Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning

A classroom observation is a formal or informal observation of teaching while it is taking place in a classroom or other environment. Typically conducted by fellow teachers or instructional specialists. Classroom observations are often used to provide teachers with constructive critical feedback aimed at improving instructional techniques. 

Community-based learning refers to a wide variety of instructional methods and programs that educators use to connect what is being taught in schools to their surrounding communities, including local institutions, history, literature, cultural heritage, and natural environments. 

source: https://www.edglossary.org/community-based-learning/

In education, the term continuous improvement refers to any school- or instructional-improvement process that unfolds progressively, that does not have a fixed or predetermined end point, and that is sustained over extended periods of time

Criterion-referenced tests and assessment activities are designed to measure student performance against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or standards.

The term demonstration of learning refers to a wide variety of potential educational projects, presentations, or products through which students “demonstrate” what they have learned, usually as a way of determining whether and to what degree they have achieved the expected course and university student learning outcomes. 

Differentiation refers to a wide variety of teaching techniques and lesson adaptations that educators use to instruct a diverse group of students, with diverse learning needs, in the same course or classroom.

In general usage, the term direct instruction refers to instructional approaches that are structured, sequenced, and directly taught to students.  

In education, the term equity refers to the principle of fairness. While it is often used interchangeably with the related principle of equality, equity encompasses a wide variety of educational models, programs, and strategies that may be considered fair, but not necessarily equal. It is has been said that “equity is the process; equality is the outcome,” given that equity (what is fair and just) may not, in the process of educating students, reflect strict equality (what is applied, allocated, or distributed equally).

Source: https://www.edglossary.org/equity/

A widely used adjective in education, evidence-based refers to any concept or strategy that is derived from or informed by objective evidence—most commonly, educational research or metrics of school, teacher, and student performance.

Formative assessment refers to a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or have not learned yet.