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.

References Are recommendations of employment provided by people who know you and have worked with you. They can be either written or verbal.

Referent An object, event, or interaction that we refer back to.

Referral Questions Questions from various parties concerned about a child’s learning and developmental progress or problems.

Reflection The process of looking within ourselves to better understand our motivations, the root causes of our actions, and the way others see us. Also looking at others as they see themselves to understand their motivations and actions. Through reflection, we can identify the most productive ways to interact and work cooperatively.

Reflective Functioning Looking beneath human behavior to the feelings and motivations that drive behavior.

Reflective Listening A way of listening that does not answer client questions, debate ideas or provide advice, but simply mirrors the client’s ideas back to them.

Reflective Practice A teaching approach that involves thinking critically about different perspectives, questioning established methodologies, and trying new practices based on emerging understanding.

Reflective Teaching Log Describes a journal that records a high amount of detail regarding the teaching experience. The student teacher is required to log the day’s events, then choose one specific event and analyze it.

Reflective Thinking Purposeful and continuous questioning about past events to resolve educational issues and improve one’s pedagogical approach.

Reflectivity The tendency toward introspection and to analyze oneself and one’s thoughts.

Reflexes Instinctive, innate, and automatic responses to stimuli. An example includes, eye blinking in response to bright light.

Reflexive Conditioning Is another term for conditioned behavior: behavior that responds to a stimulus that doesn’t normally cause that reflexive response.

Reggio Emilia Preschool Programs Started in the town of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, this preschool program focuses on making good citizens. Children learn through exploring ideas and through project-based activities. For instance, these programs may incorporate gardening so students can work together to learn about how plants grow and how food nourishes the body. Additionally, Reggio Emilia aims to document learning throughout the year with photos, videos, and observations for review.

Regional Dialects A comprehensive and developed system of language that is distinct to a particular geographic area.

Registrar The institutional official who is charged with registering students and keeping their official academic records, which are referred to as transcripts.

Registration The process during which students enroll in the classes that they would like to take during an academic term.

Regression Toward the Mean When the first set of test scores are extremely high or low by random chance, the next set of test scores are more likely to move back toward the average.

Regrouping A grouping method in which students placed in classes of varying abilities are assigned to reading or math classes based on their performance levels in each subject.

Rehearsal A stage in the writing process in which the writer mentally reviews and tests out different versions of a piece of work before making a final selection.

Rehearsal A technique often used to improve information retention, which involves mental repetition of information.

Rehearsal When a child practices newly developing language both out loud and in their head.  

Reinforcer A favorable or pleasant consequence that is used to support, sustain, or further bolster certain conduct.

Relational Aggression The use of manipulation in a relationship or control over others to harm people. Relational aggression tends to be more common in girls.

Relationship-based Guidance The use of emotional relationships between an adult and child in teaching situations or guidance.

Relaxation Response A response triggered by the parasympathetic nervous system which causes an individual to relax, rest or calm down.

Reliability The degree to which the results of a standardized test are consistent and replicable.

Religious Freedom Is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or religious belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or to follow any religion.

Religious Idealism Theorizes that there are two separate worlds: the worlds of God and humanity. St. Augustine (AD 354–430) was a religious idealist who speculated that God created knowledge and that we must uncover this unchanging truth. Throughout the history of the United States, the religious idealism of Christianity has been the most influential on education, although idealism from other religions is a strong part of education worldwide.

Religious Realism In Christianity was founded by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1275). Aquinas presumed that God is pure reasoning, which is the truth of all things. He believed the sole purpose of existence is to reunite the soul with God.

Remedial Counseling Programs A therapeutic counseling model for gifted students who are facing struggles. The counselor is considered to be “on-call” whenever the need arises.

Remediation A form of education that is provided to students who need more instructional support to master the competencies in subjects such as math and reading.

Removal Punishment A technique in behavior modification which takes away a pleasant consequence that reinforces a behavior to reduce the reoccurrence of the behavior.

Repeated Phrase Collaborative Poems A type of poem written by students, usually in small groups, from three short passages they found particularly meaningful in a book chapter or a content-related novel. The students create a repeated phrase and insert it after each of the passages they have selected.

Repeated Words Words that appear in nearly every sentence within a paragraph.

Repetition (Echolalia) When one child repeats something they have heard but presents it as a unique contribution to the conversation.

Replaced Words Substitutes for words that usually and repeatedly appear in a passage. Pronouns are an example.

Replacement Behavior A substitute behavior a child is taught to use to replace a challenging behavior.

ReQuest A teaching technique created by Manzo (1969) where students participate in an active discussion of a text. Students will create questions at multiple levels based on modeling received from the teacher. Both students and teachers will answer the questions.

ReQuest Procedure (or Reciprocal Questioning) A process used by individuals or within small groups that helps students set their reading objectives. The teacher guides the students as they continuously read a selection quietly until they can read independently. The teacher and students exchange questions after every sentence read until the point at which a general question is posed, and the students begin to read independently.