This clever title comes from the book "Statistics for People Who Think They Hate Statistics" by Neil Salkind.
Statistics makes me queasy. I see an article with a bunch of numbers and graphs in it, and I panic. The idea of writing using stats is almost unthinkable to me. However, quantitative research is highly lauded in both the Literacy field and in Learning Technologies. This means I have to get over my fear and learn it. Just because it scares me, doesn't mean it is without value.
This is a somewhat voluntary adventure in numeric reporting. That's right- this course is not required for me. I'm not running away from it. I'm running toward it. Putting off learning statistics is only going to serve to delay the inevitable.
My professor is Dr. Gerald Knezek, a Regents Professor at University of North Texas. After the requisite survey of basic course requirements, he had our class do an exercise in looking at the basics of statistics. Asking us to make a table of the heights of all members of the class, he required us to line up in order of height. This kinesthetic technique is effective in helping the beginning student to understand mean, median, and mode.
Thankfully, I'm not completely new to statistics. I have read quantitative research articles before, even though I didn't understand every term. I've had the Masters level statistics course. I have the gist of some of the terminology. However, I still appreciated the fact that he went way back to square one. It makes me feel like I can conquer this content.
Using the SPSS program, we then ran some basic reports. I was surprised by how easy it was to use. After filling out an excel spreadsheet and importing it into the program, it spit back the standard deviations. Then we talked about the Cohen's d effect size. A simple subtraction and division formula, even I could handle it. Sometimes computers can truly make life easier. This is one of those times. I'm looking forward to seeing what else the program can do for me.
After this initial class, I don't think that statistics is sadistic. It is just that I need to understand what it all means to be able to use it. Bring it on!
