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.
Senior A student who is in their fourth year of high school or college.
Sense of Community The belief that the members of a group are important to each other and that the group will take care of its members. A sense of belonging.
Sensitive Periods Times in development when learning particular skills occurs most efficiently. This concept is controversial and many exceptions exist, but many people believe in this sensitive periods or windows of opportunity to teach certain skills.
Sensitivity The capacity to perceive things through the senses – see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.
Sensitivity Training Teaching from an adult to an entire class to instruct them on empathy for a student who may be different.
Sensorimotor Mean Involving sensory and motor functions collectively.
Sensorimotor Thought A period of time where thoughts transition from being motoric to being partially internalized.
Sensory Enhancers Depending on developmental patterns, children may need to learn differently than their peers. Instead of ABCs and numbers first, a child with language delays may benefit from bright pictures or colors to learn new concepts. Sensory enhancers may include voice analyzers, augmentative communication tools, or speech synthesizers. With the rapid growth of technology in the classroom, these basic tools of assistive technology are seeing great strides.
Sensory Integration The understanding of sensations from the body and stimuli from the environment to form the appropriate response.
Sensory Processing Disorder When a child does not display the correct response to sensory activity, such as sudden sounds or bright lights. Children with this disorder sometimes have issues with alterations of their daily routine, the taste or consistency of some foods or the sensation of certain types of cloth on their skin.
Sensory Processing The capacity to perceive sensory input from one’s own body and the environment and use that information to make decisions.
Sensory Register A component of memory which collects and holds information for short periods of time.
Sensory Regulation An individual’s capacity to perceive input through the senses, organize the input and make decisions based on this information.
Sensory Threshold The point at which sensory input is recognized by an individual at a particular point in time.
Sensual Excitability One of Dabrowski’s five areas of overexcitabilities. Students who have sensual excitability often have greater degrees of enjoyment from sensual experiences such as seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and touching things.
Separation Anxiety Is when a child becomes anxious or upset when separated from his parents. This anxiety can manifest itself in crying, clinging on to parents, or even throwing tantrums. It’s difficult to witness, but separation anxiety is common and natural during early childhood.
Sequel A reading activity in which students imagine possible future events of a story through writing.
Sequence A text pattern that clearly outlines the steps in a process or lists the order in which events happened.
Serial Learning The process of memorizing of some items in a particular order.
Seriation The sequential arrangement of objects according to a particular quality such as size, weight, or volume.
Service Coordination Cooperation between different service providers for at-risk children and families.
Service-Learning Is a strategy used to approach teaching and learning in which students use their knowledge and skills to address actual community needs.
Sexism The belief that one gender is superior to the other and must maintain that status. This most often surfaces in the belief that men are better than women and must keep up with their powerful positions.
Sex-Role Behavior Socially accepted conduct that is associated with one gender as opposed to another.
Sexual Harassment In the context of the school environment, involves unwelcome sexual advances, including sexual remarks, and harassment that is sexual.
