Academic learning time (ALT)

Academic Learning Time has been defined as time spent by a student engaged in a task in which few errors are produced and where the task is directly relevant to an academic outcome. The concept of ALT represents a considerable refinement over engaged time. ALT is positively correlated with achievement, whereas time unsuccessfully engaged in academic tasks is negatively related to student achievement.

In order to determine which tasks were directly relevant to an academic outcome, ALT researchers emphasized correspondence between the tasks and the tests that would be used to measure student achievement. The alignment among the teacher's instruction, student learning activities, the curriculum, and tests of student outcomes is an important issue. ALT addresses one of these relationships–namely, the alignment between the student learning activity and the test used to measure student outcomes. Clearly, increasing academic learning time is a high priority for the teacher. The measurement of ALT is complex, because one has to combine the assessment of the time-on-task with measures of success and measures of the appropriateness of the learning tasks.

In one study that documented ALT in a large number of classrooms, it was noted that ALT varied from 4 to 52 minutes per day. The researchers commented on this finding as follows:

"It may appear that this range from 4 to 52 minutes per day is unrealistically large. However, these times actually occurred in the classes in the study. Furthermore, it is easy to imagine how either 4 or 52 minutes per day of Academic Learning Time might come about. If 50 minutes of reading instruction per day is allocated to a student who pays attention about a third of the time, and one-fourth of the student's reading time is at a high level of success, the student will experience only about 4 minutes of engaged reading at a high success level. Similarly, if 100 minutes per day is allocated to reading for a student who pays attention 85 percent of the time at a high level of success for almost two-thirds of the time, [he or she] will experience about 52 minutes of Academic Learning Time per day."

The ALT notion of success in the engaged tasks represents a major refinement of the concept of engaged time.

Link: Research into Practice: Time Management

Accountability

A system whereby school personnel are held responsible for the quality of the instruction and the progress of students.

Achievement

Level of proficiency on a given set of standards.

Achievement test

A standardized test designed to measure knowledge and skills already learned by students.

Active listening

Mentally participating to the speaker.

ADD

Attention Deficit Disorder is a condition that inhibits the ability of the student to concentrate.

ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder is a condition that not only inhibits the ability to concentrate but also causes the learner to be impulsive, easily distracted and overly active.

Advance organizers

structures to help learners organize the new information.

Affective domain

The feelings, emotions and attitudes of individuals.

Algorithm

A rigid set of standards or rules for performing a task.

Alignment

Matching what is taught and tested to learning goals or standards.

Allocated time

Allocated time is the amount of time assigned for instruction in a content area, without reference to the quality of the activities being conducted during that time. In allocating time to a specific curriculum area, one must consider how the time is allocated as well as total time set aside for the class. The amount of time and the way it is distributed during the day, week, and school year are issues related to allocated time. In an extensive multi-year study of teaching practices, the following findings on the allocation of time were reported.

Within reading and mathematics, classes differed in the amount of time allocated to different skill areas. For example, in one second-grade class, the average student received 9 minutes of instruction over the whole school year in the arithmetic associated with the use of money. This figure can be contrasted with classes where the average second grader was allocated 315 minutes per school year in the curriculum content area of money. As another example, in the fifth grade some classes received less than 1,000 minutes of instruction in reading comprehension for the second year (about 10 minutes per day). This figure can be contrasted with classes where the average student was allocated almost 5,0000 minutes of instruction related to comprehension during the school year (about 50 minutes per day).

• The assumption that the curriculum and associated time allocations are set by school boards and administrators is only partly true. The final arbiter of what is taught is the classroom teacher.
• The research has documented wide variations among teachers for both content and time allocation decisions, even in the presence of clear and mandatory regulations detailing content and time allocations.
• The empirical data relating content coverage, or content emphasis to achievement, is clear. The opportunity to learn a content area is perhaps the most potent variable in accounting for achievement in that area.

Link: Research Into Practice: Time Management
Link: California Reading/Language Arts Framework: Goals and Key Components (PDF) page 4

Alternative (or authentic) assessment

Assessment of student’s knowledge and performance in a real-world context.

Application

Moving learning from knowledge to the ability to use the information.

Aptitude test

A standardized test that is designed to predict future performance levels in a given subject.

ASL

American Sign Language used by the hearing impaired.

Assertive discipline

Classroom management in which rules are given and applied consistently but without hostility.

Assessment

A measure of what students know (declarative information) and are able to do (procedures).

Assimilation

Fitting new knowledge into existing processes.

At risk

Students at risk of dropping out or of failure due to factors such as low socioeconomic status, pregnancy, prior failures and so forth. These students are deemed to need intervention in.

Available time

This is the time available for all school activities. The available time is limited by the number of days in a school year (approximately 180 days) and the number of hours in a school day (approximately six hours, including one hour of break time). Available time will be divided among all the diverse functions of a school, including the recreational, social, and academic goals that form the mandated and the hidden curriculum present in every school district.

Schools vary only slightly in the number of school days in a school year, but there is considerably more variability in the hours assigned per day and in the average daily attendance. Variations of up to two hours per day among school districts have been noted. The data on average daily attendance has shown that some schools within the same district provided 50 percent more schooling than other schools because of variations in average daily attendance.

Link: Research Into Practice: Time Management

Basic skills

Foundation skills such as reading and mathematics that form the basis for other skills.

Behavior disorder

Socially unacceptable behavior.

Behavior modification

Changing an undesirable behavior through a prescribed learning theory.

Behavioral objectives

The goals of the learning stated as observable behavior.

Benchmark

A baseline of data usually grade and/or subject specific.

Bilingual

The ability to use two languages although sometimes with differing skill levels.

Brain-based learning

Learning based on how the brain works.

Brainstorming

A teaching strategy in which students generate many ideas without concern about quality. The emphasis on getting a quantity of ideas on the table.

Chapter/Title I

Federal program in which money is given to districts that have a high number of disadvantaged students.

Checking for mastery

The place in the lesson where the teacher makes sure that students have mastered the learning before moving to the next step in the lesson.

Checking for understanding

The place in the lesson where the teacher checks to make sure that students understand before moving on in the teaching process.

Chronological age

Age in terms of calendar years.

Classroom climate

The mood of the classroom including teacher-student interactions, student-student interactions, and the belief system in the classroom.

Classroom control

The process of managing student behavior in the classroom.

Classroom management

The classroom climate as well as the teacher’s ability to manage behavior and the tasks of the class.

Closure

The part of the lesson in which the teacher summarizes the learning.

Coaching

Teaching that includes modeling, observation of student behaviors and immediate feedback.

Cognition

The mental operations of thinking.

Cognitive development

Thought and reasoning usually divided into two categories: knowledge or factual and Processes.

Cognitive objectives

Objectives that measure knowledge and/or processes demonstrated by the student.

Cohesiveness

The collective feelings or emotions of a group.

Compensatory education

Federal program in which funding is given to school to help disadvantaged students.

Competency test

A test to measure the ability of students to meet a given set of objectives usually state or national objectives.

Concept map

A graphic representation of relationships between and among a given set of criteria.

Constructivism

A learner centered approach based on the idea that students construct knowledge for themselves based on what they already know and by interactions with new information.

Convergent questioning

Questioning in which the number of possible answers is very limited, usually to one possible answer.

Cooperative learning

A teaching strategy in which students work together in groups toward a common goal.

Core curriculum

The required curriculum for all students.

Creative thinking

Thinking that leads to new ideas or ways of looking at things.

Criterion-referenced test

A standardized test designed to measure a student’s level of mastery of a given set of standards, goals or objectives.

Cultural pluralism

Occurs when all elements of society are valued and the language and traditions of the groups are maintained.

Decision making

The ability to make decisions from a set of choices.

Deductive learning

Learning that moves from general concepts to specific concepts.

Deductive reasoning

Reasoning that moves from general ideas to a specific conclusion.

Deficiency needs

Maslow used this term to describe the basic needs of survival, safety, belonging and self-esteem.

Diagnostic test

A test designed to identify areas of strength and weakness in a student.

Discipline

The control of student behavior in the classroom.

Discovery learning

A teaching technique in which the following processes are followed: 1)identify the problem, 2)develop a hypotheses, 3)test the hypothesis, 4)arrive at a conclusion.

Distributed practice

Practice that is repeated over time, usually at pre-set intervals.

Divergent thinking

Thinking that leads to a conclusion or product that is unique to the individual.

Diversity

Differences within a group.

Dyslexia

A disorder in which the individual has difficulty learning to read, write and spell.

Early childhood

Children from age 1 to 5.

Empathy

The ability to understand the feelings and actions of others.

Empirical questions

Questions that require a judgment be made.

Engaged time

Engaged time is the amount of time the student is actively involved in such learning tasks as writing, listening, and responding to teacher questions. Engaged time does not include classroom tasks such as handing in a paper or waiting for a teacher to pass out materials, or inappropriate activities such as disruptive talking to another student or daydreaming.

Ethnicity

The ethnic identity of an individual or group.

Explicit instruction

The intentional design and delivery of information by the teacher to the students. It begins with (1) the teacher's modeling or demonstration of the skill or strategy; (2) a structured and substantial opportunity for students to practice and apply newly taught skills and knowledge under the teacher's direction and guidance; and (3) an opportunity for feedback. (see teaching functions).

Link: Research Into Practice: Teaching Functions

Extrinsic motivation

Motivation that is triggered by rewards outside the individual.

Factual questions

Questions that require the recall of information.

FAPE

Free Appropriate Public Education guaranteed by federal law to special education students.

Focus

The stage of the lesson in which the teacher gains the attention of the students to provide the lesson objectives.

Formative assessment

Assessment that takes place throughout the lesson.

Formative evaluation

The gathering of data, during the time a program is being developed, to guide the development process.

Gender bias

Favorable treatment of one sex over the other.

Graphic organizers

structural organizers that visually help students to organize and see relationships in the learning.

Grouping, heterogeneous

A method of grouping in which students of varying abilities, interests, achievement levels and backgrounds are grouped together.

Grouping, homogeneous

A method of grouping in which students with the same abilities, interests, achievement levels or backgrounds are grouped together.

Guided practice

and independent practice represent different points on a different continuum, so no absolute dividing point can be established to discriminate between the two related activities. Guided practice should be conducted in small steps and should be intensely supervised. It should prevent the development of consistent error patterns and inappropriate practices. This means that guided practice must be designed and implemented so that errors are identified and reteaching conducted immediately.

Researchers have stressed the need for students to practice their new knowledge or skill under direct teacher supervision. They note that New learning is like wet cement; it is easily damanged. An error at the beginning of learning can be easily set so that it is harder to eradicate than had it been apprehended immediately.

The research literature has consistently stressed the importance of appropriate amounts of guided practice for all learners, but nowhere is this guided practice more important than with low achievers. It has been noted that, The important element seems to be the provision of controlled practice with positive teacher feedback. The fact that certain members of the class will require more guided practice than others suggests that each lesson should contain a certain amount of time in which the higher-achieving students are working on independent practice, while the teacher is working closely with low-achieving students on guided practice.

The effectiveness of guided practice can be evaluated by measures of student success in independent practice. If students are at least 80 percent successful when they begin the subsequent independent practice, then guided practice has been appropriately conducted. (See scaffolding as a vehicle to provide guided practice.

Guided student practice

Guided student practice serves as a bridge between activities designed to present new material and independent student practice. The guided student practice is integrated into activities designed to present new material. In math instruction, for example, guided practice could involve having the student practice one or several steps in the algorithm used to solve a single calculation or problem. In the more advanced stages of presenting new material, guided practice could involve the presentation of several math problems and the associated feedback procedures.

Head start

A federally funded program for preschoolers who are economically deprived.

Hypothesize

Making an educated guess.

IDEA

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that provides special education and services for children with disabilities.

Illiterate

Unable to read or write.

Impulsivity

The tendency to respond without thinking or to give up easily.

Independent practice

The phase of instruction that occurs after skills and strategies have been explicitly taught and practiced under teacher direction or supervision. Independent practice involves the application of newly taught skills in familiar formats or tasks and reinforces skill acquisition.

Link: Research into Practice: Teaching Functions

Independent study

An instructional strategy in which students are allowed to pursue a topic on their own usually with a product as the end result.

Indirect teaching

A teaching strategy in which the student learns through discovery.

Inductive reasoning

Making a general conclusion based on several examples.

Inquiry

Asking questions to obtain information.

Instructional strategy

The teaching method or plan.

Interdiscipinary instruction

Instruction based on themes that crosses disciplines and grade levels.

Internalization

The learning, idea or process becomes a part of the learner so that it is second nature.

Intrinsic motivation

Motivation triggered from within usually from a perceived need or goal.

Inventory questions

Questions that require the student to provide his or her feelings and thoughts.

Knowledge questions

Questions that require the student to recall factual information.

Labeling

Assigning a category to an individual.

Learned helplessness

The belief that the individual has no control over his or her circumstances. This belief has been created over time.

Learning center or station

A location within a classroom in which students are presented with instructional materials, specific directions, clearly defined objectives, and opportunities for self-evaluation.

Link: Research into Practice: Teaching Functions

Learning style

How a student approaches learning tasks and takes in information to the brain.

Long-term memory

Storage systems in the brain that hold information over time.

Massed practice

Repeating the practice over and over in a short span of time.

Mental age

The estimate of mental development derived by a formula using the IQ of the individual and the chronological age.

Metacognition

The process of thinking about our thinking and how we learned information.

Minilesson

Direct instruction on specific topics or skills. This direct and explicit instruction can also be conducted to benefit students who need more information or further clarification of skills or topics already taught. The lessons, or series of lessons, are connected to the broader goal of getting students to become independent readers and writers. They are presented briefly and succinctly on the assumption that such information will be added to the set of ideas, strategies, and skills to be drawn upon as needed.

Mnemonic

A teaching method that helps aid a student’s ability to store and retrieve factual information.

Modality

The way that an individual takes in information through the senses (see, hear, smell, touch, taste).

Nonverbal cues

Communicating a message without words through body language such as eye contact or facial expressions.

Norm-referenced test

A test designed to compare a student’s score with the average score of a specified (norm) group.

Norms

Rules that apply to everyone.

Objective

A description of the desired result of the learning.

On-task behavior

Behavior that is appropriate to the learning situation.

Pacing

Pacing has two related dimensions. One dimension, curriculum pacing, is concerned with the rate at which progress is made through the curriculum. The second dimension, lesson pacing, is concerned with the pace at which a teacher conducts individual lessons. One team of researchers summed up the importance of pacing as follows:

". . . researchers have shown that most students, including low-achieving students, learn more when their lessons are conducted at a brisk pace, because a reasonably fast pace serves to stimulate student attentiveness and participation, and because more content gets covered by students. This assumes, of course, that the lesson is at a level of difficulty that permits a high rate of student success; material that is too difficult or presented poorly cannot be learned at any instructional pace."

Thus, pacing, like many other characteristics of effective instruction, shows considerable variability among teachers and has a pronounced effect on student achievement.

In comparing effective and less effective teachers, researchers noted that less effective teachers covered 37 percent less when measured on a daily rate. Less effective teachers tended to try and catch up late in the course and then provided too much material without any distributed practice to consolidate and review the content. Clearly, the amount of content covered daily relates to other skills and should be viewed as both a symptom and a cause.

Link: Research Into Practice: Time Management (PDF) page 6

Pedagogy

The science of teaching.

Percentile

The score at or which the scores fall. For example, 50th percentile means that 50% of the scores fall at or below 50.

Performance based assessment

See authentic assessment.

Phonics approach

An instructional practice in which words are sounded out.

Prerequisite skills

One of the characteristics of a master teacher is the appropriate treatment of prerequisite skills. The master teacher knows what new material is likely to be difficult for students and which prerequisite skills are important for the successful introduction of new material. Rather than place students in remedial situations, the master teacher will try to prevent errors and misconcepts by making sure that the new material is introduced in small steps and that students demonstrate mastery of the critical prerequisite skills before starting the sequence of small steps.

Link: Research Into Practice: Teaching Functions

Probing questions

Questions that require the student to think about their answers and to answer in a more complex or complete manner than their initial response.

Reciprocal teaching

An instructional approach in which students learn to ask teacher-type probing questions.

Reflective practitioner

A teacher who consistently thinks about his or her performance in the classroom and makes changes as needed.

Scaffolding

The temporary support, guidance, or assistance provided to a student on a new or complex task. For example, students work in partnership with a more advanced peer or adult who scaffolds the task by engaging in appropriate instructional interactions designed to model, assist, or provide necessary information. The interactions should eventually lead to independence. (See guided instruction.)

Link: Resarch Into Practice: Teaching Functions (PDF) page 6.

Schema

Our mental pictures that guide our behavior.

Self-concept

How a person sees himself or herself. (Based on feelings).

Self-efficacy

The belief in oneself that he or she can do something. Self-efficacy is based on prior experience. (Based on facts).

Simulation

An enactment that represents real life to the extent possible. Simulation is limited in its ability to include the risks and complex factors of real-life situations.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

The ability of an individual or group to obtain resources needed for success.

Structured/guided practice

A phase of instruction that occurs after the teacher explicitly models, demonstrates, or introduces a skill or strategy. In this phase students practice newly learned skills or strategies under teacher supervision and receive feedback on performance. This critical interactive phase involves teachers and students.

Link: Research into Practice: Teaching Functions

Summative assessment

The assessment that comes at the end of a body of learning and is usually used to determine success or failure.

Summative evaluation

An overall assessment or decision regarding a program.

Systematic instruction

The strategic design and delivery of instruction that examines the nature of the objective to be learned and selects and sequences the essential skills, examples, and strategies necessary to achieve the objective by (1) allocating sufficient time to essential skills; (2) scheduling information to minimize confusion on the part of the learner; (3) introducing information in manageable and sequential units; (4) identifying prerequisite skills and building on prior knowledge of the learner; (5) reviewing previously taught skills; (6) strategically integrating old knowledge with new knowledge; and (7) progressing from skills in easier, manageable contexts to more complex contexts. (See teaching functions.)

Teaching functions

The term teaching functions refers to classroom experiences that serve to move students from a lack of mastery to mastery in an academic content area. A synthesis of the research provides the following summary statement on teaching functions:

In general, researchers have found that when effective teachers teach well structured subjects, they

1. Begin a lesson with a short review of previous prerequisite learning.
2. Begin a lesson with a short statement of goals.
3. Present new material in small steps, with student practice after each step.
4. Give clear and detailed instructions and explanations.
5. Provide a high level of active practice for all students.
6. Ask a large number of questions, check for student understanding, and obtain responses from all students.
7. Guide students during initial practice.
8. Provide systematic feedback and corrections.
9. Provide explicit instruction and practice for seatwork exercises and, where necessary, monitor students during seatwork.

The major components in systematic teaching include teaching in small steps (with student practice after each step), guiding students during initial practice, and providing all students with a high level of successful practice. Of course, all teachers use some of these behaviors some of the time, but the most effective teachers use most of them almost all the time.

Link: Research into Practice: Teaching Functions

Transfer

The ability to apply knowledge and processes in a new situation.

Transition time

For transitions to occur quickly and smoothly,

• The teacher must have materials ready and demonstrate confidence in closing one activity and initiating the next.
• The teacher must exercise increased vigilance during the transition period.
• The student must enter the next activity with interest and the expectation of success.

The skillful management of transitions does far more than save time. Misbehavior is most likely to occur when there is a lag in the continuity of a lesson. Teachers deal with more deviant behaviors during transitions than during any other time. The management of transitions is one of the most critical management tasks faced by teachers.

Link: Research into Practice: Time Management

Wait time

The amount of time a teacher waits for a student to respond to a question before moving on to another student.