How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, 5/e

Jack R. Fraenkel, San Francisco State University
Norman E. Wallen, San Francisco State University

Descriptive Statistics

Learning Objectives

Studying this chapter should enable you to:

Explain the difference between a statistic and a parameter.

Differentiate between categorical and quantitative data and give an example of each.

Construct a frequency polygon from data.

Explain what is meant by the terms "normal distribution" and "normal curve."

Calculate the mean, median, and mode for a frequency distribution of data.

Calculate the range and standard deviation for a frequency distribution of data.

Explain what a five number summary is.

Explain what a boxplot displays.

Explain how any particular score in a normal distribution can be interpreted in standard deviation units.

Explain what a "z score" is and tell why it is advantageous to be able to express scores in z score terms.

Explain how to interpret a normal distribution.

Construct and interpret a scatterplot.

Explain more fully what a correlation coefficient is.

Calculate a Pearson correlation coefficient.

Prepare and interpret a frequency table, a bar graph, and a pie chart.

Prepare and interpret a crossbreak table.

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