- banking model of education
- Model of education in which teachers "deposit" information and skills into students. The emphasis is on memorization of basic facts rather than on understanding and critical thinking. The idea of the banking model was articulated and critiqued by Brazilian liberation theologist Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970).
- basic interpersonal communication skills
- Social language first used by English (or foreign) language learners.
- behaviorism
- Theory that human behavior and learning are guided and controlled by external stimuli (from the environment) as opposed to internal psychological processes (in the mind). Learning occurs when students are given a stimulus (such as a question or request) that results in a response. Positive reinforcements, or rewards, follow appropriate responses; punishments or negative reinforcements follow inappropriate responses.
- benchmark assessments
- Short tests administered throughout the school year that give teachers immediate feedback on how students are meeting academic standards. Regular use of benchmark assessments is seen by many as a tool to measure student growth and design curriculum to meet individual learning needs.
- bibliotherapy
- Practice of using selected books to help students overcome real-life problems through identification with the characters or plot elements in the stories.
- Big6
- Problem-solving approach to teaching information literacy skills.
- bilingual education
- Classes taught in a combination of a students’ first language and English, geared toward helping student with limited English proficiency (LEP) become proficient in English as a second language (ESL). Students in bilingual programs receive part of their daily instruction in English and part in a second language. Significant portions of the school day are devoted to ESL instruction, in which each student receives intensive assistance in learning English.
- bipolar disorder
- Disorder characterized by periods of depression or irritability alternating with periods of mania.
- blended learning
- A student-centered approach to creating a learning experience whereby the learner interacts with other students, with the instructor, and with content through thoughtful integration of online and face-to-face environments.
- block scheduling
- Secondary school organizational model implementing longer class periods (blocks) in the school day.
- Bloom's taxonomy
- Classification system developed in 1956 by education psychologist Benjamin Bloom to categorize intellectual skills and behavior important to learning. Bloom identified six cognitive levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, with sophistication growing from basic knowledge recall skills to the highest level, evaluation.
- book talk
- A brief oral presentation that includes enough of a book's plot to interest a potential reader but does not reveal important events or spoil the story. Designed to encourage independent reading, the book talk may include the reading of short passages and usually ends with a cliffhanger.
- Brown versus Board of Education
- Landmark decision of the U. S. Supreme Court (1954) that affirmed the constitutional guarantee of equal opportunity in education. Arguing that the doctrine of "separate but equal" facilities had no place in the American system of education, the court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education
