Tooltip Categories: Site glossary

the way in which different concepts are related through conceptual linkages – it can refer to an abstract structure of a topic – or to the way a person understands a topic

A concept map is a graphical representation of a conceptual structure. Concept maps may be used as teaching tools, planning tools, revision tools, assessment tools, research tools…

Read about concept maps

"to what extent items within a particular scale or instrument seem to be targeted at the same underlying construct or knowledge facet" (Taber, 2018, p.1294)

 

example of use:

"Not all papers reporting instruments include a listing of the final items included, but where authors do include the full list of items, it is possible for readers to consider for themselves the relationship between different items in a multi-scale instrument–to make a reader judgement of what might be called face equivalence, the extent to which items appear to be eliciting the same underlying knowledge facet, opinion or perception." (Taber, 2018, p.1288)

the extent to which different items in an instrument scale elicit the same responses from respondents: degree of item equivalence

the extent to which a set of items in a scale elicit the same pattern of responses from a sample

Read about 'Internal consistency'

appearing ('on the face of it') to measure what is purported to be measure

 

example of use:

"Among the items included in the instrument were … providing face validity at least that the items in the different scales were indeed eliciting responses based on different emotions" (Taber, 2018, p.1294)

 

in the science learning doctor approach to diagnostic assessment, a learning bug is a flaw in the teaching-learning system due to a learner's ideas/thinking not matching the expected pre-requisite knowledge

Read about the 'Science Learning Doctors' approach

Read about 'The typology of learning impediments [Classifying learning bugs]'

some alternative conceptions are so well entrenched in traditions of science teaching practice and science textbooks that they can be passed on form one generation of teachers to their students, some of whom becomes teachers – who them pass on the same ideas to their students

of giftedness: that giftedness is not a fixed quality, but should be an evaluation made in the context of a particular learning task at a particular time

Access courses are at pre-University level and were intended for students who leave school without university entrance qualifications (such as 'A levels') and then later wish to apply for University degree courses. Access courses are usually one year courses, only open to mature students. They  are meant to contribute to the 'widening participation agenda' given that students from more challenging backgrounds are less likely to undertake and complete university entrance level courses immediately after completing compulsory schooling.

an alternative term for submicroscopic entities (ions, molecules, electrons, etc.) where their wave properties are important, as well as their 'particle' properties, given that learners often think the word 'particles' refers to the scale of a powder grain or dust speck. The term quanticle was suggested for use in teaching. Some scientists have suggested the term 'quanton'.

an expression which was originally mooted as a metaphor, but has become so familiar it has become accepted and its metaphoric origins have been forgotten (e.g.,  a covalent bond involves electron sharing)

Example:

"…the reference to there being a 'genetic code' is so well established as part of everyday language, that the metaphor may readily be missed…for the physics teacher, resistance may simply be a way of labelling how much p.d. is required to produce a certain amount of current flow, rather than having potential implications of being an active opposition to that flow" (Taber, 2013, p.1379)