Hi It depends I think on how much time you have to impart statistics and research methods to undergraduates. In our honours program, students have a second full year of primarily statistics with some methods on top of a half course in introductory statistics and a half course in methods. The intro stats and methods courses make some use of SPSS, but primarily in labs and in minimal depth.
The honours course, however, is another kettle of fish. SPSS is used intensively because the course covers regression and anova analyses that would be difficult and overly time consuming to perform always by hand, although students do learn and get some practice with such calculations and get to confirm them against SPSS output. And SPSS is used to student-specific simulated results of studies. Moreover, SPSS contributes greatly to student understanding of the statistical procedures, in ways that do not require sophisticated mathematics. For example, students can learn about the unique contribution of predictors in multiple regression by correlating the dependent variable with residual predictor scores containing only the variability unique to each predictor. Or students can use SPSS to generate predicted cell means in a factorial ANOVA based only on main effects, allowing for the calculation of SS AxB. And so on. As for the utility of this approach, many students who have gone on to graduate school have commented on how much more prepared they generally are for graduate level statistics than students from other programs. Anecdotal I know. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology and Chair 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> Paul C Bernhardt <[email protected]> 08-Aug-12 10:22 pm >>> This is my opinion, also. Using SPSS, or any other program, with all our undergraduates is generally not a good idea. The reason that I feel that way is that I have plenty to do to teach them how to understand concepts and context. I'm also usually teaching them how to write in APA style. So, if I add to that a statistics package, I have to teach them how to use that package. That is a lot of time spent trying to metaphorically teach the student how to start and put into first gear a high performance race car when all they really need to know is how to drive a regular road car with a manual transmission and then write an accurate description of that process. I don't want to teach fewer research/statistical concepts and less about writing just to teach about software that does what they learn from their book how to do by hand. If the student is outstanding enough to be going to a Ph.D. or Masters with thesis program, the student is clever enough to learn SPSS in the instruction they get in graduate school. I know that we did special instruction in its use because that was my TA position for two semesters, teaching how to use SPSS and BMDP. Paul On Aug 8, 2012, at 9:13 PM, Michael Scoles wrote: When I was in graduate school, folks from the clinical wing would suck it up and come visit with us rat runners with the following question (stated in different ways). I've got the printout from BMDP from my dissertation data. Do any of you people down here know what it means. I resist using SPSS to teach statistics until the most advanced graduate courses. If they can perform simple computations on a calculator, and more complex ones with the help of Excel, they might have a chance of understanding what those SPSS outputs mean. Michael T. Scoles, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Counseling University of Central Arkansas Conway, AR 72035 501-450-5418>>> Marc Carter <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> 6/6/2012 12:35 PM >>> Hi, All -- A little unscientific poll for you. We consider our program to be a grad-school-prep program, and have been doing pretty heavy instruction in SPSS, thinking that when the students get to grad school that's the package they're most likely to encounter. That was certainly my experience a few years ago, but I'm wondering if we're thinking right, today. Should we move to a different stats package, or is SPSS still pretty common. Since IBM bought it it's gone through some changes and seemed headed much more toward business applications, but this last year they seemed to realize that schools were a large part of their clientele, and have made pricing a little more reasonable (although still hideously expensive). Here the departments that want that package buy it (IT decided to cut its budget by pushing things off onto departments), and so I want to do right by my students, but have to think "thrifty." So, the poll: for those of you who work in departments that have grad programs, what stats software packages are available to your students? Thanks! m -- Marc Carter, PhD Associate Professor of Psychology Chair, Department of Behavioral and Health Sciences College of Arts & Sciences Baker University -- The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by Baker University ("BU") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify Baker University by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. 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