The administration of Midwest State University wants to know if arrangement of chairs affects student participation in classrooms. What would be a good operational definition of the dependent variable in an experiment designed to measure this relationship?
A) class size: under 50 or over 50
B) number of students enrolled in each class
C) chair arrangement: theater style or circular
D) frequency with which students ask questions

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The dependent variable is the variable being measured in relation to the independent variable (chair arrangement). In this experiment, the goal is to measure whether chair arrangement affects student participation, so the dependent variable should be related to participation. The frequency with which students ask questions is a good operational definition of participation, as it directly measures how involved students are in the classroom. Choices A and B are measures of class size, which is not the variable being tested in this experiment. Choice C is the independent variable, not the dependent variable.

The Administration of Midwest State University Wants to Know If