Education A to Z

Education and Curriculum Terms: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.

Revising? We write GCSE revision songs — a playlist covering most subjects and the English set texts. Listen to the revision playlist.

500 terms, showing 81–90 (page 9 of 50).

C

Compression

Making a file smaller. Lossy throws information away; lossless does not.

Confidentiality in care

Keeping information private, and the limits of that promise.

Conformity and obedience

Going along with a group, and following an instruction from authority.

Conservation of energy in reactions

Energy is transferred, not created, in chemistry as everywhere else.

Context

Also called AO3, Social and historical context

When and where a text was written, and what that meant. Assessed explicitly, and easy to do badly.

Cooking methods and food science

What heat does to food, and why a recipe works.

Correlation and causation

Two things moving together is not one causing the other.

Coursework

Also called NEA, Non-exam assessment, Controlled assessment

Assessed work done outside an exam. Marked by your teacher, moderated by the board.

Crime and deviance

Behaviour that breaks the law, and behaviour that breaks a norm. Not the same.

Cumulative frequency and box plots

Graphs showing how data accumulates, and the five-figure summary.

Something missing?

If there is a word or a process you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite, or too tired, to ask.

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