Dictionary of Education

Dr. M. Solaiman Ali's multidisciplinary background teaching experience in various countries and sustained life-long interest in education have enhanced his understanding of education and proved helpful in compiling the terms. The present dictionary is a product of his life-long search for terms/concepts in education. The book is thus evidence of his own growth and development in pedagogy and learning. Dr. Ali was always eager to formally study education and enrolled (full-time) in a Lakehead University in Ontario Canada in 1980 and earned an MEd in Curriculum & Instruction and an MA in English Literature (with emphasis on Shakespeare and Elizabethan literature). His journey to understand education and educational concepts and terms did not end with his degrees (MEd and MA) from Lakehead University. In 1985 he enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Language Education at the School of Education Indiana University Bloomington and graduated in 1991. Since October 1991 he has been teaching English as a Foreign Language at King Abdulaziz University Jeddah Saudi Arabia. While in Saudi Arabia he embarked on a personal project -- to collect the definitions of educational terms and concepts he learned over the years and also to find those related educational terms he did not know but are important for an educator to know and to compile them into a book with consideration for publishing. Fortunately his teaching job allowed me time to do that. This dictionary reflects the author's own growth and development as a teacher and it answers questions that always persisted in his professional mind. During his university years (both UG and grad studies) and as a practicing teacher he always wondered what terms such as the following mean: adult learning theory algo-heuristics andragogy aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) behaviorism bloom's taxonomy brain-based learning gestalt theory grounded theory information processing theory instructional-design theory international baccalaureate (IB) jigsaw learning laboratory experiences landamatics metacognition melting pot mock examination microteaching multiple intelligences myers-briggs' personality types null hypothesis oral history paradigm shift Pygmalion in the classroom pyramid group reciprocal teaching reflective teaching remedial teaching schema theory student teaching subsumption theory (types of) symbolic interaction theory tabula rasa tertiary college test-retest reliability transmission mode of teaching triangulation triarchic theory truant school typology theory verbal reasoning verbal reporting virtual reality Vygotskyan principles of learning zone of proximal development (zpd) and so on. Unlike most dictionaries this dictionary includes a comprehensive list of useful abbreviations and acronyms in education definitions of major terms related to teaching methods and learning e.g. landamatics algo-heuristics andragogy myers-briggs' personality types and so on. Such dictionaries do not encompass important areas of education such as: Higher Education Learning Theories Instructional Theories/models Educational Psychology Testing Statistics Educational Research college terms related to Reading Writing and Study skill etc. I believe my dictionary will help fill this knowledge gap. I think classroom instructors in K-12 and higher education college students especially Education majors and Foreign Teaching Assistants foreign (undergraduate and graduate) students in American and British colleges and universities and students having ESL backgrounds would find my work useful. My interest is purely academic/intellectual. I wanted to learn more about education by compiling these definitions of terms. I hope it serves a good purpose. Thus this dictionary stands out from other dictionaries available on the market