Data Types-

Ordinal data is a type of quantitative data in which variables exist in naturally occurring ordered categories. Some examples of this data type would be satisfaction ratings, income levels, and socio economic status.

Interval data (also called Numerical) is a type of data which is measured along a scale, in which each point is placed at an equal distance from one another. Some examples of this data type would be test scores, tempature, and time of day.

Categorical data (also called Nominal) has variables that represent types of data which may be divided into groups. Some examples of this data type would be age, gender, race, and education level.

As far as which of these data types works best when conducting action research this would be ordinal data since this is considered to be qualitative data or non-numeric. When conducting action research and using qualitative data you can use a smaller focus group. This allows for easier data collection.

References:

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATEGORICAL, ORDINAL AND INTERVAL VARIABLES? OARC Stats. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://stats.oarc.ucla.edu/other/mult-pkg/whatstat/what-is-the-difference-between-categorical-ordinal-and-interval-variables/