Introduction Statistics

A. Understanding of Statistics

Statistics is the study of how to plan, collect, analyze, interpret, and present data. In
short, statistics is the science of data.The term 'statistics' is different from 'statistics'. Statistics
is a science that deals with data, while statistics are data, information, or the results of the
application of statistical algorithms on a data.From the data set, statistics can be used to infer
or describe data, this is called descriptive statistics.

B. Data Collection

Data Collection is an important aspect of any type of research study. Inaccurate data
collection can impact the results of a study and ultimately lead to invalid results.Data
collection methods for impact evaluation vary along a continuum. At the one end of this
continuum are quantatative methods and at the other end of the continuum are Qualitative
methods for data collection .

Quantitative and Qualitative Data collection methods

The Quantitative data collection methods, rely on random sampling and structured data
collection instruments that fit diverse experiences into predetermined response categories.
They produce results that are easy to summarize, compare, and generalize.

Quantitative research is concerned with testing hypotheses derived from theory and/or
being able to estimate the size of a phenomenon of interest. Depending on the research
question, participants may be randomly assigned to different treatments. If this is not
feasible, the researcher may collect data on participant and situational characteristics in order
to statistically control for their influence on the dependent, or outcome, variable. If the intent
is to generalize from the research participants to a larger population, the researcher will
employ probability sampling to select participants.

Typical quantitative data gathering strategies include:

 Experiments/clinical trials.
 Observing and recording well-defined events (e.g., counting the number of patients
waiting in emergency at specified times of the day).
 Obtaining relevant data from management information systems.
 Administering surveys with closed-ended questions telephone interviews, questionnaires

Interviews

In Quantitative research(survey research),interviews are more structured than in

Qualitative research.
 In a structured interview,the researcher asks a standard set of questions and
nothing more.(Leedy and Ormrod, 2001)

Face -to -face interviews have a distinct advantage of enabling the researcher to
establish rapport with potential partiocipants and therefor gain their cooperation.These
interviews yield highest response rates in survey research.They also allow the researcher
to clarify ambiguous answers and when appropriate, seek follow-up information.
Disadvantages include impractical when large samples are involved time consuming and
expensive.(Leedy and Ormrod, 2001)

Telephone interviews are less time consuming and less expensive and the
researcher has ready access to anyone on the planet who hasa telephone.Disadvantages
are that the response rate is not as high as the face-to- face interview but cosiderably
higher than the mailed questionnaire.The sample may be biased to the extent that people
without phones are part of the population about whom the researcher wants to draw
inferences.

Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI): is a form of personal

interviewing, but instead of completing a questionnaire, the interviewer brings along a
laptop or hand-held computer to enter the information directly into the database. This
method saves time involved in processing the data, as well as saving the interviewer from
carrying around hundreds of questionnaires. However, this type of data collection method
can be expensive to set up and requires that interviewers have computer and typing skills.

Questionnaires

Paper-pencil-questionnaires can be sent to a large number of people and saves

the researcher time and money.People are more truthful while responding to the
questionnaires regarding controversial issues in particular due to the fact that their
responses are anonymous. But they also have drawbacks.Majority of the people who
receive questionnaires don't return them and those who do might not be representative of
the originally selected sample.(Leedy and Ormrod, 2001)

Web based questionnaires : A new and inevitably growing methodology is the

use of Internet based research. This would mean receiving an e-mail on which you would
click on an address that would take you to a secure web-site to fill in a questionnaire.
This type of research is often quicker and less detailed.Some disadvantages of this
method include the exclusion of people who do not have a computer or are unable to
access a computer.Also the validity of such surveys are in question as people might be in
a hurry to complete it and so might not give accurate responses.
(http://www.statcan.ca/english/edu/power/ch2/methods/methods.htm)

Questionnaires often make use of Checklist and rating scales.These devices help
simplify and quantify people's behaviors and attitudes.A checklistis a list of
behaviors,characteristics,or other entities that te researcher is looking for.Either the
researcher or survey participant simply checks whether each item on the list is observed,
 present or true or vice versa.A rating scale is more useful when a behavior needs to be
evaluated on a continuum.They are also known as Likert scales. (Leedy and Ormrod,
2001)

Qualitative data collection methods play an important role in impact evaluation

by providing information useful to understand the processes behind observed results and
assess changes in people’s perceptions of their well-being.Furthermore qualitative
methods can beused to improve the quality of survey-based quantitative evaluations by
helping generate evaluation hypothesis; strengthening the design of survey questionnaires
and expanding or clarifying quantitative evaluation findings. These methods are
characterized by the following attributes:

 they tend to be open-ended and have less structured protocols (i.e., researchers may
change the data collection strategy by adding, refining, or dropping techniques or
informants)
 they rely more heavily on iteractive interviews; respondents may be interviewed
several times to follow up on a particular issue, clarify concepts or check the
reliability of data
 they use triangulation to increase the credibility of their findings (i.e., researchers rely
on multiple data collection methods to check the authenticity of their results)
 generally their findings are not generalizable to any specific population, rather each
case study produces a single piece of evidence that can be used to seek general
patterns among different studies of the same issue

Regardless of the kinds of data involved,data collection in a qualitative study

takes a great deal of time.The researcher needs to record any potentially useful data
thououghly,accurately, and systematically,using field
notes,sketches,audiotapes,photographs and other suitable means.The data collection
methods must observe the ethical principles of research.

The qualitative methods most commonly used in evaluation can be classified in

three broad categories:

 indepth interview
 observation methods
 document review

C. Types of Data or Data Classification

I. Qualitative Data
a. Nominal, Attribute, or Categorical Data:
Examples:
1. Gender (female, male)
2. Medication (aspirin, Tylenol, Advil, none)
 3. Religion (Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish,
Christian, Hindu, none, etc.)
4. Countries (Iraq, Iran, Israel, Zimbabwe,
Canada, etc.)
Descriptive Statistics used: mode (most often observed
data category), and percent. Note: averages (mean)
and standard error are not appropriate!

b. Ordinal or Ranked Data: one value is greater or

less than another, but the
Magnitude of the difference is unknown.
Examples:
1. Muscle response (none, partial, complete)
2. Tree vigor (Healthy, sick, dead)
3. Income (<$9,999 $10,000-$19,999,
$20,000-$49,999, >$50,000)
Descriptive Statistics used: mode and percent. Note:
averages (mean) and standard error are not
appropriate!

II. Quantitative or Interval Data (measurements)

a. Discrete or Meristic Data (whole number counts)
Examples:
1. Number of petals on flower
2. Number of pets at home
3. Number of children in family
Descriptive Statistics used: mean, mode, median,
percent.

b. Continuous measurements (rational numbers,

limited by the accuracy of your measurements)
Examples:
1. Height
2. Weight
3. Light-years
4. Blood pressure

D. Data Presentation Techniques

Data can be summarized and presented in various forms. These include the following:
 1.Tabulation
This deals with presentation of data in tabular form. A table is an array of data in
rows and columns (Adedayo, 2000) Tabulation condenses a large mass of data and brings
out the distinct pattern in a data in an attractive form. It enables comparison to be made
easily among classes of data and takes up less space than data presented in narrative
form.

A table has the following contents:

a) A title at the top describing the content of the table

b) The caption- column heading
c) The stubs- row headings
d) Footnote- a brief explanatory information about the table, which is not self-
evident
e) Units of measurement
f) The source at the bottom, may sometimes be the footnote.

Data on pupil enrolment and number of teachers in a school or group of schools can be
succinctly displayed in a table as in Table 1.

Table 1: Teacher Pupil Ratio in Five LGAs in Kwara State

LGA Pupil No of Pupil-Teacher

Enrolment Teachers Ratio
Ilorin - E 74,860 1,500 50 : 1
Ilorin – S 66,930 1,320 51 : 1
Ilorin – W 99,001 1,760 56 : 1
Ifelodun 44,600 1,050 42 : 1
Baruten 26,550 890 30 : 1

Note: Another very important ratio (stock statistics) is the enrolment ratio. It refers to the
relationship between enrolment at a particular level of education (e.g primary education)
and the population which should be enrolled at that level (Durosaro, 1997). The
enrolment could be gross or net.

A particular type of table for analyzing data on school personnel is called

Frequency Distribution Table. It shows the number of times each datum occurs. E.g
scores of 20 pupils in a Mathematics test are given as follows:

11, 12, 7, 17, 12, 10, 12, 10,

11, 16, 17, 12, 12, 11, 15,
12, 10, 12, 13, 12
 Table 2: Frequency Distribution Table of
Pupils’ scores in Mathematics Test
Score x Tally Frequency (f)
7 1 1
10 111 3
11 111 3
12 1111 111 8
13 1 1
15 1 1
16 1 1
17 11 2
20

2. Diagrammatic representation
For better visual impact, data can be represented
in form of: Pictogram, Pie Chart, Bar Chart, Histogram,
Line graph

a) Pictogram
A pictogram (short for picture diagram) presents a pictorial symbol that represents the
data of interests. For instance, if the data is on pupil enrolment or staff strength, the
pictogram will contain diagram of human beings. The number of diagrams drawn is
usually proportional to the given data. In addition, a key is usually given on the value of
each pictorial symbol. The data are usually presented in artistic and appealing form to the
users.

For example, the following hypothetical data on primary schools in Kwara State can
be represented in pictograms.

Fig. 1: Pictogram of Pupil Enrolment

It can be seen at a glance that Ilorin-W has the highest number of pupils, followed by
Ilorin-E, Ilorin-S, Ifelodun and lastly Baruten.

b) Pie Chart (Circle graph)

A Pie chart consists of a circle, divided into sectors, which are proportional to the
data. The sum of angles in circle is 360 degrees. A total of all cases is found and the
percentage of each case is found in relation to 360 degrees.
 Note: Pie chart is usually for not more than five categories.

Example: Overall performances of four primary schools in Common Entrance

Examinations are given below.

School A - 95 percent 1370

School B - 50 percent 720
School C - 80 percent 1150
School D - 25 percent 360

To represent these data in a pie chart.

36 137

A
B
C
72 D

115

Fig. 2: Pie chart

This is a convenient way of showing the sizes of the component figures in proportion to
each other and the overall total.
 c) Bar Chart
Bar chart consists of separated rectangular bars drawn such that the height is
equivalent to the frequency. The bars can be horizontal or vertical.

Unlike the pie chart, it is easier to make comparison of the heights than of sectors.
E.g.

Example: The common entrance performance figures above can be represented

using bar charts thus:

% 100
an 90
ce 80
Pu
in 70
pil 60
per 50
for 40
m 30
20
10
0
A B C D
Schools

Fig. 3: Vertical Bar Chart

D
Sc
ho C
ol
s
B

0 20 40 60 80 100
Pupils Performance

Fig. 4: Horizontal Bar Chart

 d) Histogram
This is similar to the bar chart except that the bars are joined to one
another. The area of each rectangular bar is proportional to its frequency. The line
joining the midpoint of one bar to the other is referred to as the frequency
polygon.

e) Line Graph
Data can also be represented in the form of line graph. The points on the
line, represented by any symbol (., *, 0) indicate the occurrence of the
phenomenon of interest. The data on overall performance of four primary schools
can be plotted thus:

P
u
% 100
pil 90
pe 80
rf 70
or 60
m 50
an 40
ce 30
in 20
10
0
A B C D
Schools

Fig. 5: Line graph

It is clear from figure 5 that school A has the highest performance, followed by
school C, B and lastly D.

There are other methods of presenting data in catchy and meaningful forms. One
of these methods is the use of class indicators usually on the chalk board. Brief
information about the class teacher and the pupils can be displayed.
 VOCABULLARY

Introduction Statistic = pengantar statistic

Understanding of Statistics = pemahaman tentang statistik

Data collection = pengumpulan data

Types of Data or Data Classification = tipe data atau klasifikasi data

Data Presentation Techniques = teknik presentasi data

Tabulation = tabulasi

Diagrammatic representation = representase diagrammatika

Pictogram = piktogram

Pie Chart (Circle graph) = grafik lingkaran

Bar chart = grafik batang

Histogram = histogram

Line Graph = grafik garis