Education 160

Introduction to Statistical Methods in Education

Fall Quarter, 2000

Kenji Hakuta, Professor

Phone: 725-7454 / e-mail hakuta@leland / Office Hours: by appointment (send e-mail), CERAS 109, follow signs to ACCELERATED SCHOOLS

I will generally be in the Big Tree classroom a half-hour before each lecture, and will hang around after class to answer questions.

 

Teaching Assistant

Michalis P. Michaelides / e-mail michali@stanford.edu Cubberley 72. / Office Hours: Tuesday 2-3, Wednesday 3:15-4:15

 

Course Text

Welkowitz, J., Ewen, R. & Cohen, J. Introductory Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. 5th Edition. Harcourt Brace College Publishers.

Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Course Description

The primary objective of the course is to introduce you to the major basic concepts in descriptive and inferential statistics, and to prepare you for subsequent statistical courses in general linear modelling (Ed 250A), analysis of variance (Ed 250B) and beyond.. The course begins with methods to describe and summarize frequency distributions. This is followed by various methods to describe the relationships between two variables. Finally, we provide an introduction to probability theory methods to draw inferences about the relationship between samples used in studies to the universe from which the samples were drawn. You will also be introduced to a statistical software program, SPSS. The course is meant to be informative and fun (yes, fun!), and we guarantee everyone that after this course, you will want to know more, and that the world of statistical thinking will never seem the same.

Homework exercises. Every week, you will be given problems posted on this website to complete. You should come to the discussion section, to be held on Thursdays, with your answers. The sections will discuss the problems and answers, and you may annotate your homework answer during the sections, at the end of which you will be asked to hand them in. Each homework will be graded as pass/no pass, but the primary intent of the homework is to assess your on-going learning and to guide our own instructional efforts. So, on your homework sheets, please feel free to include questions and comments that can help us teach you better.

Exams. There will be two take-home exams during the course, with problems similar to those found in the homework problems. These exams are under the honor code. Students may not discuss the problems with others until the problems have been turned in.

Grading. The final grade will be based on four equal weightings of the homework excercises, the two take-home exams, and a final project (to be announced).

Michalis' ED 160 Resources

Week of
Main Topics
Section / Problem Sets
9/27

Tour of statistics and measurement, research design. Ch. 1

Slides 9/27

HSB dataset samples
10/2 Frequency Distributions, Central Tendency, and Variability. Ch. 2, 3, 4, 5. Lecture Slides 10/2; 10/3 ; 10/4

Homework #1 Word or pdf file; hands data Excel; Michalis's notes on Homework #1

10/9 Data Transformation and Graphical Displays. Ch. 6, 7. Lecture Slides 10/9 10/10 10/11

Homework #2 Word or pdf file

SPSS Workshop 1, October 13, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
10/16

Normal Distribution and Statistical Inference. Ch. 8, 9. Lecture Slides 10/16 10/17

Homework #3 see Michalis's resource page; Financial Times article on GMAT
10/23

Testing for Differences between Means. Ch. 10, 11. Lecture Slides 10/23 and 10/24 10/25

Homework #4 see Michalis's resource page

Take Home Examination #1: Handed out October 26, due October 31, 5:00 PM
10/30 Correlation and Regression. Ch. 12, 13 10/30 (independent samples t-test), 11/1-2 (correlation) Homework #5 see Michalis's resource page; stathours data
SPSS Workshop 2, November 3, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
11/6 Regression, Continued. Ch. 14 11/7-8 (regression) Height data Excel
11/13 Power Analysis (Ch. 14); One-Way Analysis of Variance. Ch. 15 Newport and Johnson study data 11/15 (r-squared demo); 11/16 (Power); 11/17 (ANOVA) No homework this week!
SPSS Workshop 3, November 17, 3:00 - 6:00 PM
11/20 One-Way Analysis of Variance. Homework: see Michalis's resource page
11/27 Simple Factorial Design. Ch. 16 11/27-28; Chi Squared 11/29  
Take Home Examination #2: Handed out November 30, due December 5, 5:00 PM
12/4 Nonparametric Statistics. Ch. 17; Review and Looking Ahead. 12/4  

Class Project due December 7