HANDOUT 4 Activity 1 1. What are variables, samples, and populations, and why are they important in research?

Variables are anything which does not remain constant. Samples are subsets of individuals from a given population Populations are observable characteristics which differentiate them from others. They are important in research because they are as the subject of the research. 2. What are the basic principles of sound experimental design? The basic principles of sound experimental design are scientific protocols and generate good statistical data. 3. What do we mean by inferential statistics? Inferential statistics means the researcher makes claims about an entire population based on data obtained from a subset or sample of that population. 4. When is it appropriate to use the following statistical procedures: t-test analysis of variance, correlation, chi-square? T-test analysis of variance is appropriate when comparing two means and or in only two groups Correlation is appropriate when we intend to determine the degree to which two (or more) variables vary together. Chi-square is appropriate when covering situations where there are more than two categories of possible outcome. 5. What is the difference between true experiments, quasi-experiments, and pre-experiments? True experiments They provide completely adequate controls for all sources of internal invalidity Quasi-experiments Partly-but not fully-true experimental designs; they control some but not all of the sources of internal invalidity Pre-experiments It does not qualify as legitimate experimental designs because they do not control adequately against the sources of internal invalidity

Activity 2 1. What are the two ways of classifying variables? Elaborate your answer! The two ways of classifying variables:

Independent variable: the label given to the variable that the experimenter expects to influence the other. In this case it would be the teaching method.

Dependent variable: the variable upon which the independent variable is acting. In this case, the test scores.

2. What kind of situation requires experiment as an appropriate way of gathering data? When the researcher intends to explore the strength of relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. 3. Why is it difficult to conduct experiments in a school setting, and what do you think is the best solution? It is difficult to conduct experiments in a school setting because the real world education world, that is the world confronting the educational researcher, is fraught with real limitations upon the researchers ability to select/assign subjects and manipulate situations, for example the limitation to randomly select the students. The best way to solve this problem is to using quasi experimental research with intact groups as the subjects. 4. Why is the standard deviation, in addition to the mean, important in studying numerical data? The standard deviation is important in studying numerical data because it gives us information on the extent to which a set of scores varies in relation to the mean. It is calculated by deducting the mean from each individual score, squaring the resulting figures to get rid of the minus signs, adding these together and dividing by the number of scores minus one. This gives us the variance. 5. Describe a situation which requires analysis of variance (ANOVA) as the best technique of data analysis? ANOVA as the best technique when we compare more than two means, or more than two groups, the appropriate test is the F-test, which is based on ANOVA.

Activity 3 1. Match up a. Intact-group comparison : 5.does not control for selection b. Pretest-posttest control group design : 4. True design with possible testing effect c. Posttest-only control group design : 1. True design with no testing effect d. One-shot case study: 3. Does not control for history or selection e. Equivalent time-samples design : 6. Improved control for history but weak on external validity.

f. Separate-sample pretest-posttest : 2. One-group design repeated twice 2. Match Up a. Nonequivalent control group design: b. Posttest-only control group design: c. Time-series design: d. One-group pretest-posttest design: e. Factorial design: f. Patched-up design: 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. a. b. 16. a. Why would a Hawthorne control be a good idea? Because a Hawthorne control b. c.