Question

a middle school band teacher assigns students to practice their instruments at home for 15 minutes per day. students are required to keep a \practice log\ where they record the number of minutes they practice each day. the teacher selects a random sample of 10 practice logs and finds the average amount of practice per day is 17.8 minutes.
a. name one potential source of bias present in this survey. explain.
b. do you think the average amount of time practicing per day reported by students in the sample is greater than or less than the true average amount of time practicing per day for these students? explain.
c. identify a solution that the teacher could implement to remove this bias.

Explanation:

Part a

Self - reporting bias. Students may over - report practice time to look good.

Part b

Greater than. Self - reporting often leads to overestimation (e.g., students want to seem diligent).

Part c

The teacher could observe students' practice sessions (e.g., via video call at random times) instead of relying on self - reported logs. This way, the data is based on actual observation rather than potentially biased self - reports.

Answer:

a. Self - reporting bias. Students may over - report.
b. Greater than. Self - reporting often overestimates.
c. Observe practice sessions (e.g., via random video calls).