SPSC Subject Specialist key terms

The art and science of teaching, covering the methods, strategies, and classroom decisions a teacher makes to help learners acquire knowledge and skills, together with the reasons behind those choices.

A six-level classification of learning objectives-remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating-used by teachers to design tasks that demand progressively deeper thinking.

Statements describing what learners should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson or course, usually written with observable verbs so that achievement can be checked.

A written outline of a single lesson showing objectives, materials, the sequence and timing of activities, and how learning will be checked, prepared in advance to keep teaching organised.

Ongoing checks of understanding made during teaching-questioning, quizzes, observation, or short tasks-used to adjust instruction and give feedback rather than to award final grades.

Assessment at the end of a unit, term, or course that judges how much a student has achieved against standards, usually for grading, promotion, or certification.

A scoring guide listing the criteria for a task and describing levels of performance for each criterion, so that marking is transparent and different assessors reach similar judgements.

Planning teaching so that content, activities, or expected products are adjusted to learners' readiness, interests, and learning profiles while all students work towards the same essential outcomes.

A theory holding that learners build understanding by linking new information to what they already know, through active experience, discussion, and reflection rather than passive listening.

Vygotsky's term for the distance between what a learner can do unaided and what they can manage with guidance from a more capable person, marking the range where instruction is most effective.

Temporary support-worked examples, prompts, models, or step-by-step guides-that lets a learner complete a task they could not yet do alone, gradually removed as competence grows.

The routines, rules, seating arrangements, and relationships a teacher builds to keep a class orderly, safe, and engaged so that teaching time is not lost to disruption.

Sustained, planned learning by practising teachers-workshops, peer observation, mentoring, or further study-aimed at strengthening subject knowledge and classroom skill throughout a career.

The degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure and supports the conclusions drawn from scores; a consistent test can still fail this requirement.

The consistency of a test in giving stable results across repeated sittings, different markers, or comparable item sets; it is necessary for a useful test but not sufficient on its own.

The smallest unit of sound that can change a word's meaning in a language, such as the difference between /p/ and /b/ in pat and bat.

The smallest meaningful unit of a word; free morphemes can stand alone (book) while bound morphemes must attach to another unit (un-, -s).

The rules of a language that govern how words are arranged into phrases and sentences, including word order, agreement, and clause structure.

The study of how context, speaker intention, and social convention shape meaning beyond literal words-for example, when a question works as a polite request.

The variety of language a speaker or writer selects to suit a particular audience, purpose, or situation, ranging from formal academic writing to casual conversation.

An approach that organises language lessons around meaningful interaction and real tasks, aiming at fluency and communicative competence rather than memorisation of rules alone.

Reading a text quickly to grasp its general idea or gist, deliberately skipping details; useful for deciding whether a passage is worth reading closely.

Reading quickly through a text to find one specific item, such as a date, name, or figure, without reading every sentence in order.

Words and phrases-pronouns, conjunctions, repetition, synonyms-that link sentences and signal how ideas relate, so that a text reads as a connected whole.

The disciplined habit of questioning assumptions, judging the strength of evidence, spotting bias, and reaching conclusions through reasoning rather than accepting claims at face value.

A testable, provisional statement about the relationship between two or more things, framed so that evidence gathered in an investigation could support or contradict it.

In an experiment, the independent variable is the factor deliberately changed by the researcher; the dependent variable is the outcome measured to see whether that change had an effect.

A statistical measure of how strongly two variables move together, ranging from -1 to +1; it shows association and does not by itself prove that one causes the other.

A statistic showing how far scores typically spread from the mean of a set of data; a small value means scores cluster closely, a large value means wide variation.

A structured cycle of enquiry-observing, framing a question and hypothesis, testing with controlled evidence, analysing results, and revising explanations-used to build reliable knowledge.

Presenting another person's words, ideas, data, or images as one's own without proper acknowledgement, a serious breach of academic integrity whether done deliberately or carelessly.

The ability to find, evaluate, create, and share information using digital tools responsibly, including judging the credibility of online sources and using technology safely.

Pakistan's supreme written law, adopted in 1973, which sets out the federal structure, fundamental rights, and the powers of the executive, legislature, and judiciary.

A system of government in which power is divided constitutionally between a central authority and regional units, each exercising defined powers that the other cannot simply abolish.

The doctrine that legislative, executive, and judicial functions should be exercised by distinct institutions that check one another, reducing the risk of concentrated or arbitrary authority.

Seventeen global targets adopted by the United Nations in 2015, to be pursued by member states by 2030, covering poverty, education, health, inequality, and environmental protection.

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor, a package of infrastructure, energy, and port projects supported by Chinese investment, linking western China to Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, founded in 1985, a body of South Asian states intended to promote cooperation in trade, education, health, and other fields.

A sustained rise in the general price level of goods and services, which reduces the purchasing power of money and is usually tracked through changes in a consumer price index.

A 2015 international treaty under which countries commit to limiting global temperature rise by cutting emissions and reporting their progress, with each state setting its own targets.