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.

Secondary Reinforcer A consequence that people come to consider valuable through its interaction with or connection to a primary reinforcer.

Secondary Sources Sources with information on a topic that is based entirely on other sources, not firsthand experience.

Segregation Refers to the unjust separation of different kinds of humans into racial groups in daily life that may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a washroom, attending school, and going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home.

Selective Screening An approach to screening that targets specific populations of children such as those in high-risk groups. This type of screening may also be instituted at certain developmental points in time including important milestones such as just before kindergarten.

Self-Accepting Student A student who is aware of his or her strengths and weaknesses and has a positive image of himself or herself.

Self-Actualization An individual’s ability to develop and attain his or her fullest potential.

Self-Advocacy The skills and capacity that children need to explain their cognitive or learning disorders to others.

Self-Care or Adaptive Skills A child’s ability to perform activities of daily living independently including bathing, toileting, and feeding.

Self-Concept Ones sense of their competence based on past successes and failures.

Self-Contained Class A special education program where a child with special needs receives all of their academic work under the supervision of a special education teacher.

Self-Contained Settings Settings designed to provide academic or therapeutic services to children with special needs and disabilities.

Self-Corrections When a child automatically fixes mistakes that they made while reading.

Self-Discipline Approach This classroom management approach is based on the belief that students are responsible individuals who can assess and correct their misbehavior, and that teachers and students have trusting relationships built on respect. With its self-governing style, the self-discipline approach has four models, which are discussed next.

Self-Efficacy A student’s sense of their own ability to make decisions and determine their own outcomes.

Self-Esteem The value that an individual places on their qualities, experiences, abilities, conduct, and sense of self.

Self-Monitoring The capacity to observe yourself and assess whether or not you are performing a task correctly.

Self-Questioning A reading comprehension strategy where readers will generate a series of questions to guide their thinking while reading.

Self-Regulation How young children discover how to control their thoughts, feelings, and bodies.

Self-Rejecting Student A student who judges himself or herself to have little worth, possibly because of a disorder.

Self-theory An individual’s beliefs about himself or herself.

Semantic Cue System A structural tool in which a reader determines meaning through textual clues and predicting words which could make sense in the sentence.

Semantic Feature Analysis Chart A graphic organizer that helps students to make predictions about characteristics related to a word, to sort by qualities, and to set a purpose for their reading and researching.

Semantic Gradient The opposite ends of a spectrum used to differentiate various shades of meaning.

Semantic Map A teaching idea designed to engage prior knowledge, introduce content-specific vocabulary, and organize new information about a topic. In order to make a semantic map, the teacher or the student will choose a word. Students will then brainstorm more information about that word, creating a graphic organizer with categories and details. These maps can be used to create summaries.

Semantic Memory A component of long-term memory responsible for storing facts and general knowledge.

Semantic Question Map A fixed design that is a slight variation from a Semantic Map. A focus word is placed inside of an oval and then several questions are raised about this new word. The questions may be given by the teacher or the students. Each new question is placed inside an oval that extends from the main oval.

Semantic System A dynamic set of knowledge about meaning in language that a reader has, including the underlying concepts of words and how those concepts relate. Through this, the reader can organize concepts and identify the significant aspects of a variety of concepts.

Semantic Webbing Representing, through a visual display, the relationships between the elements in the composition of a story or expository selection. It is also known as mapping.

Semantics A study of the development in the meaning of words. This can also apply to the study of phrases, sentences, and conversations.

Semantic-Syntactic Pairs The combination of one subject with an unconjugated verb as a sentence structure. This is typically seen in early childhood.

Semeiotic Mediation Negotiation between two parties that requires communicative interaction when there is no shared understanding. A young child may participate in semeiotic mediation with a sign of action to relay a particular meaning.

Semesters The academic calendar that divides the school year into equal segments of approximately 15 to 18 weeks each. Most colleges in the U.S. divide their school year into the spring, summer and fall semesters.

Seminar A class that is given to a small group of students who are usually more advanced, during which students meet with their professor to discuss specialized topics.

Semiotic Modality The exchange of meaning through various communication systems.