Publish or perish in the ivory tower of learning outcomes.
The sweet spot between what you can do alone and what you can't do even with help—Vygotsky's fancy way of saying 'the learning zone.'
The branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge itself—basically 'how do we know what we know?' asked obsessively.
Rewording someone else's ideas in your own words while citing the source—like plagiarism's legal cousin.
Software like Canvas or Blackboard where you upload assignments and check your grade obsessively, because email is apparently too simple.
Three or more notes played simultaneously to create harmony—the sonic foundation of most music that doesn't sound like a cat walking across a keyboard. In architecture, it's the straight line connecting two points on a curve (far less poetic).
Thinking about thinking, or as teenagers would call it, 'overthinking everything'—actually useful in learning.
A research accomplice or paid actor embedded in a psychological study who pretends to be a regular participant while actually manipulating the experiment. Basically, a professional liar with scientific credentials.
In music, the symbol (♯) that raises a note a semitone higher—the accidental that makes your sheet music look more complicated than it actually is.
A sentence claiming what your entire essay will argue, making it both the most important and most-written sentence in academic writing.
Allowing students to start a program at an advanced point rather than the beginning, because apparently prerequisites can be bypassed for select individuals.
A ballet term for a single step or movement, from French for 'step'—which somehow makes tripping over your own feet while turning out your leg sound elegant. It's the basic unit of dance vocabulary, and it looks way easier when professionals do it than when you attempt it in actual class.
Attempting to memorize an entire semester of material the night before an exam, a strategy with approximately 0% success rate but 100% prevalence.
The theory and practice of teaching, or as some might say, the art of explaining things you understand to people who don't.
A measurable statement of what students should be able to do after completing a course, as opposed to what they'll actually remember.
The principle that brains have limited working memory, so dumping 50 slides of information per lecture is pedagogically criminal.
The practice of tailoring instruction to different learners' needs, because apparently one-size-fits-all is not actually one-size-fits-all.
Permission to skip a required course because you supposedly already know the material, or because you're special (usually neither).
An acronym meaning 'Fucking Scientist Mode'—a hyper-focused state of academic/scientific productivity usually triggered by alcohol, existential dread, or a brutal critique from your advisor. It's when a grad student becomes an unstoppable research machine out of pure panic.
Evaluating student work as a complete picture rather than itemizing every mistake, which is supposedly more humane and accurate.
Reviewing material at increasing intervals to move it to long-term memory—the opposite of cramming and actually backed by neuroscience.
Related to existence or being—academic terminology for 'what is real?' that makes philosophy papers 150% more confusing.
The committee that scrutinizes research proposals to protect human subjects, which means your study gets rejected for not being boring enough.
One of the five Ks in Sikhism—the sacred practice of maintaining uncut hair as a spiritual commitment. It's basically the original 'let it grow' movement, but with profound religious significance rather than pandemic laziness.
How long it takes instructors to grade and return assignments—often measured in optimistic timescales that never manifest.