STATISTICS:

THE LANGUAGE OF
RESEARCH
Processes for:
gathering
organizing
analyzing, and
interpreting numerical data
Answers the following questions:
What facts need to be gathered to provide the
information necessary to answer the questions or
to test the hypothesis?
How are these data to be selected, gathered,
organized, and analyzed?
What assumptions underlie the statistical
methodology to be employed?
What conclusions can be validly drawn from
the analysis of data?
-summarize the basic characteristics of a particular
distribution, without making any inferences about
population parameters

a) Measures of Central Tendency

b) Measures of Spread or Dispersion
c) Measures of Relative Position
d) Measures of Relationship
Statistical
Definition Most Effective Uses
Measures
Mean Average score in a set. Provide an overall
Calculated by adding all the average for the group
scores and dividing by the and/or student, taking a
total number of scores. specific test.
Median Score that splits a distribution Way to get a midpoint for
(Md) in half: 50% of the scores fall scores with unequal
above and 50% of the scores intervals.
fall below the median.
# of Scores is odd: middle
score
# of scores is even: add the
two middle score divided by
two
Mode Score that occurs most Tells which score or scores
frequently in a scoring appear most often.
distribution.
 Statistical
Definition Most Effective Uses
Measures
Range Measure of the spread Tell us the width of the
between the lowest and distribution of scores.
the highest scores in a Educators working on
distribution. continuous improvement will
Often described as end want to watch the range of
points. actual scores, decrease
over time.
Standard Indicates how far away A low standard deviation
Deviation ( ) scores are from the would indicate that the
mean. scores of a group are close
together. A high standard
deviation would imply that
the range of scores is wide.
Variance The sum of the squared
deviations from the mean,
divided by N.
-method of expressing any score in a distribution in
terms of its distance from the mean

1. Z Score
2. T Score
3. College Board Score
1. Correlations
- relationship between two or more paired variables or two or
more sets of data
- degree of relationship is measured and represented by the
coefficient of correlation, r or Greek letter rho ()

Positively Correlated: one variable increases , the other also

tends to increase
ex: Intelligence Academic Achievement
Negatively Correlated: one variable increases, the other tends
to decrease
ex: Acad. Achievement Hours per week of TV watching
No Correlation: pure chance relationship
ex: Body weight Intelligence
 Coefficient (r) Relationship
.00 to .20 Negligible
.21 to .40 Low
.41 to .60 Moderate
.61 to .80 Substantial
.81 to 1.00 High to Very High
1. The coefficient does not imply a cause-and-effect
relationship between variables.
ex. persons who always eat preserve foods- high
risk of cancer

2. A zero correlation does not necessarily mean that

no relationship at all.
ex. No correlation between hours of study and
test performance
-concerned with measuring a sample from a
population and then making inferences about the
population

1. t-test
2. ANOVA
1. t test the test of the significance of the difference between two
means

The Significance of the Difference between the Means of Two

Independent Groups
Hypothesis: There was no significant difference between the mean
reading achievement of the initial teaching alphabet experimental
group and the traditional alphabet control group.

Experimental Control
ITA Group Traditional Alphabet Group

ttabular = 2.58
t = 3.11

The computed t value of 3.11 exceeds the tabular t value of 2.58, null
hypothesis is rejected.
One-Tailed and Two-Tailed Tests of Significance
One-Tailed
Directional: indicates
superiority or inferiority
SOP: Does the initial teaching
alphabet group have higher
mean reading achievement
than the traditional alphabet
control group?
Null Hypothesis: The initial
teaching alphabet group
does not have a higher mean
reading achievement than
the traditional alphabet
control group
Two-Tailed
Non-directional : Concerned
with only difference
SOP: Is there a significant
difference between the mean
reading achievement of the
ITA group and the traditional
alphabet control group.
Null Hypothesis: There is no
significant difference
between the mean reading
achievement of the ITA group
and the traditional alphabet
control group.
t Critical Vales for Rejection of the Null
Hypothesis

.05 level .01 level

Two-tailed test 1.96 2.58
One-tailed test 1.64 2.33

Significance of the Difference Between Two Small

Sample Independent Means
-the individuals were randomly assigned to the
control and experimental group
Significance of the Difference Between Means of Two Matched or
Correlated Groups (Nonindependent Samples)

significance of the difference between means of groups

that are not randomly assigned
pairs of individual in the group have been match on one or
more characteristics (IQ, academic performance)
same group of individuals takes a pretest, is exposed to a
treatment, and then is retested to determine whether the
influence of the treatment has been statistically significant as
determined by mean gain scores.

Because the groups are not independent samples, it is

necessary to calculate the coefficient of correlation between

1. the posttest scores of the matched pairs samples, or

2. The pretest and posttest scores of the participants
Significance of the Difference Between Means of Two Matched or
Correlated Groups (Nonindependent Samples)

The number of degrees of freedom would be the number of pairs minus

one
Example A
Two groups, each made up of 20 fifth-grade students, were matched
on the basis of IQs.
Intervention: Filmstrips were used to teach the experimental group;
the control group was exposed to a conventional read and
discussed method.
The researcher wished to test the null hypothesis that there was no
difference between the mean achievement of the two groups
Two-tailed test

X C

The t value of 2.43 exceeds the t critical value of 2.093 for a two-tailed
test at .05 level at 19 degrees of freedom, the null hypothesis may be
rejected.
Example B

A typing teacher wished to determine the effectiveness of 10 minutes

transcendental meditation on the speed and accuracy of his class of 30
students. He administered a time speed / accuracy test and recorded the score
for each student. The next day, after 10 minutes of class participation in a TM
exercise, he administered a similar time speed/ accuracy test.
He then tested the null hypothesis that the TM experience would not improve
the proficiency in speed and accuracy of typing of his class.

Pretest Test after TM

Because the t value of 6.94 exceeds the t critical value of 2.462 for a one-tailed
test at the .01 level for 29 degrees of freedom, he rejected the null hypothesis
concluding that the meditation experience did improve performance
proficiency.
2. Coefficient of Correlation
Pearson product-moment coefficient of correlation, r

Coefficient (r) Relationship

.00 to .20 Negligible
.21 to .40 Low
.41 to .60 Moderate
.61 to .80 Substantial
.81 to 1.00 High to Very High Correlation

Statistical Significance of r
Statistical Significance of a Coefficient of Correlation

r = .40
N = 25

Using a two-tailed test at the .05 level with 23 degrees

of freedom, the null hypothesis is rejected, exceeding
the critical value of 2.07.
3. Analysis of Variance
applied to the study of differences in the
application of approaches
determine whether the means of more than
two samples are different

Ex: A test of abstract reasoning is administered

to three randomly selected groups of students
majoring in mathematics, philosophy, and
chemistry. Are the mean test scores of each of
the three groups significantly different from one
another?
Thank You for
Listening!