TS SET key terms

An instructional approach that places students' needs, interests, and active participation at the centre of planning and delivery, with the teacher acting as facilitator rather than sole transmitter of content.

A learning theory holding that learners build new understanding by connecting incoming information to prior knowledge and experience, rather than passively receiving facts from a teacher.

The gap between what a learner can accomplish alone and what they can achieve with guidance from a more capable peer or adult; instruction is most effective within this range.

Temporary, graduated support given to a learner while tackling a difficult task, progressively withdrawn as competence grows so the learner assumes full responsibility.

Ongoing, low-stakes evaluation during teaching that generates feedback to adjust instruction and help learners close gaps, as distinct from grading at the end of a unit.

Evaluation conducted at the end of a course or unit to certify achievement against learning objectives, typically producing a grade or score used for reporting or progression decisions.

An assessment that interprets a learner's score against a defined standard or set of learning outcomes, rather than against the performance of other test-takers.

An assessment that ranks a learner's performance relative to a comparison group, so scores are meaningful only in terms of position within that distribution.

A hierarchical classification of cognitive objectives, moving from remembering and understanding through applying and analysing to evaluating and creating, used to design questions and learning outcomes.

A precise statement of what a learner should be able to demonstrate at the end of a unit, expressed with observable action verbs so that achievement can be assessed.

The deliberate matching of intended learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment tasks so that what is tested genuinely reflects what was taught.

Planning that varies content, process, or product in response to learner readiness, interests, and profiles, so that diverse students work toward common goals by different routes.

The principle and practice of educating students with varied abilities, backgrounds, and needs together in mainstream settings, with support adapted so all can participate fully.

A framework for designing curricula from the outset with multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression, reducing the need for later individual retrofits.

Awareness and regulation of one's own thinking, including planning how to approach a task, monitoring comprehension, and adjusting strategies when understanding breaks down.

The cyclical process in which learners set goals, apply strategies, monitor progress, and adjust effort or approach based on reflection on outcomes.

An organised mental framework of prior knowledge that guides how new information is interpreted, stored, and later retrieved.

The drive to engage in an activity because it is inherently interesting or satisfying, rather than for an external reward or to avoid punishment.

The drive to act in order to obtain a separable outcome such as grades, praise, or rewards, or to avoid sanctions, rather than for the activity itself.

A cyclical, practitioner-led inquiry in which a teacher identifies a local problem, plans and implements an intervention, collects evidence, and reflects to improve practice.

The disciplined habit of examining one's own teaching decisions and their effects, often through journals, peer observation, or structured post-lesson analysis, to improve future action.

The consistency of a measurement instrument: the degree to which repeated administrations or parallel forms yield stable, similar results free from random error.

The extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure and supports the inferences and decisions drawn from its scores.

Evidence that a test's scores reflect the theoretical attribute it claims to measure, shown through relationships with related and unrelated measures.

A coefficient of internal consistency estimating how closely a set of items measuring one construct hang together; values near one indicate high inter-item consistency.

A statistical technique that reduces many observed variables to a smaller number of underlying dimensions or factors, often used to examine test structure.

A measure of the spread of scores around the mean, equal to the square root of the average squared deviation from the mean.

A symmetric, bell-shaped probability distribution in which most scores cluster near the mean, with frequencies declining predictably toward the tails.

An approach that combines quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis within one study to answer questions that neither strand could address alone.

The use of multiple data sources, methods, investigators, or theories to cross-check findings and strengthen confidence in the conclusions drawn.

Selection of participants such that every member of the population has a known, non-zero chance of inclusion, enabling generalisation from sample to population.

A probability technique in which the population is divided into homogeneous subgroups and random samples are drawn from each, ensuring representation of every stratum.

The difference between a sample statistic and the corresponding population parameter that arises purely because only part of the population was observed.

A statement of no effect or no difference between groups, assumed provisionally true and tested against sample data to decide whether it can be rejected.

The probability of obtaining a test statistic at least as extreme as that observed, assuming the null hypothesis is true; a small value suggests the data are unlikely under that assumption.

Rejecting a true null hypothesis, that is, concluding an effect exists when in reality it does not; its probability is set by the chosen significance level.

Failing to reject a false null hypothesis, that is, missing a real effect; its probability is related to statistical power.

The probability that a test will correctly detect an effect of a given size when one truly exists; it rises with larger samples and lower error variance.

Principles governing conduct with human participants, including informed consent, confidentiality, minimisation of harm, and honest reporting of findings.

Voluntary agreement to participate in research given after being told the purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, and the right to withdraw at any time.