Correct Answer: Correct answer is: (D) Action research.
Exam Relevance: AP Psychology, AP Research, IB Psychology
Difficulty: Moderate
Concept notes: Action research involves teachers or practitioners conducting research in their own classrooms to improve their teaching practices. It is typically focused on solving specific problems and involves collecting data to evaluate the effectiveness of new strategies.
Common Mistakes: Students may confuse action research with experimental research, which involves controlled experiments with a control and experimental group, or with descriptive research, which aims to describe characteristics of a population without manipulating variables.
Explanations: Ms. Ortiz is using action research because she is implementing a new strategy in her own classroom and collecting data to determine its effectiveness. This aligns with the core concept of action research, which is to improve teaching practices through practical, classroom-based research.
Option Analysis: - Option A: Experimental research involves controlled experiments with a control and experimental group, which is not described in the scenario.
- Option B: Descriptive research aims to describe characteristics of a population without manipulating variables, which does not fit the scenario of testing a new strategy.
- Option C: Correlational study examines the relationship between variables without manipulating them, which is not the focus of Ms. Ortiz's data collection.
- Option D: Action research involves teachers conducting research in their own classrooms to improve teaching practices, which matches Ms. Ortiz's approach.