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Abstraction: Understanding, processing, and combining of concepts or ideas leading to new knowledge or insights. Action Project: An activity planned and carried out with the intention of creating change regarding an issue. Action Skills: Observation, evaluation, critical thinking, communication, leadership, conflict resolution, and other skills necessary for identifying an issue and planning and executing the resolution of that issue. Advocacy: Espousing or pleading for a particular cause or point of view. Alternative Assessment: Methods which rely on creative demonstration of skills or knowledge to assess learning. Assessment: Evaluation of skills and knowledge acquired by learners during a learning experience. Assessment can take many forms, from basic testing such as true/false, multiple choice or matching tests to complex performance assessments. Attitude: Mental state based on personal beliefs. Authentic Assessment: Methods requiring the use of teamwork and problem-solving skills to produce a high-quality solution to a real problem. Belief: Acceptance of something as fact whether supported by evidence or not. Bias: Predilection; imbalanced attitude toward or against a certain person, group, institution, or issue. Breadth: Comprehensiveness; incorporating a broad range. (See Depth) Built Environment: Community and its objects and edifices created by humans. Cognitive Domain: One of three commonly recognized areas of learning, the cognitive dealing with remembering or understanding of concepts, ideas, facts. Community Action: Community level action project. Concept: A general idea or understanding, especially one based on common or related attributes of specific instances. For example, he concept of ecological interdependence--that all living elements of an ecological system depend on the others--is based on a knowledge of interrelationships among living things in many specific systems. Concept Map: A visual representation of related abstractions (ideas, beliefs, etc.). Conceptual Framework: An organized sequence of ideas that directs teaching towards a focused understanding. Constructivism: A guiding philosophy proposing that individuals make meaning of situations for themselves through a dynamic combination of knowledge they already possess, new knowledge presented to them, social interaction, and personal reflection and experience. This personally constructed knowledge by the learner evolves throughout the learner's lifetime. Context: Elements preceding, following, and logically connected to something else, as the context of a paragraph. Correlation: A mutual, complementary, or reciprocal relationship. Cost/Benefit Analysis: An examination of a program that seeks to evaluate the resources expended in relation to the outcome, often noted in financial terms. Creative Thinking: Thinking which results in connections or possibilities previously unrecognized or unknown to the learner. Critical Thinking: Analysis or consideration based on careful examination of information or evidence. Critical thinking relies on thoughtful questioning and logical thinking skills such as inductive and deductive reasoning. Cultural Perspective: A "world view" or belief system based on the mores and values embraced by one's culture. Depth: Focusing on one part or a narrow range while probing into details. (See Breadth)
Education: The imparting or creation of knowledge through any of several means including training, instruction, and facilitation. Educational Objective: A statement of a specific measurable or observable result desired from an activity. Environmental Awareness: Awareness of and concern about economic, social, political and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas. Environmental Literacy: Possessing knowledge about the environment and issues related to it; capable of, and inclined to, further self-directed environmental learning and/or action Experiential Education: Education based on personal experience or observation by the learner, direct experience rather than second hand information delivered through an intermediary such as a teacher or textbook. Field Test: Trial of educational materials under the conditions and in the locations for which they were developed in order to determine their quality. Geographical Scale: Representation of some part of, or area of, the earth's surface. Goal: A desired result from an activity, lesson, or course of study. Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Skills reflective of more complex thought processes, such as the synthesis of new knowledge or analysis of data vs. less complex processes such as rote recall or simple recognition. Interdisciplinary: Linking of two or more academic disciplines. Learner Centered: Instructional methods that are driven by the individual needs of the student. Learning Styles: The belief that individuals favor particular methods of learning (e.g., oral vs. written, self-taught vs. group-mediated) and can optimize their understanding when such methods are available to them within the learning environment. Multiple Intelligences. Theory advanced by Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books, 1993) that classifies cognitive abilities according to seven broadly grouped aptitudes: linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence. In 1998 an eighth intelligence, the naturalist intelligence, was added. Objective: See Educational Objective. Perception: A personal interpretation of an object, event, or situation based on previous experience. Primary Source: The originating point of information. Propagandistic: Intended to gather public support for a specific idea, action, or group. Referenced: Mentioned or alluded to, listed as a source of information. Reflection: Consideration of the process and implications of an action, activity, or new learning. Rubric: A scoring mechanism for performance- based tests that provides model answers within an objective framework. See also Alternative Assessment Secondary Source: A source of information once removed from the originator of the information. Self Efficacy: One's ability, or attitude about that ability, to be a catalyst or agent of change in one's own life and in situations involving others. Standards: Definitive statements of what learners should know or be able to achieve. Teacher Centered: Instructional strategies in which goals and objectives are set without input from students. Temporal Scale: Linear representation of events with reference to the passage of time; a time line. Tertiary Source: A source of information at least twice removed from the originator.
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