M.Ed. Master of Education Educational Research and Assessment 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which research design allows researchers to establish cause-and-effect relationships by randomly assigning participants to groups?
- Case study
- Correlational study
- True experimental design (Correct answer)
- Ethnography
Correct answer: True experimental design
True experimental designs with random assignment allow researchers to control for confounding variables and establish causal relationships between variables.
Question 2: Reliability in educational assessment refers to:
- The degree to which a test measures what it intends to measure
- The consistency of scores across repeated administrations or raters (Correct answer)
- The fairness of the test for all subgroups
- The alignment of the test to curriculum standards
Correct answer: The consistency of scores across repeated administrations or raters
Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of assessment results over time, across forms, or between raters.
Question 3: Which measure of central tendency is most affected by extreme outlier scores?
- Mode
- Median
- Mean (Correct answer)
- Standard deviation
Correct answer: Mean
The mean is calculated using all values, so extreme scores (outliers) pull it disproportionately in their direction, unlike the median or mode.
Question 4: A Likert scale is used in educational research to measure:
- Student physical fitness
- Attitudes, opinions, or perceptions along a continuum (Correct answer)
- Reading fluency rates
- Standardized achievement benchmarks
Correct answer: Attitudes, opinions, or perceptions along a continuum
Likert scales ask respondents to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement on a rating continuum, commonly used to measure attitudes and perceptions.
Question 5: Which type of validity evidence confirms that an assessment measures all aspects of the intended construct or domain?
- Predictive validity
- Concurrent validity
- Content validity (Correct answer)
- Construct validity
Correct answer: Content validity
Content validity ensures that assessment items comprehensively and representatively sample the full domain of knowledge or skills being measured.
Question 6: A researcher finds a correlation of r = –0.82 between screen time and reading scores. This indicates:
- Screen time causes lower reading scores
- A strong negative relationship between the two variables (Correct answer)
- No meaningful relationship
- A weak positive relationship
Correct answer: A strong negative relationship between the two variables
An r value of –0.82 indicates a strong negative correlation, meaning as screen time increases, reading scores tend to decrease, but correlation does not imply causation.
M.Ed. Master of Education Educational Research and Assessment 1
Which research design allows researchers to establish cause-and-effect relationships by randomly assigning participants to groups?