Research in Education: Evidence-Based Inquiry

Application Problems:

1. For each case below, choose the most appropriate statistical procedure:
a. A teacher of a low-level reading group is interested in what the average score is for the group of 25 students.
b. An administrator wants to find out if there is a relationship between teacher absences and student achievement.
c. A math teacher wants to know how many ability groups should be formed within a class of 30 students.
d. A student teacher is interested in finding out the number of students who rate his performance as good, excellent, average, or poor.
2. Identify the scale of measurement in each of the following:
a. attitudes toward school
b. grouping students on the basis of hair color
c. asking judges to rank order students from most cooperative to least cooperative

3. For the following set of scores, prepare a frequency distribution, a histogram, and a stem-and-leaf display for each variable. Also calculate the mean, and the standard deviation of each score. Are there any outliers in the distribution? If so, what is the result if these scores are removed from the data set? Draw a scatter plot that illustrates the relationship between the two variables.
Subject Variable A: Attitude toward descriptive statistics (1 = low and 20 = high) Variable B: Achievement on test of knowledge of descriptive statistics

Sam 12 80
Sally 10 60
Frank 19 85
Bob 8 65
Colleen 2 55
Isaiah 15 75
Felix 1 95
Dan 20 82
Robert 6 70
Jim 11 88
Michelle 3 59
Jan 7 60

Application Problems 1-3 in Chapter 7 of Research in Education: Evidence-Based Inquiry.

To answer Problem 3, use the Excel® Analysis tool where applicable. Using the data from Problem 3 and the Excel® Analysis tool complete the following:
1. Find the following for Variables A and B: mean, median, mode, and standard deviation
2. Create a histogram for Variables A and B and create a scatter gram or line graph between Variables A and B
3. Compute the coefficient correlation between Variables A and B (Pearson r)