wk 1 terms

Question 1

Reflective

Answer 1

Reflection is the process of thinking about a situation or event and thinking about how you are
responding to it. It involves reasoning about the causes of events, and about your own feeling and
thoughts. A reflective teacher is one who thinks through what happened in the classroom to understand
it better. A reflective student monitors their understanding and the emotions that affect their learning.
Reflection is related to metacognition, a concept we’ll study later in this course.

Question 2

Differentiated instruction

Answer 2

Differentiated instruction
Differentiated instruction is adapted to students’ abilities, knowledge or interests. It offers learning
activities that match students’ needs. For example, a teacher might give students a choice of three essay
topics selected to fit different student’s interests. Or, a teacher might allow students to select a book to
read from a collection of books that covers different difficulty levels.

Question 3

Descriptive studies

Answer 3

Research that observes and does not intervene is called descriptive research or descriptive studies. Data
collected in descriptive studies can be qualitative or quantitative – interviews, questionnaires, video
recordings of behavior, notes recording help-seeking behavior, etc.

Question 4

Case study

Answer 4

A case study is descriptive research that examines a single event, institution, group or person in detail.

Question 5

Experimentation

Answer 5

Experimental research, or experimentation, manipulates independent variables and observes their
effects on dependent variables. It can collect similar types of data as descriptive studies, but it generally
conducts quantitative analysis of the data. Experimental research often has an intervention group and a
control group. Each participant is assigned to a group by a random process like flipping a coin.

Question 6

Random

Answer 6

A random occurrence is one that cannot be predicted with certainty. For, example the result of rolling
dice is a random number. In a true experiment, participants are randomly assigned to treatment
conditions

Question 7

Quasi-experimental studies

Answer 7

Quasi-experimental studies:
Quasi-experimental research has groups (for example, classes) that receive different treatments, but the
participants are not randomly assigned to different treatment groups.

Question 8

Correlation

Answer 8

Correlation:
Two variables are correlated if their values are related. For example, peoples’ height and weight are
strongly correlated. We can calculate a number between -1 and +1 which is the correlation of two
variables. A correlation of zero indicates there is no relationship between the variables

Question 9

Positive correlation

Answer 9

Positive correlation:
Two variables are positively correlated if a high value on one variable corresponds to a high value on the
other variable. For example, students’ scores on a midterm exam are usually positively correlated with
their scores on the final exam.

Question 10

Negative correlation

Answer 10

Negative correlation:
Two variables are negatively correlated if they have an inverse relationship. For example, number of
cigarettes smoked is negatively correlated with years of life.

Question 11

Statistically significant

Answer 11

Statistically significant:
Statistical significance describes the reliability of a relationship between two variables or the difference
between two groups. For example, suppose two classes took the same test and Class A got a higher
average score than Class B. The differences between the two classes is only statistically significant if the
difference is greater than what would be expected by random variation

Question 12

Longitudinal studies

Answer 12

Longitudinal studies:
Longitudinal research observes people over an extended period, usually years. It is often used to study
the cognitive development of children. For example, each child might be tested once per year for 5
years.

Question 13

Cross-sectional studies

Answer 13

Cross-sectional studies:
Cross-sectional research studies human development by observing people that vary in age. For example,
a psychologist might give a cognitive test to a group of 8-year old children and give the same test to a
group of 12-year old children.

Question 14

Microgenetic studies

Answer 14

Microgenetic studies
Microgenetic research makes close observations of learners over a period of days as they engage in
problem solving and other learning activities. The purpose of this research is to understand how
cognitive development can occur in response to specific situations and learning environments.

Question 15

Ethnography

Answer 15

Ethnography
Ethnography is type of descriptive research developed in anthropology to study cultures. The researcher
observes and records how people interpret the events in their lives.

Question 16

Participant observation

Answer 16

Participant observation
Participant observation is a descriptive research method in which the researcher participates in cultural
activities alongside people being studied. This gives the researcher a degree of insider access to cultural

Question 17

Action research

Answer 17

Action research
Action research investigates questions about practice. For example, a teacher might conduct a quasiexperimental study to see which teaching method is most effective

Question 18

Theory

Answer 18

Theory
A theory is a causal model that explains observed phenomena. For example, the theory of evolution
explains observed differences among animals and plants.

Question 19

Hypothesis

Answer 19

Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an explanation or prediction of an observed phenomenon that is derived from a theory.
For example, a biologist analyzing fishing regulations might hypothesize that if only bigger fish are
allowed to be caught, then fish will evolve smaller bodies.

Question 20

Empirical

Answer 20

Empirical
An empirical question is one that can be answered by gathering data. A claim that can be verified by
doing an experiment is an empirically verifiable claim.