Whois & Analysis for perkinselearning.org

Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning opportunities situated in practice.

It has been described as intensive and collaborative, ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.

There are a variety of approaches to professional development, including consultation, coaching, communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective supervision and technical assistance.

Disability is an impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, sensory, or some combination of these.

It substantially affects a person's life activities and may be present from birth or occur during a person's lifetime.

Equal opportunity is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified.

The aim according to this often complex and contested concept is that important jobs should go to those "most qualified" – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, having well-connected relatives or friends, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or involuntary personal attributes such as disability, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Chances for advancement should be open to everybody interested such that they have "an equal chance to compete within the framework of goals and the structure of rules established." The idea is to remove arbitrariness from the selection process and base it on some "pre-agreed basis of fairness, with the assessment process being related to the type of position", and emphasizing procedural and legal means.

Individuals should succeed or fail based on their own efforts and not extraneous circumstances such as having well-connected parents.

It is opposed to nepotism and plays a role in whether a social structure is seen as legitimate.

The concept is applicable in areas of public life in which benefits are earned and received such as employment and education, although it can apply to many other areas as well.

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits.

Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.

Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves.

Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational.

The methodology of teaching is called pedagogy.

or pupil is a learner or someone who attends an educational institution.

In Britain those attending university are termed "students".

In the United States, and more recently also in Britain, the term "student" is applied to both categories.

In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning, including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to university.

When speaking about learning outside an institution, "student" is also used to refer to someone who is learning a topic or who is "a student of" a certain topic or person.