"Excellence and diversity: Through people, ideas, and innovation"
--The Vision Statement of the UNM College of Education
Educational Psychology 511 – 002
Introduction to Educational Statistics
Fall 2006
Instructor: / Office Hours: / Course MaterialsDr. Scott Marley
117 Simpson Hall
277-3164
www.unm.edu/~marley / Tues 3:30 - 5:00
Thurs 2:00 – 3:30
Or by appointment / Texts:
Runyon, R. P., Coleman, K. A., & Pittinger, D. J. (2000). Fundamentals of behavioral statistics (9th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill. / Calculator:
Any calculator with a square root key will work.
Computing:
Access to SPSS will be required
A 3.5" floppy disk
Course Description
Foundations of statistical methods for research producers. Covers sampling methods, descriptive statistics, standard scores, distributions, estimation, statistical significance testing, t-tests, correlation, chi-square, and effect size using SPSS for Windows and hand computation.
This course pre-requires or co-requires EDPSY 505: Conducting Quantitative Research in Education or an equivalent.
Course Objectives
This course is designed to provide you with a foundation of statistics knowledge. At the completion of the course you should be able to:
Ø Evaluate basic statistical discussions in the public and professional literature.
Ø Conduct basic statistical analyses in your own original research.
Ø Provide appropriate context to basic statistical analyses such as proper choice of techniques in a given situation and appropriate interpretation of results.
Ø Take more advanced statistics courses.
Course Procedures
The course meets Tuesdays from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the College of Education Technical Education Center room 101. These meetings will consist primarily of lecture, although discussion and questions are encouraged.
Course Assessment Plan
Ø Your participation in the course will minimally require the completion of three in-class exams (worth 100 points each) and five take-home assignments (worth 75 points each). The exams and the assignments will be equally weighted in the computation of the final course grade. There is no extra credit available in this course.
Ø In accordance with University policies (p. 69 of the UNM Catalog 2005-2006), no grade of "Incomplete" will be assigned for this course except under catastrophic circumstances. The student must make a request for an incomplete to the instructor before the final exam.
Ø Your final course grade will be assigned according to the following scale, though I reserve the right to amend this scale for the benefit of students:
A+ -- 97% - 100%
A -- 90% - 96%
B+ -- 86% - 89%
B -- 80% - 85%
C+ -- 76% - 79%
C -- 65% - 75%
F -- 0% - 64%
Expectations of Professionalism
Ethics
Ø You are expected to abide by the University policies on academic honesty and integrity as given in the Pathfinder. It is your responsibility to be familiar with these policies. Violations of these policies will not be tolerated and are subject to severe sanctions up to and including expulsion from the university.
Ø While study groups are encouraged, their proper purpose is not to do the homework assignments, but to help you learn the material. Each student is responsible for writing up and submitting the assignments. Separate copies of a group-constructed assignment are not acceptable.
Behaviors
Ø All pagers and cell phones should be turned off during class. If you must be available for emergency calls, please sit near the door so you can make a quick and non-disruptive exit.
Ø Please be here and ready to begin at 4:00 p.m.
Ø Attendance is mandatory. You are expected to take responsibility for your attendance by making arrangements to acquire all materials and information covered during your absence.
Work Habits
Ø Due dates for assignments are non-negotiable, and late work will be penalized 10% per class period.
Ø Practice problems are available at the end of each chapter. It is highly recommended that students attempt these problems.
Ø All work submitted for the course must be legible, well-organized & labeled, and stapled (not paper-clipped together). Illegible work will be returned to you without a grade, and you may resubmit it in legible form subject to the late penalty.
Other Course Policies
Ø In accordance with University policies (p. 4 of the UNM Catalog 2005-2006), this instructor will make reasonable accommodation to the religious observances/ national origin practices of a student and to the known physical or mental limitations of a qualified student unless such accommodations have the end result of fundamentally altering a program or service or placing an undue hardship on the operation of the University. Qualified students with disabilities should contact the Office of Student Support Services or the Office of Equal Opportunity for information regarding accommodations.
Ø Students bear the responsibility of contacting the Office of Student Support Services to document a qualifying disability, to have that office recommend appropriate accommodations, and to inform the instructor of those accommodations. Please inform the instructor as soon as possible should you think you require any accommodation.
Proposed Course Agenda
Date / Topics / Chapter(s) / Due8/22 / Ø Introductions
Ø Course Overview
Ø Policies and Procedures
Ø The Research Process / 1
8/29 / Ø Basic Concepts
Ø Frequency Distributions
Ø Stem-and-leaf
Ø Box plots
Assignment #1 available for download / 2-3
9/5 /
Ø Measures of Central Tendency
Ø Measures of dispersion / 4-59/12 / Ø The standard normal distribution
Ø Z-scores / 5-6 / Assignment #1
9/19 / Ø The standard normal distribution
Ø Z-scores
Ø Review / 6
9/26 / Ø Exam #1 / Exam #1
10/3 / Ø Graphs and Tables
Ø Scatterplots
Ø Correlation
Ø Assignment #2 available for download / 7 - 8
10/10 / Ø Correlation (cont.)
Ø Introduction to Probability / 8 & 10
10/17 /
Ø Probability (cont.)
Ø SamplingØ Introduction to Inferential Statistics
Ø Assignment #3 available for download / 10 -11 / Assignment #2
10/24 /
Ø The Logic and Mechanisms of Inferential Statistics.
Ø One sample z tests
/ 11 -1210/31 /
Ø The Logic and Mechanisms of Inferential Statistics.
Ø One sample t tests
Ø Review / 12 / Assignment #311/7 / Ø EXAM #2 / Exam #2
11/14 / Ø Hypotheses about means: Independent-samples t-tests
Ø Assignment #4 available for download / 13
11/21 / Ø Hypotheses about means: Dependent-samples t-tests / 13
(pass out Lenth)
11/28 / Ø Statistical power
Ø Effect size
Ø Chi-square tests
Ø Assignment #5 available for download / 17
Lenth / Assignment #4
12/5 /
Ø Chi-square tests
Ø Statistics in the research process
Ø Review / 17 / Assignment #512/12 /
EXAM #3 1:00 to 3:30 p.m.
/ Exam #3“Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.”
-- Mark Twain