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.

Validity The degree to which an assessment accurately measures the skill, knowledge or characteristic it was designed to measure.

Value Clarification A technique that helps students (both gifted and other) probe their own emotions and beliefs.

Value-Added assessment Is designed to ensure that students are learning, by comparing their current knowledge and skills against their previous knowledge and skills. In essence, this type of assessment focuses on student growth, rather than comparisons to other students or accomplishments of specific achievement levels. The value-added assessment provides an objective way of evaluating teachers and is less about who a student is than about what goes on in the classroom.

Values Qualities or principles that are considered important by society.

Variable-Interval Schedule A reinforcement schedule which involves rewarding a desirable behavior after an unspecified and changeable amount of time.

Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule A reinforcement schedule which involves rewarding a desirable behavior after an unspecified and changeable number of behaviors.

Venn Diagram, A reading comprehension strategy, used to note similarities and differences on a given topic. It is viewed as two interlocking circles where the differences appear in the outer portions of the circles and similarities are noted in the shared space between them. It is named for its creator, John Venn.

Verbal Comprehension How well students can decipher the language that they read or hear.

Verbal Learning The process of acquiring skills in working with and knowledge about words, including facts expressed in words.

Verbal/linguistic Intelligence Comprehension of the meaning of words; a well-developed capability to understand spoken or written communication and to speak or write in a way that allows their meaning to be understood.

Verbalisms Words used when the speaker has no first-hand account or basis.

Vernacular Dialects Belonging to a type of language often used in informal contexts. This form of communication is often perceived to be used commonly within groups with lower socioeconomic status.

Vestibular Processing The function of the inner ear in perceiving balance and the relation of the body to its environment.

Vicarious Learning Learning by examining the consequences of the behavior of others.

Virtual Laboratories These Web applications give students the chance to perform physical science experiments over and over, from anywhere with Internet access. As in a physical lab, the performance of the student will determine the results of the investigation. While not a replacement for all in-lab exercises, the virtual version can provide extra practice and guidance. There is no pressure to “get it right” on the first run, and mistakes are allowable because the technology lends itself to no-cost repetition. It also may prove a smart solution to rekindling the American public’s interest in the scientific.

Virtual Schools Instruction is delivered in virtual schools without the need for a physical space or infrastructure because learning takes place primarily via technology. Virtual schools also offer everything available to students in physical schools, such as rules that must be followed, a teaching staff, organized field trips, and parent-teacher conferences. Although they didn’t surface until the 1990s, the popularity of virtual schools is evidenced by the fact that half of all states in America now offer some type of online learning program. Almost three-quarters of a million students incorporate online learning into their education. In fact, due to the need of the current generation to possess online literacy, Michigan recently made it compulsory for students to include online learning as part of their education.

Visual Acuity The degree of clarity and sharpness with which an individual can see.

Visual Language Communication through visual representations; conveying meaning through the use of images.

Visual Perception The level of visual awareness, including the ability to discriminate visual representations, having constancy in spatial orientation, and visual memory.

Visual Processing Disorder A disorder in which a person has problems and issues interpreting visual information. For instance, not being able to ascertain the difference between the two shapes.

Visual Processing The ability to understand and process visual information.

Visual Synthesizing In reading, a process that follows the blending of sounds and enables readers to analyze words without resorting to sounding them out mentally.

Visualizing A reading comprehension strategy where readers will create mental images of the text as they read.

Visually Representing A form of communication-related to the creation of images—such as graphs, charts, maps, clusters, drawings, and murals—that is used to understand the text.

Visuomotor Mean Pertaining to visual and motor functions collectively.

VLE A Virtual Learning Environment is a platform that enables both students and educators to share materials relevant to the course. Modern VLEs such as Blackboard and Moodle, support a wide variety of learning technologies, including online quizzes and video broadcasts of lectures.

Vocabulary Bookmark A vocabulary strategy where students monitor their own understanding and capability of learning new words. Each student chooses a word from assigned texts that they believe the entire class needs to discuss.

Vocabulary Development A term used to describe a student’s increasing knowledge of words and definitions.

Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS)  A vocabulary strategy created by Haggard in 1986, where students select their own vocabulary words to encourage a higher interest.

Vocational Rehabilitation A collection of services that are offered to people with disabilities which are created to help them develop the skills that one needs to obtain and hold on to a job.

Voice Disorders Problems with the duration, intensity, pitch, or quality of the voice.

Voices of Composing The author’s viewpoints on the various aspects of writing, including the expressive, poetic or imaginative, and expository elements.

Voluntary Immigrants Immigrants who made a choice to emigrate from one country to another.

Vowel Include the letters: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y (my) and w (flew). Vowels can be long, short, or make vague sounds (like oo).

Vowels and Diphthongs The IPA chart depicts vowels on the vowel quadrilateral with the shape and, in particular, the corners of the quadrilateral resembling the general relationship of the tongue position during the vowel productions [a], [i]. [o], [u]. Vowels can be described as advancement, tongue height, tenseness, rounding, length, and nasality. In relation, diphthongs reflect a single syllable that involves movement from one vowel to the next.