Overview of the course, review of the syllabus.

Instructions for installing the Excel Data Analysis Tool Pack.

Introduction to the online statistics textbooks.

Introductory PowerPoint presentation.

Assignment for next week:

Install the Data Analysis Tool Pack for Excel on your computer.

Open HyperStat Online and read Chapter 1: Introduction to statistics.

Open Introductory Statistics and read the chapters titled A MAYORAL FANTASY, DOES CAFFEINE MAKE PEOPLE MORE ALERT?, and MODELS Optional, you can read the INTRODUCTION if you want. My own philosophy is pretty much in line with that of Dr. Stockburger.

Open the links to the other online statistics books given in the syllabus and familiarize yourself with their contents.

Open Against All Odds and view the first three videos:

1. What Is Statistics? 

2. Picturing Distributions

3. Describing Distributions

Against All Odds, produced around 1990 by the Annenberg Foundation. is a series of half-hour award-winning videos (and other stuff) on variety of statistical topics. We will view several more of these videos throughout this course.

Read Chapters 2 & 3 in HyperStat Online,

Open Introductory Statistics and read the Chapters on:

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS,

COMPARING FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS,

GROUPED FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS,

MODELS OF DISTRIBUTIONS. and

THE NORMAL CURVE.

Assignment for next week:

 Open HyperStat Online and read Chapters 4, 5, and 6:

Introduction to Probability (elementary)

Normal Distribution

Sampling Distributions

and the chapter, MEASUREMENT in Introductory Statistics.

Open and read, also, the article on Summarizing Data: Precision of Measurement by Will Hopkins (2000).

After having read about reliability and measurement, open the article (Hart, D. T. & Willower, D. J. (1994). Principal's organizational commitment and school environmental robustness. Journal of Educational Research, 87(3), 174-179),  and read the section under their heading MEASURES. Evaluate the reliability and validity of the measures they used.

Hart and Willower described two instruments that they used to measure organizational commitment and environmental robustness. Be prepared to describe how they arguee for the reliability and validity of these instruments for their purposes. If you were describing this article to someone else who has not read the article, how would you make a case in support of the instruments?

If you think organizational commitment and environmental robustness should be defined and measured differently, or if you would define and measure these constructs differently, tell us how.

Clarification of fuzzy understandings.

Probability and Introduction to Statistical Distributions.

Assignment for next session:

Read the following papers on the Binomial Distribution:

The Binomial Distribution

Tutorial on the Binomial Distribution

The Tutorial on the Chi Square Distributio

The description of the t distribution, and the

Tutorial on the F  Distribution.

Some useful distribution calculators:

For z, t, chi-square, and F:  http://statpages.org/pdfs.html

For the binomial (p): http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~west/applets/binomialdemo.html

For the Poisson distribution: http://dostat.stat.sc.edu/prototype/calculators/index.php3?dist=Poisson

Tables of the distributions of z t, chi-square, and F: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/distribution-tables/

 

Five important distributions in statistics:

The binomial distribution,
The normal distribution,
The chi-square distribution,
The t distribution, and
The F distribution.

Some useful distribution calculators:

Combinations and Permutations: http://www.mathsisfun.com/combinatorics/combinations-permutations-calculator.html

For z, t, chi-square, and F:  http://statpages.org/pdfs.html

For the binomial (p): http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~west/applets/binomialdemo.html

For the Poisson distribution: http://dostat.stat.sc.edu/prototype/calculators/index.php3?dist=Poisson

Tables of the distributions of z t, chi-square, and F: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/distribution-tables/

 

Assignment for next session:

Read the chapter CORRELATION in Introductory Statistics.

Then, open Against All Odds and view the following three videos:

8. Describing Relationships

9. Correlation 

11. The Question of Causation

September 30

Note: I will provide some commentary for today's topics. Look for it HERE.

Measuring association--Pearson Correlation, Spearman Correlation, and other procedures..

Testing hypotheses involving correlations.

Assignment for next week:

The article, Procedures for estimating internal consistency reliability, prepared by the Iowa Technical Adequacy Project (ITAP) describes Coefficient Alpha and how to compute it. The article also shows how to use Excel to compute Coefficient Alpha.

I once used a Motivations for Reading instrument to measure elementary school students interest in reading. The instrument can be found HERE, and an Excel file containing the responses, HERE.

Use the guidelines given in the Procedures article to compute the alpha-reliability of my administration of the Motivations for Reading instrument.

Open Introduction to Statistics and read the following chapters:

HYPOTHESIS TESTING,

THE SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION,

TESTING HYPOTHESES ABOUT SINGLE MEANS

NESTED t-TESTS,

THE t DISTRIBUTION,

ONE AND TWO-TAILED t-TESTS, and

ERRORS IN HYPOTHESIS TESTING.

Then, open HyperStat and read the following chapters:

1. Point Estimation ,
    
2. Confidence Intervals ,
    
3. The Logic of Hypothesis Testing , and
    
4. Testing Hypotheses with Standard Errors
    

October 7

Testing hypotheses involving differences. (t tests, Mann-Whitney U test, other tests.) Listed below are several statistical procedures, from the Institute of Phonetic Sciences (IFA), for testing differences between two groups (three to use when the groups are independent, and four to use when the groups are dependent, or correlated).

Open the links, read the material presented, and then, using the data found there, use each of the procedures to test appropriate hypotheses.

You are advised to read the appropriate sections in   under Analysis > Inferential Statistics > t test. You might, also, want to consult some additional, introductory statistics books.

Tests for comparing two independent samples

Student t Test for Independent Samples

Mann-Whitney U Test

Wilcoxon Independent Samples Test

Tests for comparing two dependent samples

Student t test for dependent samples

Use the Sign Test to perform a non-parametric solution to the t test scenario given in the previous example. Again, try programming the test in Excel.

McNemar's Test for Matched Pairs

Wilcoxon matched pairs signed ranks test

Several of the test listed above are nonparametric of distribution free statistical tests. If you are interested in learning more about nonparametric statistical tests, there is a link under Instructional Stuff for Statistics (also found in the Table of Contents, at left).

Assignment for next week:

For the next two weeks we will concentrate on the Analysis of  Variance (ANOVA):. We will begin with one-way ANOVA and move on to factorial ANOVA (two-way and three-way). Subtopics include applicable null hypotheses, the F ratio, main effects and interactions, and effect sizes.

All of these subtopics can be found in any number of statistical texts, including those available on the web. Locate and read information on these topics and  come to class next week prepared to discuss them.

The following problem will give you a chance to tryout using ANOVA

Introduction to ANOVA

Read the introductory material I have prepared that can be found HERE.

Complete the work described in the introductory material.

Assignment for next time we meet:

Read Chapter 11: Power in David Lane's Hyperstat and do (as many as you can of) the exercises at the end of the chapter

Read all of Chapter 19: Measuring Effect Size in David Lane's Hyperstat. Again, complete as many of the exercises at the end of the chapter as you can.

Regression Analysis

Prediction

Explanation

Assignment for next week:

Read the following articles:

Bye, D. P. and Conway, M. (2007). Motivation, interest, and positive affect in traditional and nontraditional undergraduate students. Adult Education Quarterly, 57(2), 141-158.

Hauser-Cram, P, & Sirin, S. R. (2003). When teachers' and parents' values differ: Teachers' ratings of academic competence in children from low-income families. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(4), 813-820.

Read my Overview of the General Linear Hypothesis. (Note: this assignment is on hold).

Continued discussion of Analysis of Variance

Class work on ANOVA problems

Assignment for next week:

Go to Statistics Videos and, under Statistics with Microsoft Excel, view the brief presentations on Correlation and Regression. Additionally, you might want to read Michael Orlov’s 1996 Introduction to Multiple Linear Regression Using Excel, which can be found in the Directory of Journal Articles.

Then, open Hyperstat and click on Chapter 15, Prediction and read the following sections:

* Introduction,

* The Standard Error of Estimate (note: David Lane uses the symbol, Y’ for the predicted value of Y; whereas, I use for the predicted value,)

* Partitioning Sums of Squares (Also read my document, Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis (an Example),

* Confidence Intervals and Significance Tests, and

* The four subsections under Multiple Regression.

The section on Regression Toward the Mean is optional, but, as doctoral students, something that you should read.

Next week I will give you some exercises to complete prior to class on the

 

Class activity:

To be determined.

Assignment for next week:

More Complex Models I

Path analysis

Regression discontinuity

Assignment for next week

View the following slide show presentation (Note: it make take a few minutes to load):

Why use multilevl modeling?

Read the following articles:

Osborne, Jason W. (2000). Advantages of hierarchical linear modeling. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 7(1). 

Peugh, J. L. (2009). A practical guide to multilevel modeling. Journal of School Psychology, 48(2010), 85-112.

Review of multilevel modeling.

Open and read: An application of HLM

Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling

Assignment for next week.

Read Statsoft's Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling

Read David Kenny's Introduction to SEM

More Complex Models

Log and Risk Ratios

Logistic Regression

Assignment for next week:

Class Activity