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Workbooks / Understanding Statistics
Text & Workbooks by Kim Lie
1.
Contents
2. The
Relevance of Statistics
3. Learning
Aims
4. How to use
the workbooks
5. Workbook
Topics
The booklet Understanding Statistics provides you with summaries of the basic concepts and terms.
It would be best to memorise the definitions before attempting any of the Workbooks unless you have studied statistics previously. The exercises are designed to help you as part of the learning process. The exercises are best used after mastering the study notes.
2. The Relevance of Statistics
Do you want or need to:
- understand numerical information so as not to be misled?
- solve problems by gathering accurate and reliable information?
- make sense of numerical information to make use of it?
- evaluate information critically in order to assess social policies?
‘Statistical Thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write.’
(H.G. Wells)
- Is statistics a science or an art?
- Is it concerned with amassing numbers or with extracting meaning from them?
- Does the study of statistics apply only to science and technology or also to health and social welfare?
‘Statistics…..the most important science in the whole world for upon it depends the practical application of every other science and of every art; the one science essential to all political and social administration, all education, all organisation based upon experience, for it only gives the results of our experience.’
(Florence Nightingale)
This section of the course aims to help you to:
- acquire a critical understanding of the results and data analysis in research articles;
- understand descriptive statistics;
- appreciate the factors to consider when using inferential statistics.
The booklet Understanding Statistics provides you with summaries of the basic concepts and terms. Relevant sections of the core textbooks should also be read to gain a deeper understanding.
It would be best to memorise the definitions before attempting any of the Workbooks unless you have studied statistics previously. The excercises will help you to learn AFTER you have understood and mastered the key concepts and terms in the booklet. So try the following steps:
- Understand and memorise the key terms in the booklet Understanding the Statistics.
- Select the Relevant Workbook
- Complete the 10 questions
- Ask the computer for your total score on that workbook. Advice on how you could develop your learning will then be given.
Workbooks are available for the following areas:
Workbook 1 - Levels of measurement 2 - Measure of central tendency 3 - Variability and dispersion 4 - Distributions 5 - Probability and significance levels 6 - Hypothesis testing 7 - Correlations
