JBTE Primary Education Exam key terms

Ongoing checks of student understanding during instruction, such as questioning, exit tickets, or observations, used to adjust teaching in the moment rather than to assign a final grade.

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what the learner can do with guidance from a more capable person; instruction is most effective inside this gap.

Temporary supports, such as models, prompts, or step-by-step guides, that help a student complete a task they cannot yet do independently; supports are gradually removed as competence grows.

Planning lessons so content, process, or product is varied to match students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles, while all students work toward the same essential standards.

A framework for designing lessons with multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression so that varied learners can access the curriculum without after-the-fact retrofitting.

A four-stage theory (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational) describing how children's thinking shifts from sensory exploration to abstract reasoning, with each stage building on the last.

The understanding that a quantity stays the same when its appearance changes, such as water poured into a taller glass; typically mastered in Piaget's concrete operational stage.

The drive to engage in an activity because it is interesting or satisfying in itself, rather than for external rewards or punishments; associated with deeper and more persistent learning.

The belief that ability can improve through effort, strategy, and feedback, contrasted with a fixed mindset; teachers foster it by praising process and treating errors as information.

The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words, such as blending or segmenting; it is oral and does not involve printed letters.

Broad awareness of the sound structure of spoken language, including syllables, rhymes, and onset-rime units; phonemic awareness is the most advanced part of this larger skill.

Instruction in the relationship between letters and the sounds they represent, used to help students decode unfamiliar printed words accurately and automatically.

Applying knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to translate printed words into spoken words; accurate decoding is a foundation for fluent reading and comprehension.

Reading with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression, which frees attention for meaning; often built through repeated oral reading with feedback.

Constructing meaning from text by integrating word knowledge, background knowledge, and strategies such as predicting, questioning, and summarizing; the ultimate goal of reading instruction.

The body of words a student understands and can use; explicit teaching of word meanings and word-learning strategies supports both reading comprehension and written expression.

The study of meaningful word parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots; teaching it helps students figure out unfamiliar words and spell more reliably.

The organizational pattern of a text, such as compare-contrast, cause-effect, sequence, or problem-solution; recognizing it helps readers predict and organize information.

A flexible understanding of numbers, their magnitudes, and their relationships, enabling students to estimate, compare, and judge whether answers are reasonable.

The principle that a digit's value depends on its position in a number, so that in 352 the 5 means five tens; foundational for computation and regrouping.

The ability to compute accurately, efficiently, and flexibly, choosing appropriate strategies rather than relying only on memorized procedures.

Concrete objects such as counters, base-ten blocks, or fraction tiles that students handle to build understanding of abstract mathematical ideas before moving to symbols.

An instructional progression that moves from hands-on materials to drawings and diagrams, and finally to symbols and algorithms, supporting students in connecting meaning to procedure.

The process of asking questions, forming predictions, gathering evidence through observation or fair tests, and revising explanations based on results.

A testable prediction about what will happen in an investigation, usually stated so that evidence could support or contradict it.

The factors in an investigation that can change; a fair test manipulates one independent variable while holding other conditions constant and measuring the dependent variable.

Firsthand evidence such as letters, photographs, artifacts, or interviews created during the period studied, used to build interpretations of past events.

An account created after an event that interprets or analyzes primary evidence, such as a textbook chapter or documentary; useful but once removed from the original moment.

The set of reasoning practices historians use, including sourcing, contextualizing, corroborating evidence, and recognizing cause, continuity, and change over time.

The habits and dispositions of responsible citizenship, such as respect for law, informed voting, service, and balancing individual rights with the common good.

Health-related elements including cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition, used to plan and assess physical activity.

Activity intense enough to raise heart rate and breathing, such as brisk walking or active games; children are generally recommended to accumulate at least sixty minutes daily.

Fundamental movement patterns that move the body from place to place, such as walking, running, jumping, hopping, skipping, and galloping, taught as building blocks for games and sports.

The basic visual building blocks including line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space, used to describe and create works in the visual arts.

Guidelines for organizing art elements, such as balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity; they describe how a composition is put together.

Specific, timely information about a student's work that describes what was done well and what to do next, given while the work can still be revised.

A clear, observable statement of what students should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson, typically naming a measurable action and a condition of performance.

A tiered schoolwide framework that teaches expected behaviors explicitly, reinforces them, and uses data to intensify support for students who need more help.

The routines, expectations, physical arrangement, and relationships a teacher establishes so that instruction proceeds smoothly and students feel safe and engaged.