EduBoost Glossary
Find at a glance the definition of the key terms in tutoring, pedagogy and educational AI. 30 concise, up-to-date, citable entries.
30 terms
Tutoring
- AI TutorAn AI tutor is an artificial-intelligence program that converses with a student to help them understand a subject and improve their grades. It adapts to the learner's level and pace using advanced language models.
- Homework helpHomework help is daily support given to a student on their evening assignments — re-reading instructions, unblocking a tricky question, checking answers. It complements rather than replaces classroom teaching.
- Online tutoringOnline tutoring is academic support delivered remotely through a web or mobile platform — by video call, chat, or AI agent. It removes commute friction and gives access to a tutor 24/7.
- Private tutorA private tutor is a paid teacher who works one-on-one with a student to explain what they did not grasp in class and to drill them on targeted exercises. Tutors usually specialise by subject and grade.
- Private tutoringPrivate tutoring is one-on-one instruction delivered by a tutor to a single student, traditionally at home or now more often online. It offers fully personalised attention, unlike a regular classroom lesson.
- TutoringTutoring is supplementary academic support given to a student outside school hours to fix knowledge gaps or reinforce learning. It can be one-on-one, in small groups, in person or online.
Pedagogy
- Adaptive learningAdaptive learning is a teaching approach where lesson content, pace or difficulty automatically adjust to a student's performance. It typically relies on machine-learning algorithms that detect gaps and surface the right exercise at the right moment.
- Differentiated instructionDifferentiated instruction is the practice of adapting content, materials and difficulty so that each student can learn at their own level. It is a practical response to the natural heterogeneity of a classroom.
- Educational gamificationEducational gamification is the use of game mechanics (points, levels, badges, leaderboards, narrative) inside a learning context to boost engagement and motivation. It turns a school chore into an enjoyable experience.
- Formative assessmentFormative assessment is an assessment carried out during learning whose purpose is to identify progress and difficulties so that teaching can be adjusted. Unlike summative assessment, it does not produce a final grade.
- Spaced repetitionSpaced repetition is a memorisation technique where a piece of knowledge is reviewed at increasing intervals (1 day, 3 days, 7 days...). It leverages Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve to lock learning in long-term memory with minimal review time.
- Teaching methodA teaching method is a structured set of techniques used by an educator to transmit knowledge and help students progress. Common examples: Montessori, Freinet, lecture-based teaching, flipped classroom, active learning.
Artificial intelligence
- Conversational tutorA conversational tutor is an AI agent that interacts with the student through dialogue (text or voice), asks questions, explains concepts and corrects mistakes in real time. Unlike a multiple-choice quiz, it adapts to every learner answer.
- Educational AIEducational AI refers to the set of artificial-intelligence technologies applied to learning: conversational tutors, automatic grading, content recommendation, exercise generation. It is a sub-field of EdTech.
- Educational machine learningEducational machine learning is the application of machine-learning algorithms to school data to personalise learning paths, predict difficulties and recommend content. It feeds on student-usage traces (correct/incorrect answers, time on task).
- Language modelA language model is a statistical program that predicts the most likely next word — or sequence of words — in a given context. When trained on billions of sentences it can write, translate, summarise and tutor.
- LLM (Large Language Model)An LLM (Large Language Model) is a neural network trained on huge amounts of text and capable of understanding and generating natural language. The most prominent examples are GPT-4, Claude and Gemini.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the branch of AI dealing with understanding, analysing and generating human language by computers. It covers machine translation, sentiment analysis, speech recognition and chatbots.
Exams & curricula
- Baccalaureat (French Bac)The Baccalaureat (or Bac) is the French school-leaving qualification that ends secondary education and grants access to higher education. Reformed in 2021, it combines continuous assessment (40%) and final exams (60%) including philosophy and a flagship oral.
- Brevet (French middle-school diploma)The Diplome national du brevet (DNB) is the French middle-school exit examination, taken at the end of 3e (age 15). It assesses the cycle 4 curriculum through written exams in French, maths, history-geography, science and an oral defence.
- Bulletin officiel (BO)The Bulletin officiel (BO) is the weekly publication of France's Ministry of Education listing every regulation governing teaching: curricula, exams, school organisation. It is the official reference for French teachers.
- Continuous assessmentContinuous assessment is a grading scheme where marks earned throughout the school year count toward the final grade — as opposed to a single end-of-year exam. In the 2021 French Bac it accounts for 40% of the overall mark.
- Final examA final exam (or terminal exam) is the official assessment held at the end of a programme to confirm that the learning outcomes have been mastered. Depending on the country it leads to a diploma (Bac, Brevet, Abitur, Maturita, ENEM, Selectividad/EBAU, A-level/GCSE) or determines promotion.
- International national examsEach country runs its own end-of-secondary final exam: Abitur in Germany, GCSE and A-level in the UK, Selectividad/EBAU in Spain, Maturita in Italy, ENEM in Brazil, Eindexamen in the Netherlands. These diplomas gate access to university.
- School curriculumA school curriculum is the set of knowledge and skills a student is expected to master by the end of a school year or learning cycle. It is set by the national education authority and structures teachers' work.
Study methods
- Cycle 3 (French consolidation cycle)Cycle 3, or 'consolidation cycle', covers France's CM1, CM2 and 6e grades (ages 9-12). It bridges primary and middle school and consolidates the fundamentals: reading, writing, arithmetic, reasoning.
- Mind mappingMind mapping is a visual technique that organises ideas around a central theme using tree-like branches. It helps structure a lesson, prepare an essay or memorise a chapter.
- Pomodoro TechniqueThe Pomodoro Technique is a time-management method that alternates 25 minutes of focused work with 5-minute breaks. After four cycles, a longer 20- to 30-minute break is taken. It curbs procrastination and burnout.
- Revision planA revision plan is an organised schedule of the chapters to review over a fixed period before an exam. It allocates time based on each subject's weight in the final grade, the student's mastery level and the time available.
- Revision sheetA revision sheet is a one- or two-page document that summarises the essentials of a chapter: definitions, formulas, key examples, important dates. Done well, it allows for efficient last-minute revision before a test.