Glossary

Searchable glossary containing hundreds of definitions and descriptions of education terms, acronyms and abbreviations used by the LTS online service and in Scottish education.

If there are any others you would like us to include, please send them to us using our feedback form.


occasional paper	Occasional papers present the findings of the National CPD team's research projects and are intended to help provide information about educational CPD in Scotland.
Occipital lobe	The specialised region of the brain that contains the primary visual area.
OECD	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD is an international agency that supports programmes designed to facilitate trade and development.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)	A non-governmental organisation working for more and different adult learners.
Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education)	Its principal task is the management of the independent system of school inspection defined originally by the Education (Schools) Act 1992. This provides for the regular inspection of all 24,000 schools in England which are wholly or mainly state-funded.
Open question	A question carefully formulated so that possible answers are not predetermined, thus allowing a fuller qualitative response or opinion. It is designed to promote higher-order, independent thought. Responses are expected to be reflective, requiring thinking time.
Operating system	This is the fundamental software program on a computer. It is the program on which all other applications depend. It performs the basic functions for the computer such as recognising all the hardware inputs and outputs such as the mouse and the monitor. It acts as the traffic police directing all the functions of the computer along the right lines. Examples: Microsoft Windows, MacOS X, Ubuntiu (Linux)
Optimism	A life view where one looks upon the world as a positive place – the opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people are inherently good. They have a 'positive' outlook on life, believing that given time, things will work out in the end. A common example used to illustrate optimism is this question: given a glass that has been filled halfway, is it half full or half empty? An optimist will describe it as half full.
Oral feedback	A return of information on the result of a process or activity which is given orally, rather than in written form. This may be in one-to-one conversation, in a small group tutorial, or in a whole-class situation, as appropriate.
Orange Order	Irish Protestant organization formed in 1795 with the aim of celebrating and defending Protestantism in Northern Ireland, called this because it was originally formed out of loyalty to William of Orange (William III).
Orderly climate	The social atmosphere in a school, determined by the management team and the staff, that promotes orderliness across the school, clarity of the rules and consistency in enforcing the rules.
Orthodox / Orthodoxy	The terms orthodox / orthodoxy come from the Greek for "right opinion" and represents an emphasis on having the proper beliefs.
OS	Abbreviation for operating system.
OSDOG (Online Services Development Officers' Group)	The National Priorities in Education, as approved by the Scottish Parliament in December 2000, are defined under the following headings: Achievement and Attainment; Framework for Learning; Inclusion and Equality; Values and Citizenship; Learning for Life.
OSIC (Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner)	The office's main task is to enforce the right to access public information created by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. The Act came into force on 1 January 2005, giving anyone, anywhere in the world, the right to access information held by more than 10,000 public authorities in Scotland. (The office is in St Andrews.)
Ownership	Indicates having control and autonomy over one’s learning. When learners are involved in deciding what needs to be done and how it should be done, they have greater control over their own learning. Evidence indicates that learners are motivated when they have 'ownership' of their learning.