EDUCATION
the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.

HIDDEN CURRICULUM
is a concept that describes the often unarticulated and unacknowledged things that students are taught in school and is an important issue in the sociological study of how schools generate social inequality.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION
is a form of education in which information is presented to the students in two (or more) languages.

COOPERATIVE LEARNING
is an instructional method in which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators.

MAGNET SCHOOL
a public school which offers innovative courses, specialized training, etc. in order to attract students from a broad urban area and thereby help to bring about desegregation

MANIFEST FUCTION
any function of an institution or other social phenomenon that is planned and intentional.

MERITOCRACY
social system that gives the greatest power and highest social positions to people with the most ability

COGNITIVE ABILITY
refers to the individual's capacity to think, reason, and problem solved. Cognitive ability is measured through tests of intelligence and cognitive skills.

RELIGION
is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.

PROFANE
characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious.

POLYTHEISM
is the belief that there are many gods. Breaking the word down, “poly” comes from the Greek word for “many,” and “theism” from the Greek word for “God.”

SECURALIZATION
is a process of social change through which the public influence of religion and religious thinking declines as it is replaced by other ways of explaining reality and regulating social life.

PROTESTANT ETHIC
also called the work ethic, is a code of morals based on the principles of thrift, discipline, hard work, and individualism.

DENOMINATION
A large group of religious congregations united under a common faith and name, usually organized under a single administrative and legal hierarchy.

CULT
The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.

SCHOOLING
is formal education wich envlves instruction by specially trained teachers who follow officially polices.

TRACKING
Involves assingment of estudents to different types of eduactional programs.

OPEN CLASSROOM
a method or system utilizing such spacious classrooms and informal, flexible formats for learning and discussion.

Integrative curriculum
the curriculum is acreated by students and teachers working together.

CHARTER SCHOOLS
Publicly funded schools operated like a private school by public school teachers and administrators.

FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLS
are educational institutions that are corporations and often have shareholders. They operate as a business, and the product they sell is education. Their goal is to provide quality education, and in doing so generate a positive return, or profit, for their shareholders.

LATENT FUNCTION
any function of an institution or other social phenomenon that is unintentional and often unrecognized.

EDUCATIONAL EQUALITY
also referred toas equity in education,is a measure of achievement,fairness and oportunity in eduaction.

CULTURAL BIAS
refers to a situation where the scores on a test are significantly higher or lower between cultural groups and are better able to predict the future performance of one cultural group than the rest of the population.

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION
refers to any form of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds. At the classroom level, for example, teachers may modify or incorporate lessons to reflect the cultural diversity of the students in a particular class. In many cases, “culture” is defined in the broadest possible sense, encompassing race, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, and “exceptionality”—a term applied to students with specialized needs or disabilities.

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.

SACRED
entitled to veneration or religious respect by association with divinity or divine things; holy.

MONOTHEISM
the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.

RELIGIOSITY
the quality of being religious; piety; devoutness.

FUNDAMENTALISM
a movement in American Protestantism that arose in the early part of the 20th century in reaction to modernism and that stresses the infallibility of the Bible not only in matters of faith and morals but also as a literal historical record, holding as essential to Christian faith belief in such doctrines as the creation of the world, the virgin birth, physical resurrection, atonement by the sacrificial death of Christ, and the Second Coming.

CHURCH
a building for public worship.

SECT
a subdivision of a larger religious group (esp the Christian Church as a whole) the members of which have to some extent diverged from the rest by developing deviating beliefs, practices, etc