Learning About Learning
Glossary
This glossary explains terms used in Learning about Learning. It is not intended to be exhaustive in educational terms, nor does it include an explanation of every word used in the documents and movies. Instead, it seeks to clarify meanings in order to remove potential barriers to understanding and help the reader to appreciate the messages intended more fully.
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| Occipital lobe | The specialised region of the brain that contains the primary visual area. |
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| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD is an international agency that supports programmes designed to facilitate trade and development. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |