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AQRApplied Quantitative Reasoning

Quarter 1

Know Yourself

Vocabulary for learner profiles, measurement, confidence, habits, comprehension, and personalized learning support.

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Published vocabulary

23 terms in the standard AQR format.

Start with the plain-language meaning, then use the fuller definition and sentence stem as the term becomes familiar.

  1. Quarter-essential

    Ability

    Full definition
    Ability is the current capacity to perform a task or demonstrate a skill. Ability can develop with instruction, practice, tools, support, and experience.
    Plain language
    What you can currently show that you can do.
    How we use it in AQR
    Q1 asks for evidence of current ability without turning one score or struggle into a permanent label.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The evidence of my current ability is ______.

  2. Quarter-essential

    Comprehension

    Full definition
    Comprehension is understanding the meaning, relationships, implications, and important details of information. It is more than recognizing words or repeating an answer.
    Plain language
    Actually understanding what something means.
    How we use it in AQR
    Your learning agent should check comprehension instead of only giving answers or summaries.
    Example question or sentence stem
    To show comprehension, I can explain ______ in my own words.

  3. Quarter-essential

    Confidence

    Full definition
    Confidence is the degree to which a person feels sure about an answer, skill, decision, or ability. Confidence may be higher or lower than actual accuracy or performance.
    Plain language
    How sure or capable you feel.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will compare confidence with evidence and learn that confident AI output can still be wrong.
    Example question or sentence stem
    My confidence is ______ because ______.

  4. Quarter-essential

    Habit

    Full definition
    A habit is a behavior or response repeated often enough to become a regular pattern. Habits can support or interfere with goals, and they can change over time.
    Plain language
    Something you do regularly, often without much thought.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will identify habits that affect school, work, attention, organization, and follow-through.
    Example question or sentence stem
    One habit affecting my work is ______

  5. Quarter-essential

    Measurement

    Full definition
    Measurement is the process of assigning a number, category, rating, or description to an attribute according to a stated method or scale. Good measurement requires clarity about what is being measured and how.
    Plain language
    A way of describing something with a number, category, or rating.
    How we use it in AQR
    In Q1, you will question what surveys, ratings, diagnostics, and self-reports actually measure.
    Example question or sentence stem
    What exactly is being measured here?

  6. Quarter-essential

    Preference

    Full definition
    A preference is a tendency to favor, enjoy, or choose one option, method, environment, or style over another. A preference does not necessarily show what produces the best result.
    Plain language
    What you tend to like or choose.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will distinguish preferred ways of learning from demonstrated ability and from supports that actually help.
    Example question or sentence stem
    My preference is ______, but that does not prove ______.

  7. Quarter-essential

    Quantity

    Full definition
    A quantity is an amount, size, count, duration, rate, or other feature that can be measured or represented with a number and, when appropriate, a unit.
    Plain language
    An amount that can be counted or measured.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will identify the real quantity behind a number instead of treating every number as self-explanatory.
    Example question or sentence stem
    What quantity does this number represent?

  8. Quarter-essential

    Rating

    Full definition
    A rating is a value assigned to represent a judgment, level, quality, frequency, or self-report. Ratings are useful but may depend on the person, wording, mood, and meaning of the scale.
    Plain language
    A score that represents someone's judgment or level.
    How we use it in AQR
    Learner-profile ratings help you reflect, but they do not automatically prove ability or permanent traits.
    Example question or sentence stem
    Is this rating measuring skill, confidence, preference, or something else?

  9. Quarter-essential

    Scale

    Full definition
    A scale is an ordered system used to assign, compare, or display values. A scale may be numerical, such as 1 to 5, or visual, such as the range shown on a graph axis.
    Plain language
    The system or range used to show how much.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will examine what points on a rating scale mean and how changing a graph scale can change the impression it creates.
    Example question or sentence stem
    What does each point on this scale mean?

  10. Quarter-essential

    Unit

    Full definition
    A unit is an agreed-upon standard used to describe the size or amount of a quantity, such as minutes, dollars, miles, points, or responses. A number without its unit may be incomplete or misleading.
    Plain language
    The label that tells what a number is measuring.
    How we use it in AQR
    AQR repeatedly asks you to include units and check whether comparisons use compatible units.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The unit is ______, and it matters because ______.

  11. Recognize and begin using

    Diagnostic

    Full definition
    A diagnostic is a check used to identify a starting point, strength, need, misconception, or area for further investigation. A diagnostic is intended to guide support, not permanently label a person.
    Plain language
    A starting-point check that helps find what support may be needed.
    How we use it in AQR
    Q1 diagnostics should feed the learner profile or learning-agent instructions instead of becoming random tests.
    Example question or sentence stem
    This diagnostic is intended to measure ______.

  12. Recognize and begin using

    Feedback

    Full definition
    Feedback is information about performance, understanding, design, or progress that can guide improvement. Useful feedback is specific, relevant, understandable, and connected to a next step.
    Plain language
    Information that helps you improve.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will use feedback to revise profiles, prompts, tools, explanations, and project products.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The feedback led me to change ______.

  13. Recognize and begin using

    Inventory

    Full definition
    An inventory is an organized list or set of questions used to collect information about experiences, habits, interests, skills, resources, or needs.
    Plain language
    A structured set of questions that collects information about you or a situation.
    How we use it in AQR
    Interest, habit, and support inventories become source material that you interpret rather than accept blindly.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The inventory identified ______.

  14. Recognize and begin using

    Profile

    Full definition
    A profile is an organized description created from multiple pieces of information about a person, group, object, or situation. A useful profile is selective, evidence-based, and open to revision.
    Plain language
    A structured picture built from several kinds of information.
    How we use it in AQR
    Your learner profile combines interests, strengths, challenges, preferences, goals, and support needs for use in future tools.
    Example question or sentence stem
    My learner profile shows ______.

  15. Recognize and begin using

    Prompt

    Full definition
    A prompt is the instruction, question, context, or task given to a person or AI system to guide a response. Effective prompts state the job, needed information, limits, and desired output.
    Plain language
    The directions or question you give to a person or AI tool.
    How we use it in AQR
    You will write prompts that use your learner profile and ask for help without outsourcing your thinking.
    Example question or sentence stem
    I improved the prompt by adding ______.

  16. Recognize and begin using

    Self-data

    Full definition
    Self-data are information a person records, reports, or measures about themselves, such as time use, sleep, confidence ratings, habits, interests, or task completion.
    Plain language
    Information you collect or report about yourself.
    How we use it in AQR
    Your learner profile uses self-data, but you will also discuss its limits, including memory, honesty, mood, and measurement quality.
    Example question or sentence stem
    This self-data suggests ______, but it does not prove ______.

  17. Recognize and begin using

    Verify

    Full definition
    To verify means to check whether information, a result, or an output is accurate, supported, consistent, or traceable by comparing it with evidence, calculation, a source, or another method.
    Plain language
    Check that something is actually correct or supported.
    How we use it in AQR
    You are responsible for checking AI output, calculations, sources, and claims before using them.
    Example question or sentence stem
    I verified this by ______.

  18. Extension vocabulary

    Cognitive load

    Full definition
    Cognitive load is the amount of mental effort being used in working memory while a person is trying to understand or complete a task.
    Plain language
    How much your brain is trying to hold and process at once.
    How we use it in AQR
    You may identify when directions, vocabulary, or tool steps create unnecessary overload and redesign the support.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The cognitive load could be reduced by ______.

  19. Extension vocabulary

    Metacognition

    Full definition
    Metacognition is awareness and management of one's own thinking, understanding, strategies, errors, and learning processes.
    Plain language
    Thinking about how you think and learn.
    How we use it in AQR
    A stronger learner can explain which strategy worked, where confusion began, and what to change next.
    Example question or sentence stem
    My metacognition improved when I noticed ______.

  20. Extension vocabulary

    Operational definition

    Full definition
    An operational definition states exactly how an idea or variable will be observed, measured, counted, or classified in a particular study or project.
    Plain language
    A precise rule for what a term means in the actual measurement.
    How we use it in AQR
    Operational definitions prevent vague ideas such as focus, success, or stress from being measured differently by each person.
    Example question or sentence stem
    In this project, we will define ______ as ______.

  21. Extension vocabulary

    Proxy measure

    Full definition
    A proxy measure is an indirect variable used to represent a harder-to-measure idea because the idea itself cannot be measured directly or easily.
    Plain language
    A substitute measurement used for something difficult to measure.
    How we use it in AQR
    You may use assignment completion as a proxy for productivity while explaining why the two are not identical.
    Example question or sentence stem
    We are using ______ as a proxy for ______.

  22. Extension vocabulary

    Self-efficacy

    Full definition
    Self-efficacy is a person's belief that they can organize and carry out the actions needed to succeed at a particular task or goal.
    Plain language
    Your belief that you can handle a specific task.
    How we use it in AQR
    Extension learners may distinguish self-efficacy from general confidence and examine how evidence, practice, and support change it.
    Example question or sentence stem
    My self-efficacy for ______ changed when ______.

  23. Extension vocabulary

    Validity

    Full definition
    Validity is the degree to which a measure, method, model, or conclusion actually represents or answers what it claims to represent or answer.
    Plain language
    Whether you are really measuring the thing you say you are measuring.
    How we use it in AQR
    A learner survey can be consistent but still invalid if its questions do not match the ability or trait it claims to measure.
    Example question or sentence stem
    The validity is questionable because ______.