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Free downloads for educators
Handbooks for 100+ pedagogical frameworks, plus guides, posters, and worksheets — for classroom teachers, IB / MYP coordinators, AI leads, and heads of department. Free to print, share inside your school, or adapt with attribution.
100 free downloads · search by topic, audience, or framework
2 PDFs2 pagesFree
Purpose vs Task — the decision lens for AI in classrooms
AI is a task machine. Teaching is a purpose profession.
1 PDF9 pagesFree
The D·E·E·P Quick-Start Guide
An operating system for using AI in classrooms — in one week.
1 PDF1 pageFree
D·E·E·P — how educators use AI without losing the room
Four moves, in order, every time you use AI for classroom work.
1 PDF7 pagesFree
The 5-Part Prompt Formula for Educators
Persona · Task · Examples · Constraints · Output. No jargon.
1 PDF8 pagesFree
The 5 Failure Modes of AI in Teacher Work
A checklist for catching the mistakes hiding inside polished output.
1 PDF7 pagesFree
The D·E·E·P Evaluation Worksheet
Score 10 samples. Find the pattern. Ship at 8/10.
1 PDF7 pagesFree
The 5-Tier Packaging Guide
From prompt template to full app — pick the simplest tier that works.
1 PDF8 pagesFree
The 5-Level AI Self-Assessment for Schools
Find your level. Plan your jump.
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4C/ID Model — Four-Component Instructional Design
4C/ID is a holistic instructional design model for complex, transferable skills that organises every learning programme around four interlocking components
Instructional Design Model (Holistic / Complex Skill Learning)
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5E and 7E Instructional Models
A research-based instructional sequence — Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate (and in the 7E expansion, Elicit and Extend)
Lesson Structure / Inquiry-Based Instruction
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ABC Learning Design
A hands-on, 90-minute, card-based collaborative workshop method developed at University College London (UCL) for rapidly designing or redesigning a course's storyboard around…
Higher Education Pedagogy — Curriculum & Course Design Methodology
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Action Mapping
A four-step, visually-organised workplace-performance design process that starts with a measurable business goal, identifies what people must do to reach it…
Instructional Strategy / Workplace Performance Design Methodology
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ADDIE Model
A five-phase generic process model — Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate — used as an umbrella description of systematic instructional design.
Instructional Design Model (Macro) — generic meta-model for systematic instructional design
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Agile Learning / eduScrum
eduScrum is a classroom adaptation of the Scrum agile framework, developed by Willy Wijnands in the Netherlands beginning around 2011…
Active Learning / Cooperative Learning Methodology
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Archer & Hughes' Explicit Instruction
A research-based teaching approach defined by 16 design and delivery elements that combine systematic, clear…
Lesson Structure / Direct Instruction
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ARCS Model of Motivational Design
Motivation is not a happy accident of good content; it is the product of deliberate instructional design across four conditions
Motivational Design Framework (Instructional Design)
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Assessment for/of/as Learning
A three-purpose framework that classifies every classroom assessment act by whether it is intended to certify learning (OF), inform next teaching (FOR)…
Assessment
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Austin's Butterfly
A six-draft scientific drawing by a first-grader, narrated by Ron Berger…
Feedback Protocol (Culture Exemplar)
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Backward Design
A three-stage curriculum-design framework that asks educators to identify desired understandings first, determine acceptable evidence of those understandings second…
Instructional Design Model (Macro) — primarily curriculum and unit design
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Bandura's Self-Efficacy and Social Cognitive Theory
People's beliefs about their own capacity to produce desired outcomes — their self-efficacy
Motivation Theory / Social-Cognitive Learning Theory
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Behaviorism
The family of learning theories holding that learning is a relatively permanent change in observable behaviour produced by the contingent association of stimuli, responses…
Learning Theory — foundational
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Bloom's Taxonomy (Revised)
A two-dimensional matrix that classifies learning objectives by the kind of knowledge a student is working with and the cognitive process they are using on it.
Cognitive Rigor Taxonomy
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CASEL SEL Framework
A widely adopted, evidence-supported framework specifying five interrelated core competencies (Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills…
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
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CHAMPS
A proactive, structured classroom-management protocol in which the teacher explicitly defines and posts six categories of behavioral expectation
Classroom Management — proactive expectations framework
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Cognitive Apprenticeship
Cognitive Apprenticeship adapts the millennia-old structure of craft apprenticeship to the teaching of cognitive work
Situated Learning Theory / Instructional Framework
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Cognitive Load Theory
Learning is constrained by the narrow bottleneck of working memory; instruction succeeds when it minimizes wasted load and channels effort toward building durable mental schemas…
Cognitive Science Principle (Instructional Design)
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Cognitivism
Cognitivism is the family of learning theories holding that learning is the acquisition, organization, and retrieval of internal mental representations
Learning Theory
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Community of Inquiry (CoI)
A process model of online and blended learning that frames a meaningful educational experience as the overlap of three interdependent presences
Online / Blended Learning — Design & Research Framework
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Concept Mapping
A hierarchical, proposition-based diagram — concepts in boxes connected by labelled linking phrases that form explicit propositions
Cognitive Tool — Metacognitive & Knowledge-Representation Tool
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Concept-Based Inquiry / Concept-Based Curriculum
A three-dimensional curriculum model — Know, Do, Understand
Curriculum Design Framework (K-12, especially IB programmes)
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Conceptual Change
Genuine learning of counter-intuitive ideas is not addition of new knowledge but replacement or restructuring of the learner's existing conceptions…
Conceptual Framework (Theory of Learning)
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Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA)
A representational sequence for mathematics teaching in which learners first manipulate physical objects (Concrete), then work with pictorial models (Pictorial)…
Strategy — Representational Sequence in Mathematics Teaching
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Connectivism
A proposed learning theory for the digital age that frames learning as the formation, traversal, and maintenance of connections in personal, social, and technological networks
Learning Theory (contested) — digital-age network learning
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Constructive Alignment
Constructive alignment is an outcomes-based, constructivist design discipline for higher-education courses in which intended learning outcomes (ILOs)…
Higher Education Pedagogy / Curriculum Design Framework / Outcomes-Based Course Design
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Constructivism
Constructivism is the family of learning theories holding that learners actively build their own understanding by integrating new experiences with prior knowledge
Learning Theory (encompassing cognitive constructivism and social constructivism)
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Culturally Responsive Teaching (Gay)
A pedagogical framework that uses the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference…
Equity / Culturally-Sustaining Pedagogy
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Danielson Framework for Teaching (FfT)
A research-based map of teaching practice organized into four domains and 22 components…
Teacher Evaluation / Professional Practice
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Decoding the Disciplines
A seven-step paradigm in which instructors locate the specific 'bottlenecks' where many students get stuck…
Active Learning Pedagogy / Higher Education Method / Faculty-Development Framework
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Design Thinking
A human-centred, iterative methodology for solving ill-defined problems through five non-linear modes — Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test
Active Learning / Human-Centered Design Methodology
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Desirable Difficulties
Conditions of learning that introduce challenges and feel slower and harder during practice — but in specific, productive ways
Cognitive Science Principle
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Dick and Carey Systems Approach Model
A 10-component systems model that treats instruction as an interconnected system in which goals, learners, strategy, materials…
Instructional Design Model (Macro) — course and unit design
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Differentiated Instruction (Tomlinson)
A philosophy and set of principles for proactively and responsively adjusting curriculum content, process, product, and learning environment in light of students' readiness…
Differentiation / Responsive Teaching
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Dual Coding Theory
The mind has two specialized but interconnected processing channels — verbal and visual
Cognitive Science Principle
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Expectancy-Value Theory (Situated Expectancy-Value Theory, SEVT)
People's choices, persistence, and performance on achievement tasks are jointly determined by how confident they are of succeeding (expectancy) and how much they subjectively…
Motivation Theory
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Fink's Significant Learning Taxonomy
A non-hierarchical, six-category taxonomy of significant learning outcomes — Foundational Knowledge, Application, Integration, Human Dimension, Caring, and Learning How to Learn
Curriculum Design Framework / Learning Taxonomy (higher-education course design)
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Flipped Classroom / Flipped Learning
A pedagogical approach that relocates direct instruction (videos, readings) to the individual learning space outside class, freeing class time for active…
Lesson Structure / Blended Instruction
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Fullan's 6Cs (Deep Learning)
A whole-system framework for redesigning schools around six global competencies — Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, and Critical Thinking
Strategy — Systems-Level Pedagogical Framework
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Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction
A nine-step, evidence-based sequence of external instructional events that systematically supports the internal cognitive processes the learner must execute to acquire and retain…
Lesson Structure / Direct Instruction
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Gold Standard PBL
PBLWorks' research-based model defining high-quality, rigorous project-based learning through Seven Essential Project Design Elements wrapped around Student Learning Goals (Key…
Project-Based Learning
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Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR)
An instructional framework in which cognitive responsibility for a task is intentionally and gradually transferred from the teacher to the student, moving from teacher modeling…
Lesson Structure / Direct Instruction
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Growth Mindset
Students learn more when they believe their intellectual abilities can be developed through effort, strategy, and help from others
Mindset (Motivational Psychology)
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Habits of Mind
A set of sixteen dispositions — not skills, not personality traits, not subject knowledge
Thinking Dispositions
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Harvard Project Zero Thinking Routines
Short, named, repeatable cognitive moves (See-Think-Wonder, Connect-Extend-Challenge, Claim-Support-Question, I Used to Think...
Metacognition — Visible Thinking / Cultures of Thinking
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Hattie's Visible Learning
A 25-year program of meta-meta-analyses ranking 250+ influences on student achievement by effect size (Cohen's d)…
Evidence Synthesis / Meta-Meta-Analysis of Educational Influences
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HyFlex (Hybrid-Flexible Course Design)
A course-modality design in which every class session is simultaneously offered in three modes — in-person, synchronous online, and asynchronous online
Online / Blended Learning — Course Modality
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ICAP Framework
ICAP is a four-mode taxonomy of cognitive engagement — Passive < Active < Constructive < Interactive
Engagement / Active Learning Theory (Cognitive Engagement Taxonomy)
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Inquiry-Based Learning
An umbrella pedagogical tradition in which students learn by formulating and pursuing questions, gathering evidence, constructing explanations, and communicating them
Inquiry / Pedagogical Approach
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Interleaving (Interleaved Practice)
Mixing different but related problem types within a single practice session produces dramatically better long-term performance and discrimination than blocking similar problems…
Cognitive Science Principle
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Kirkpatrick Model — Four Levels of Training Evaluation
A four-level model — Reaction, Learning, Behavior, Results
Evaluation (Training & Development)
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Knowles' Andragogy
A set of six assumptions about how adults learn
Adult Learning — design model for adult-learning facilitation
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Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory
Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience, modeled as a four-stage cycle
Learning Theory
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Ladder of Feedback
A four-rung structured protocol — Clarify, Value, State Concerns, Suggest
Feedback Protocol
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Marzano's High-Yield Strategies
Nine categories of instructional strategy synthesized from meta-analytic research as having the strongest average impact on student achievement
Strategy (Evidence-Based Instructional Strategies)
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Mastery Learning
Mastery Learning holds that virtually all students can master almost any subject matter to a high standard if given sufficient time and appropriate instruction…
Instructional Strategy / Educational Philosophy
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Mayer's Multimedia Principles (Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning)
A cognitive-science-grounded theory of how people learn from words and pictures, distilled into 12-15 evidence-based design principles organised by whether they reduce extraneous…
Multimedia Design / Cognitive Science of Learning
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Medal and Mission
A two-part teacher-feedback structure pairing a Medal (specific, evidenced praise for what the learner has done well) with a Mission (a forward-looking…
Feedback Protocol — Written and Spoken Teacher-to-Student Feedback
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Merrill's First Principles of Instruction
A research-derived synthesis of five principles common to effective instructional models
Instructional Design Model (Macro) — synthesis principles applicable across models
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MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports)
An integrated, schoolwide, three-tier framework that combines academic (RTI) and behavioral (PBIS) supports under one umbrella
Student Support / System Framework (Academic + Behavioral)
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Multiple Intelligences (MI Theory)
A 1983 proposal that human intelligence is not a single general factor measurable by IQ but a set of relatively independent cognitive capacities
Theory of Intelligence (with significant scientific critiques)
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P21 / 4Cs Framework
A coalition-built framework arguing that succeeding in a globally connected…
21st Century Skills
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PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports)
A three-tier, schoolwide framework (not a curriculum) for preventing and responding to problem behavior by teaching expected behaviors, acknowledging positive behavior…
Student Support / Schoolwide Behavior Framework
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POGIL (Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning)
A constructivist, evidence-based pedagogy in which students work in self-managed teams of three or four with assigned process-skill roles…
Active Learning Pedagogy / Higher Education Method / Constructivist Guided Inquiry
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Problem-Based Learning (PBL — the Medical/Professional Model)
Problem-Based Learning (in the Barrows / McMaster tradition) is a tutorial-based pedagogical approach in which small groups of learners are presented with an authentic…
Pedagogical Approach (Inquiry- and Problem-Centred Tutorial Method)
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Productive Failure
Under specific design conditions, having novice learners struggle on a novel problem before receiving direct instruction produces deeper conceptual understanding and stronger…
Instructional Design Framework / Learning Sciences Research Program
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Ready for Rigor — Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain (Hammond)
A practitioner-focused framework that braids together equity, culturally responsive teaching…
Equity / Inclusion (CRT × cognitive neuroscience)
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Restorative Justice / Restorative Practices in Schools
A philosophy and continuum of practices, ranging from informal affective statements to formal restorative conferences…
Student Support / School Culture / Discipline
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Retrieval Practice (The Testing Effect)
The act of pulling information out of memory does more to durably strengthen learning than putting it back in — testing is not a measurement of learning; it IS learning.
Cognitive Science Principle
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Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction
Ten classroom-tested principles synthesized from cognitive science, observation of master teachers, and classroom intervention research
Lesson Structure / Direct Instruction
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SAM — Successive Approximation Model
An agile, prototype-driven instructional design model that runs in short iterative cycles across three phases — Preparation, Iterative Design, and Iterative Development
Instructional Design Model (Macro)
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SAMR Model
A four-level ladder (Substitution → Augmentation → Modification → Redefinition) for evaluating how technology is being used in a learning task…
Technology Integration / EdTech Framework
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Self-Determination Theory (SDT)
Human beings are intrinsically growth-oriented organisms whose motivation, engagement, and well-being depend on the satisfaction of three innate psychological needs
Motivation Theory
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SIOP Model — Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol
A research-based, eight-component instructional framework with thirty observable features that supports content-area teachers in making grade-level academic content comprehensible…
Equity / Inclusion (instructional framework for multilingual / English learners)
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Situated Learning / Communities of Practice
Learning is fundamentally a social process of becoming a member of a community of practice
Sociocultural & Situated Learning Theory
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SOLO Taxonomy
A five-level scheme that classifies the structural complexity of a student's observed response…
Cognitive Rigor Taxonomy (response-based; used for assessment, rubric design, curriculum sequencing)
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Spaced Practice (Distributed Practice / The Spacing Effect)
The same total study time produces dramatically more durable learning when distributed across multiple sessions separated by gaps than when massed into a single block.
Cognitive Science Principle
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Stanford TEACH Framework
Stanford's TEACH Framework is a values-based course-design lens developed at the Stanford Teaching Commons by Lauri Dietz, articulating five mutually-reinforcing commitments
Higher Education Pedagogy / Values-Based Course Design Framework
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Student-Centered Course Design (Principles)
Student-centered course design is a synthesis framework — not a single author's invention
Higher Education Pedagogy / Course Design Framework (synthesis tradition)
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TAG Feedback
A three-step peer-review scaffold — Tell something you like; Ask a question; Give a suggestion
Feedback Protocol (Peer Review Scaffold)
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Teaching for Understanding (TfU)
A four-element planning framework — Generative Topics, Understanding Goals, Performances of Understanding, and Ongoing Assessment
Curriculum Design Framework
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Team-Based Learning (TBL)
A specific, well-defined structured small-group methodology in which students prepare individually, take individual then team readiness assurance tests…
Active Learning Pedagogy / Higher Education Method
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Threshold Concepts
A threshold concept is a discipline-specific idea that, once grasped, transforms a learner's understanding of the subject in a way that is integrative, irreversible…
Higher Education Pedagogy / Curriculum Design Framework / Discipline-Specific Conceptual Diagnosis
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TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge)
A framework that describes the integrated knowledge teachers need to teach effectively with technology, mapped as seven knowledge domains
Technology Integration / Teacher Knowledge Framework
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Trauma-Informed Pedagogy
A whole-school stance — not a therapy
Educator Practice (Whole-School and Classroom Stance)
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Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
A research-based framework for proactively designing flexible learning environments that anticipate learner variability and reduce barriers across three networks of the brain…
Inclusion / Equity — proactive learner-variability design
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Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) & Scaffolding
Learners do their most consequential cognitive work in the zone between what they can do alone and what they can do with help from a more capable other
Sociocultural Learning Theory / Instructional Strategy
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Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)
A four-level scheme for classifying the cognitive complexity (not difficulty) that a standard, task, or assessment item demands…
Cognitive Rigor Taxonomy — used primarily for assessment alignment
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Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching
Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching argues that genuine college teaching transformation requires five interconnected shifts in instructor practice
Higher Education Pedagogy / Teaching Philosophy
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Wiliam's Five Key Formative Assessment Strategies
Five interlocking classroom strategies — distributed across teacher, peer, and learner — that turn assessment from a graded event into a moment-by-moment engine of learning.
Assessment / Classroom Practice
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Worked Examples Effect
For novices in well-structured domains, studying a fully worked-out solution produces better learning, in less time and with fewer errors, than solving an equivalent problem
Cognitive Science Principle (Instructional Effect within Cognitive Load Theory)
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Zimmerman's Self-Regulated Learning (SRL)
Self-regulated learners proactively control their own learning by cycling through three phases — forethought, performance, self-reflection
Metacognition (Social-Cognitive Self-Regulation)