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Education & Teaching vocabulary · Classroom Management

On task

Meaning in education & teaching, with examples

phraseCommon term

In education & teaching, on task means: Doing the work or activity that the teacher has set and paying attention to it, rather than chatting or doing something else.

In Turkish: göreve odaklı, etkinliğe odaklanmış, işiyle meşgul

How it is used

Common in classroom management and observation notes. Teachers keep students on task; students stay on task. The opposite is off task. Before a noun it is often hyphenated: 'on-task behavior', 'time on task'.

Example sentences

  1. Most of the class stayed on task for the full twenty minutes.

  2. Walking around the room is one of the easiest ways to keep students on task.

Common collocations

  • stay on task
  • keep students on task
  • off task
  • on-task behavior
  • time on task
  • student engagementHow involved, interested and active students are in their learning, shown by their attention, effort, participation and curiosity.
  • classroom managementThe ways a teacher organizes the class, time, space and student behavior so that everyone can learn in a calm, focused and safe environment.
  • disruptive behaviorActions by a student that interrupt teaching or stop other students from learning, such as shouting out, talking constantly or refusing to follow instructions.
  • classroom routineA fixed way of doing a regular task in class, such as entering the room, collecting homework or moving into groups, that students learn and repeat until it becomes automatic.

More terms: Classroom Management

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