Chuck,
Thanks for the suggestion. I like the idea of using Excel to reinforce the
definitional formulas. I might be convinced to skip the hand-calculations
and go directly to Excel, if I also were convinced that students knew how
to do basic mathematical and algebraic operations. (Some students _can_,
of course, but not all can. How do they get into college, then, and into
the psych major? Well, that's another topic...) I tend to look at
learning stats in a developmental way, I guess: students have to gain
experience in manipulating objects (in this case, the numbers and
formulas), literally, before they can fully understand their meanings and
then predict ahead of time what they will do. (Sensorimotor,
preoperational, concrete operational, etc.?)
Barbara Watters
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
At 09:32 AM 12/22/2000 -0600, Chuck Huff wrote:
>My preference is to show student how to compute them in excel, using the
>definitional formulas (NOT using the excel functions). They learn excel
>(a useful tool) and they learn how the formulas work. We can then
>concentrate on why they work (e.g. why the deviations around the mean add
>to zero, why larger samples give smaller standard errors, why t-tests are
>ratios, etc.).
>
>I am not sure that the act of adding by hand produces any effect of
>itself. It is setting up the problem and paying attention to the
>details. Students must do this in excel, but do not have to do simple
>computations.
>
> Chuck Huff; 507.646.3169; http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/
>- Psychology Department, St.Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
