Statistical Tests
What variable involves categories with a specific order that are not evenly spaced?
Ordinal variable
What are the people or things we collect data on or from? Units, variables, or design?
Units
In an educational research study, students are asked to rate their agreement with the statement “I find it easy to focus in school” on a five-point scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. This level of measurement allows you to rank students' feelings on a scale from low to high, but doesn’t assume equal spacing between the ranks.
Ordinal
A researcher believes that there is a true reality, but he only has the ability to approximate it. In his study, he used a t-test and found a p value of .02, was his result statistically significant? What paradigm was he operating in?
Post-positivism; his test is statistically valid
After you carve a pumpkin you have a...
jack-o-lantern
To examine the relationship between gender and type of school attended (charter, public, private, etc.), what statistical test would we use?
Chi-Square Test
What are the types of validity?
Construct, criterion, and content
A study is conducted to measure the impact of a new teaching method on student performance. Data are collected on student test scores, GPA, and classroom focus levels in classrooms where the new teaching method is implemented, compared with classes without it. In this example, test scores, GPA, and focus levels are examples of this term.
Variables
A study surveys teachers about whether they believe standardized tests are "fair" and compares responses by school type (public v. private), which research design is this, and which analysis is appropriate?
A survey design using cross-tabulation and a chi-square test
What is the name of the clown in the movie IT?
Pennywise
A cross-tabulation displays the difference between what two values in each cell?
Observed and expected values
WHat is the difference between experimental and quasi-experiment design?
Quasi-experimental design do not include the random allocation of groups.
This term refers to a tentative explanation that accounts for a set of facts and can be tested by designing studies that collect relevant data and use statistical techniques to decide whether to reject or provisionally accept the results.
Hypothesis
A researcher classifies student grade level as upper and underclassmen and wants to compare college readiness test-scores across groups. Which statistical test would you use and why?
Multiple Independent t-tests; because grade level is categorical and tests are interval/ratio, allowing comparison of group means
What story is the Headless Horseman from?
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
What statistic is used to determine effect size in an independent samples t-test?
Cohen's d
What is inter-rater reliability?
THe data showing the consistency in answers between multiple observers who observed the same event.
This research paradigm accepts that social research can never be truly objective, yet maintains that there is an objective reality, arguing that while we will never be able to uncover that reality through our research, we should try to approximate it as best we can.
Post-Positivism
A research collects data on students' GPAs and their favorite study environment. They first summarize the average GPA for each environment, then run a statistical test to determine whether GPA differs significantly across the three groups.
Which parts of this study represent the descriptive and inferential purposes, and what are the levels of measurement for each variable.
Descriptive: summarizing the average GPA for each study environment
Inferential: testing GPA differences are statistically different
Interval/Ratio: GPA is a continuous variable
Nominal: study environment is a categorical variable
1978
WHen comparing means between gender and GPA in a sample, what assumptions must be made in order to perform an independent samples t-test?
What are 3 strengths, and 3 weaknesses, of an observational study?
Strengths: (1) Allows more nuance, (2) is more authentic, (3) observe results and avoid self-reporter bias
Weaknesses: (1) cannot prove causality, (2) less cost and time-effective, (3) observer bias
A research study is attempting to measure the impact of watching informative YouTube videos during class on student test performance on a particular topic, comparing two groups: one with YouTube videos and one with traditional lectures. In both groups, the study will also measure student interest by asking the students open-ended questions about the videos. The study could be an example of this research paradigm.
Pragmatism
A researcher wants to evaluate whether a new math tutoring program improves test performance compared to traditional instruction. Students are randomly assigned to one of the two groups. The researcher measures students' final test scores after four weeks of instruction.
What is the unit of analysis and type of variable being tested? What research design is this, and which statistical test is appropriate to compare the two groups?
Unit of analysis and variable: the individual student, and the dependent variable (test score) is a continuous variable
Research design: participants are randomly assignments to groups; experimental design
Statistical Test: T-Test to compare the mean test scores of the two instructional groups and determine whether the difference is statistically significant.
How many frames are in the popular stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas?
110,000