a unit, term or year to certify how much learning has taken place. It is usually graded or marked and reported to parents, and it does not by itself change the teaching that already happened.

The gap between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with help from a more capable person. Instruction aimed at this gap, through hints, modelling or peer support, pushes development forward.

Temporary support a teacher or peer gives so a learner can complete a task just beyond independent ability. Support is gradually withdrawn as competence grows, leaving the child able to perform the task alone.

A view of learning holding that children actively build knowledge by connecting new experience to what they already know. Teaching therefore begins with the learner's existing ideas and provides activities, questions and discussion rather than pure lecture.

A sequence describing how thinking changes with age: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Each stage has characteristic strengths and limits, so tasks should match the child's current reasoning level.

The understanding that quantity, mass or number stays the same despite changes in appearance or arrangement. A preoperational child typically fails this, judging by the most striking visual feature rather than by logic.

Piaget's stage from roughly seven to eleven years, when children reason logically about objects they can see and handle but struggle with purely abstract or hypothetical problems. School tasks should therefore use materials, examples and hands-on activity.

A description of moral reasoning moving from obedience and reward, through conformity to group expectations, to principled judgement based on universal fairness. It explains why children's reasons for right and wrong change with age.

The idea that learning is first social and then internalised, so language, dialogue and cultural tools shape thought. Classrooms that encourage talk, group work and adult guidance develop higher mental functions better than silent individual drill.

A proposed inborn capacity that allows children to learn the grammar of any language they hear without formal instruction. It supports the view that some language ability is biologically prepared rather than entirely taught.

A limited window in early development during which a skill, such as first-language learning, is acquired most easily. Difficulties after this window suggest that early exposure and rich language input matter greatly.

A model proposing that ability is not one general quantity but several relatively distinct areas, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily and interpersonal. Teachers use it to offer varied entry points to the same content.

Schooling in which children with disabilities and other marginalised groups learn in regular classrooms with support, rather than being separated. It requires adapted materials, flexible teaching and an accepting classroom culture.

A persistent difficulty in a specific academic area, such as reading, writing or arithmetic, that is not explained by low intelligence, poor teaching or sensory loss. It calls for targeted teaching strategies and assessment accommodations.

A specific difficulty with accurate and fluent word reading and spelling, often including weak phonological awareness. Learners may decode slowly and avoid reading aloud, though their general reasoning may be strong.

The force that starts, directs and sustains effort toward a goal. Intrinsic motivation comes from interest and satisfaction; extrinsic motivation comes from rewards or pressure, and overuse of rewards can weaken interest.

Any consequence following a behaviour that makes that behaviour more likely to recur. Positive reinforcement adds something pleasant, such as praise; negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant, such as a task or reprimand.

Learning in which behaviour is shaped by its consequences, becoming more frequent when reinforced and less frequent when punished or ignored. Teachers apply it through consistent feedback, routines and structured rewards.

A learner's belief about whether they can succeed at a particular task. Strong self-efficacy encourages persistence after failure, so teachers build it through achievable steps, modelling and specific praise for effort.

The process through which children learn the norms, values and behaviours expected in their family, school and community. School contributes through rules, routines, group activities and the hidden messages of classroom life.

The capacity to recognise and share another person's feelings and perspective. It develops through stories, role play and discussion, and it underpins cooperation, conflict resolution and prosocial behaviour in the classroom.

A preference for taking in information through a particular channel, such as visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. Teachers vary presentation for engagement, though evidence does not support matching instruction to a fixed style.

The ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words, such as blending or deleting phonemes. It is a strong early predictor of reading success and is built through oral games before print.

Teaching the relationships between letters or letter groups and the sounds they represent. Systematic phonics helps beginners decode unfamiliar words, but it must be paired with meaningful reading and comprehension work.

Converting written symbols into spoken words by applying knowledge of letter-sound correspondences. Fluent decoding frees attention for meaning, so slow or inaccurate decoding limits comprehension.

Two fast reading strategies: skimming moves quickly over text for the general idea, while scanning searches for a specific detail such as a date or name. Both are taught for study and reference reading.

A conclusion drawn from evidence in the text plus the reader's knowledge, rather than stated directly. Inference questions ask what is implied by a character's words, a tone or a cause-effect gap.

Constructing meaning from a text by linking words, sentences and background knowledge. It involves literal understanding, inference, vocabulary in context and awareness of how a text is organised.

An approach in which the goal of lessons is real communication, so learners use the target language in pairs, games and tasks. Grammar and vocabulary are taught as tools for meaning rather than as ends in themselves.

Lesson design in which learners complete a meaningful task, such as planning a trip or solving a puzzle, using the language they have. The teacher then addresses language problems that arose during the task.

The four core modes of language use: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening and speaking are oral and interactive; reading and writing are print-based, and each needs separate practice.

The Odia script has independent vowels, consonants and conjunct forms, with vowel signs attached to consonants and a distinct sign for the inherent vowel being suppressed. Teachers sequence these systematically when introducing reading and writing.

Odia builds words through prefixes, suffixes, compounding and borrowing, including tatsama and tadbhava layers from Sanskrit. Knowing these patterns helps pupils infer the meaning of unfamiliar words in passages.

The principle that a digit's value depends on its position in a number, so in 4,082 the 4 means four thousand and the 8 means eighty. It underpins reading, writing, comparing and calculating with multi-digit numbers.

Exchanging units between place values, such as trading ten ones for one ten or borrowing from tens to subtract. It is the basis of standard addition and subtraction algorithms with larger numbers.

Interpreting multiplication as combining equal groups, so 4 × 3 means four groups of three. This concrete meaning leads naturally to arrays, area models and later to the standard multiplication procedure.

A number expressing part of a whole or part of a set, written as a numerator over a denominator. Learners need concrete models, such as folded paper or number lines, before comparing and operating with fractions.

Perimeter is the distance around a closed figure; area is the amount of surface it covers, measured in square units. Both are taught through measuring real objects and counting squares before formulas are introduced.

Standard quantities used to express length, mass, capacity and time, such as metre, kilogram, litre and hour, with their conversions. Children learn to choose sensible units and to convert between larger and smaller ones.

A straight line marked with numbers at equal intervals, used to show order, addition, subtraction and later fractions and negatives. It gives children a visual model for comparing quantities and jumping forwards or backwards.

Working through unfamiliar situations by understanding the question, choosing a strategy, carrying it out and checking the result. Word problems and open tasks develop this better than routine drills alone.

An integrated primary subject combining science, social studies and environmental awareness around the child's immediate surroundings. Topics move from family, school and neighbourhood to plants, animals, water, food and local institutions.

The EVS skill of looking carefully at a plant, animal, weather pattern or object and noting what is seen, often with drawings, tables or dates. It builds evidence-based thinking and careful description.

Grouping things according to shared features, such as animals by habitat, leaves by shape or materials by hardness. It helps children organise information and notice similarities and differences in the world around them.

A sequence showing how energy passes from plants to plant-eaters and then to animal-eaters, for example grass, grasshopper, frog, snake. Removing one link affects the whole chain, which illustrates interdependence in nature.

The place where a plant or animal naturally lives and finds food, water, shelter and space. Different habitats, such as pond, forest or desert, support different living things with matching adaptations.

A feature or behaviour that helps a living thing survive in its surroundings, such as thick fur in cold regions or gills in fish. Children learn adaptations by comparing animals and plants across habitats.

The continuous movement of water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. Understanding it explains rainfall, drying of wet surfaces and why water is a limited resource needing careful use.

Materials and energy taken from nature that living things use, such as water, soil, air, forests and minerals. Some are renewable and some are not, which makes conservation and wise use a key EVS theme.