social kinds

are types of things found in the social world, but which do not represent essential, eternal type, rather they derive from human institutions and are subject to social consensus, so can change over time (e.g., schools, lessons, school leadership, gifted learners, school subjects)

cf. natural kinds

natural kinds

are the types of things (considered to be) found to exist in nature – that is, it is assumed that the natural world is made up of certain types of things, each type with its own essence: e.g., dogs, planets, mitochondria, etc.

metacognition

cognition about cognition – being able to reflect on one's thinking

gestalt

seeing something as a single integrated whole, rather than as an arrangement of constituent parts. The term is associated with the Gestalt school of psychology

'A Level'

General Certificate of Education Advanced Level – examinations taken by some students, often at age 18, in England, and used (in particular) to seek admission to university undergraduate courses

pragmatic notion of giftedness

judging a person to be gifted in the particular context where they meant to be learning, when the work set for the group is not sufficiently challenging

 

"In just about any science class, in any school anywhere in the world, work that is set to be accessible to all class members will be of minimal educative value to some members of the class because although they can readily complete the work, they will learn little from it." (Taber & Riga, 2016)

nomothetic

concerned with general patterns and norms, with laws

(often contrasted with ideographic)

idiographic

concerned with the individual case – research that seeks to learn about the individual as a complex entity in its own terms

idiographic research values the individuality of specific examples, often contrasted with nomothetic research which looks for the typical patterns (and ideally 'laws')

Visit web-page: Idiographic research