My students do fairly well when it comes to determining the mean, median and mode but they are not able to explain what those measures tell about a set of data or why it is important to be able to determine the
measures of central tendency. I would like to have my students to be better able to do that this year.
Like
measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion are also based on levels of measurement.
In this case, different
measures of central tendency may differ in level, but they will all change by the same percentage and will therefore show the same index value relative to a base year.
He gives basic terminology and concepts such as scales of measurement and variables, then launches into a range of methods displaying data,
measures of central tendency and variability, normal distribution, basic concepts of probability, sampling distributions and hypothesis testing, correlation, regression, multiple regression, power, the various analyses of variance, the chi-square, nonparametric and distribution-free statistical tests, and a very handy set of instructions on choosing the appropriate analysis.
Topics discussed are data analysis;
measures of central tendency, dispersion, and position; probability; counting rules; normal and binomial distributions; and correlations.
Demonstrate the need for other
measures of central tendency by pointing out the main weakness of the mean--the extent to which its value can be affected by extreme scores.
When
measures of central tendency are needed, means are generally reported.
His topics include descriptive methods:
measures of central tendency and variability, the foundation of standard normal distribution: describing individual scores, hypothesis testing: one sample case for the mean, making inferences about population proportions, categorical analysis, and methods that are not the most widely used but are important to know for determining practical and personal significance.