let's start by asking the question why is it important that we Define words or terms defining terms clearly is very important and helps everyone in many ways when we Define terms well everyone understands what those words mean the same way this stops people from getting confused and make sure that everyone can communicate well especially in school or work in research when we use the same definitions it helps other scientists do their experiments the same way also in school having clear definitions makes it easier to learn new and difficult ideas lastly when we talk or debate with others clear definitions help us understand each other better and avoid arguing about misunderstandings so defining terms helps us share ideas more effectively and learn from each other today we're going to learn about two very important ideas called Technical and operational definitions these are terms we use a lot in different areas of study and understanding them will really help you as you continue to learn more in school let's start with technical definition a technical definition tells us the exact meaning of a word in a specific area like science or math for example in physics force is something that makes objects move or stop moving imagine you're pushing a shopping cart the push you give is a force this definition uses special terms that people who study Physics will understand in Psychology which is the study of how people think and feel force can mean something a bit different here it might be about the invisible pressures or influences that make make people act in certain ways for example if someone feels forced to fit in with friends the force is the peer pressure they're feeling in legal terms force can be used to talk about making someone do something they don't want to do this might come up in discussions about laws and rights for example if a law says that someone was forced to sign a contract it means they were pressured or threatened into signing it next we have operational definitions these are used mostly in research to describe how we measure something or decide what it counts as for instance if researchers want to study how well students understand what they read they might Define reading comprehension as the ability to answer 80% of the questions correctly on a reading test this way everyone knows exactly how reading comprehension is being measured in that particular study another example is if we're studying about people's happiness the operational definition would be the score obtained from answers to a questionnaire about feelings and activities related to happiness to measure happiness we might ask students to fill out a survey that asks how often they smile if they enjoy talking with friends at school and whether they like their classes the scores from these surveys help us understand how happy students feel another study about student engagement in class engagement would have the operational definition of the number of times a student participates in class discussions plus their attendance and homework submission records to understand how engaged students are in their learning we can look at how often they contribute to class talks how regularly they attend class classes and if they consistently hand in their homework these indicators help us measure their involvement in school activities lastly if we want to measure success in a specific research study the operational definition would be the achievement of key educational goals specifically measured by improvements in grades graduation rates or the percentage of students achieving Proficiency in tests over the school year why are these definitions so important well technical definitions make sure that when we use words everyone knows exactly what we mean this helps prevent confusion operational definitions are important because they make sure that everyone measures things the same way in experiments or studies which helps researchers understand if their findings are reliable to conclude this video Lesson always pay attention to how terms are defined in your classes and in the books you read ask yourself what does this word really mean in this context and how do we measure this idea knowing the answers will help you understand and use these Concepts steps better in your own studies thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing how you apply these ideas in your work