Name: Kemboi Victor

Reg no: EDA/B/01-01820/2019

Course Title: QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN GEOGRAPHY.
Course Code: GEO 318
Course Lec: Mr. Wafula Hillary.
Tel no : 0757535722

CAT ONE

Date : 22/02/2022 😂
Question One
a) Discuss the importance of learning statistical methods to a Geography teacher
(15marks)
Statistics is a science that deals with numerical facts that can be measured, enumerated, and
estimated. the facts are homogeneous and related to each other. For any data, belief, thought,
presupposition to become a fact, it must be accurate and systematic. In developing methods
and studying the theory that underlies the methods, statisticians draw on a variety of
mathematical and computational tools to get a more accurate result. These various definitions of
statistics would be evident in the discourse of the importance of statistical methods to a
geography teacher below;

 Statistics makes studies to highly responsive

and empirical.
The role of statistics in the collection of data and information is a very sensitive one.
With good statistical data, one can access a variety of information. With this, one can
easily handle and manipulate the data accordingly. Think of Climate as a field of study,
statistics is a major activity that handles climatology researches, both in practical and in
theory.
For example, when the school management secures the data of the whole lessons in
the school, they could easily get information on what field they know best and then
assign them to handle topics in that field.
 Statistics assists significantly in the
collection of data and information.
Statistics aids in the prediction of future events. In a class of 89 students, their
performance in continuous assessments and tests could determine who will take the
First position or who will come out with the overall best result. It could even predict the
most intelligent student among the 89 students in the class. This is what Statistics can
do.On the other hand, before a general election in a country, the statistical analysis of
the political campaigns and awareness could make one predict correctly who will win
the election. Here Statistics plays a very vital arise.
 Statistics helps in the analysis of some causal
factors
Statistics enables Geography teachers to analyze some of the causal factors underlying complex and
otherwise be-bewildering (confusing) events, it is a common factor that the behavioral outcome is a
result of numerous causal factors.The reasons why a particular student performs poorly in a particular
subject could be numerous and vary from a student to another. So with the appropriate statistical
methods, one can keep these extraneous variables constant and can observe the cause of failure of the
pupil in a particular subject.

 Statistics helps in the collection and

presentation of data in a calculated and
systematic manner
Statistics in education help Geography teacher(s) in the collection and presentation of
data in a well-arranged manner. Simply put, Statistics in educations helps in the orderly
arrangement of both processed and unprocessed data.
Data are sets of facts that provide a partial picture of reality, with certain purposes. And,
no matter the method of its collection, questions regarding the nature of the information
that the data are conveying, how the data can be used, and what must be done to
include more useful information must constantly be put into consideration.Since most
data are available to researchers in a raw format, they must be summarized, organized,
and analyzed to usefully derive information from them. This entails that unorganized or
unanalyzed data are prone to unreliable and false output or results.
Furthermore, each data set needs to be presented in a certain way depending on what
it is used for. Planning how the data will be presented is essential before appropriately
processing raw data. All these can be complex, but statistics helps to analyze, digest,
and present them in a simple empirical manner.
 Statistics makes the teaching and learning
process more efficient
Statistics in Geography education make the teaching and learning process more
efficient in practice. Statistics , with special considerations to measurement and
evaluation of concepts, are essential parts of the teaching and learning process to a
Geography teacher.
In this process, scores are being obtained and interpreted to make decisions. Statistics,
therefore, enables one to study these scores objectively. It makes the teaching-learning
process more efficient.
 Statistics helps in the provision and
presentation of the exact type of description.
Statistics helps Geography teacher in the provision of the exact type of description. It
practically helps teachers to give an accurate description of data. This could be found in
the cases of the administration of a pupil or observation of a child. For any description of
an idea to be veritable and convincing, the introduction of statistics could serve as an
auxiliary in the process of analysis and presentation.
Statistics gives a piece of clear information about anything that can be described.
Hence, whenever Statistical approaches are employed, they automatically make the
outcome or result to be simpler and easier to be understood, even by a layman.

 Statistics helps in the process of achieving an

accurate prediction
Statistics show its importance in calculation and thoughts.Sometimes, because of a lack
of technical knowledge, a Geography teacher becomes vague in describing the . But
statistics aids him or her to describe the performance by using proper language and
symbols. With the help of these statistical approaches, a definite and exact
interpretation emerges.
Again, statistics helps to guide one in any thinking activities. When one thinks
systematically through a calculated analysis and statistics, he or she thinks rightly and is
likely to arrive at positive results quickly.
  Statistics helps in the Summary of Results
Statistics is important because it enables the calculation and adequate summary of the
results in a meaningful and convenient form; statistics gives an order to the data.Again,
statistics helps the teacher to make data precise, concise, and meaningful and to
express it in a way that the persons involved will understand easily.
 Statistics serves as a reliable source of
history in education
Statistics is one of the most reliable methods of verifying any giving history. This is
because statistical documentation is always empirical and easy for understanding.
Thus, statistical approaches employed in the description and analysis of data, concepts,
etc., a ton of years ago, can be resurrected and positioned as an empirical source for a
piece of reliable information about any history in the contemporary time.

References;

1. Garrett: H.E. (1956), Elementary Statistics, Longmans, Green, and Co. New York.

2. https://machinep.com/the-importance-of-statistics-in-education

b) Using a relevant example Outline the steps undertake while carrying out statistical approach or
research ( 15 marks)

Step 1 – Locating and Defining Issues or Problems

This step focuses on uncovering the nature and boundaries of a situation

or question that needs to be answered or studied. In defining the issues or
problems, the researcher should take into account the purpose of the
study, the relevant background information, what information is needed,
and how it will be used in decision making ,it has both null and alternative
hypothesis. Example of the hypothesis you design a within-subjects experiment to
study whether a 5-minute meditation exercise can improve math test scores. Your study takes
repeated measures from one group of participants.First, you’ll take baseline test scores from
participants. Then, your participants will undergo a 5-minute meditation exercise. Finally, you’ll
record participants’ scores from a second math test. In this experiment, the independent
variable is the 5-minute meditation exercise, and the dependent variable is the math test score
from before and after the intervention.

.
Step 2 – Designing the Research Project

This step is focused on creating a research plan or overall approach on

how you are going to solve the issue or problem identified. A research
plan or approach is a framework or blueprint for conducting a research
project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required
information, and its purpose is to design a study that will test the
hypotheses of interest, determine possible answers to the research
questions, and provide the information needed for decision e.g the
population you’re interested in is high school students in a certain Town. You contact three
private schools and seven public schools in various constituencies of the county to see if you
can administer your experiment to students in the 11th grade.The participants are self-selected
by their schools. Although you’re using a non-probability sample, you aim for a diverse and
representative sample.

The research design involves the following steps:

 Step 1: Conduct secondary data analysis

 Step 2: Do qualitative research
 Step 3: Determine methods of collecting quantitative data
(survey, observation, and experimentation)
 Step 4: Determine the definition of the information needed
 Step 5: Determine measurement and scaling procedures
 Step 6: Design questionnaire
 Step 7: Sampling process and sample size
 Step 8: Plan of data analysis

Step 3 – Collecting Data

This step revolved around obtaining the information that you will need to
solve the issue or problem identified. Data collection can involve
experiments, observations, personal interviewing (in-home, mall
intercept, or computer-assisted personal interviewing), from an office by
telephone (telephone or computer-assisted telephone interviewing), or
through the mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with recruited
for example after collecting pretest and posttest data from 30 students across the county,
you calculate descriptive statistics. Because you have normal distributed data on an interval
scale, you tabulate the mean, standard deviation, variance and range.Using your table, you
should check whether the units of the descriptive statistics are comparable for pretest and
posttest scores. For example, are the variance levels similar across the groups? Are there any
extreme values? If there are, you may need to identify and remove extreme outliers in your data
set or transform your data before performing a statistical test.
Date collection techniques can include:

 Interviews: Asking people questions about their known

information
 Observations: collecting data without asking questions.
 Questionnaires: Ask questions among a group of people
 Focus Groups: Interviewing and observing a group of people
 Documents and Records: old fashion research

Step 4 – Interpreting Research Data

Interpreting research data: This step is focused on examining the data

and coming up with a conclusion that solves the problem.Start by
organizing your finding and the information you have collected from Step
3. Then create a rough draft of your finding, recommendations, and
conclusion. The rough draft will help you get your thoughts organized. The
final step is to polish the draft into your final research finding for instance
because the research design is a within-subjects experiment, both pretest and posttest
measurements come from the same group, so you require a dependent (paired ) t test. Since
you predict a change in a specific direction (an improvement in test scores), you need a one-
tailed test.You use a dependent-samples, one-tailed t test to assess whether the meditation
exercise significantly improved math test scores.You will most likely revise the draft
as many times before the final product is ready for Step 5.

Step 5 – Report Research Findings

The final step is to report the research findings to those who need the
data to make decisions. The findings should be presented in a
comprehensible format so that they can be readily used in the decision-
making process. In addition, an oral presentation should be made to
management using tables, figures, and graphs to enhance clarity and
impact for example you compare your p value to your significance threshold . When the
p value is lower, you reject the null hypothesis, and you consider the results statistically
significant.This means that you believe the meditation intervention, rather than random factors,
directly caused the increase in test scores.

Research Reporting Formats:

 Formal Paper
 Published Article
 PowerPoint Presentation
 Audio or Video
  Spreadsheet

The End