To be considered a competent educator, there are almost 2000 strategies, concepts, and terms that you must know. However, since teachers wear so many hats, who has the time to learn them all? Don’t worry; we have you covered. In this series, we will discuss all the teaching and learning strategies, concepts, and terms that you need to know to be considered an effective educator. There are over 70 articles in this series, so pace yourself. We recommend reading one piece per weekday, which will allow you to complete the series in three to four months. We hope you enjoy it.
Click here to read all the articles in this series.
Narrative Ability Competence in sociolinguistics including linguistic aptitude, fluency of expression, and the ability to categorize and order ideas.
Narrative Pyramid A reading comprehension strategy similar to a Bio-Pyramid to help summarize or retell texts such as short stories or novels.
Narrative Report The documentation of an elementary school student’s progress through descriptive summary or overview rather than a report card. The narrative report details skills, behaviors and learning goals mastered.
Narrow Reading Reading text on one topic from several different sources.
National Education Association (NEA) Is the largest professional organization and labor union, representing not only public school teachers and related personnel, but also retired educators and college students who wish to become teachers.
Nationalism Is a national spirit, the love of a country, and the emotional ties to the interests of a nation and the symbols that represent it. The United States, rather than having a national educational system, has 50 state school systems that work together and use similar methods. Nationalism began to be established in the 19th century.
Native Language The initial language that a person learns to speak
Nativism Is an academic term denoting the ethnocentric belief that the established inhabitants of a nation should have favored status over immigrants or other newcomers
Natural User Interfaces In its simplest definition, a natural user interface (NUI) uses the body’s movements to achieve certain outcomes. In the consumer market, examples of NUIs include the Nintendo® WiiTM, Xbox KinectTM, and the iPhone virtual assistant, Siri. The potential in the field of K–12 education is still being realized but will certainly lead to developments in the next half-decade. Students who are blind, deaf, or have physical disabilities or autism can better learn through the use of this still-evolving technology.
Naturalist Intelligence An individual’s capacity for recognizing and grouping objects in nature.
Naturalistic Environment The area where a child would be educated if they did not have special needs that prohibit them from learning in that setting.
Naturalistic Intervention An intervention that makes use of materials in the child’s immediate environment and is reflective of the environment.
Naturalistic Observation The observation of a child in a number of settings that are relatively familiar instead of in an unfamiliar or contrived setting. This might be done to observe how the child learns from experience, solves problems, and the level of activities that the child participates in on a regular basis.
Naturalness and Markedness Naturalness and markedness are complementary terms to classify speech sounds. Specifically, natural features are thought to be easier to articulate, acquired earlier by children, and more common in/across languages. Marked features, however, are considered more difficult to articulate, acquired later, and are less common across languages.
Need for Skill Building A situation in which a student knows expected of him but does not have the skill to behave appropriately.
Need-Based Financial Aid Financial assistance that is given to students based on their powerlessness to pay the full the full cost of their college expenses.
Needs Assessment The gap between the existing program for gifted education in a school or district and the desired program.
Negative Reinforcement A part of the Behavioral Theory that refers to the relationship between two events and the increase in behavior when a stimulus is removed. For example, a frightening situation could be modified to increase communication.
Negative Self-Talk Inner dialogue that is filled with criticism and negative thoughts about the self.
Neglectful Parenting Style Neglectful parenting, also called uninvolved parenting, is characterized by both low demands and low responsiveness. Neglectful parents are emotionally distant and provide little to no supervision. They have few expectations and are often too consumed with their problems to care for their children. As a result, they may intentionally avoid their kids.
Neurologist A doctor who studies the nervous system.
Neurons The specialized cells of the nervous system.
Neuroscience Is the study of how the human nervous system develops, its structure, and function. The subcategories of computational, cognitive, cultural, linguistic and developmental neuroscience focus on different pathways in learning. We can derive a greater understanding of how our minds develop, what influences higher education functions, and how to better retain information from the science behind learning.
Neutral Stimuli Conditions in the environment that do not induce a particular reaction in the senses.
New Literacies Literacy skills that allow learners to utilize the Internet and other Information Communication Technologies to identify important questions, find and evaluate useful information, and synthesize that information to answer questions before communicating those answers to other people. This was first coined by Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, and Cammack in 2004.
Next Generation Science Standards Is a multi-state effort to develop educational standards for science that are rich in content and application, which can be deployed in a logical manner across grade levels and disciplines. These standards are intended to teach the overlapping nature of science subjects, rather than to present lessons in topic isolation.
Next-Generation Assessment Systems Evaluation methods which use technology to measure increasingly complex tasks and a wide variety of skills.
