Chapter one introduction of statistics

• This chapter provides the definition and general background of statistics. Comprehending the definition
and general background of any topic is very important. It enables you to have a clear understanding of
what the course is all about. It is hoped that at the end of the unit you would have achieved.
• statistical methods I is to introduce you to descriptive statistics. During the course you will learn the
meaning and types of statistics; types of data, scales and variables; organization.
• Presentation and representation of data using tables, graphs charts etc. you will also learn how to
describe the data using different methods or measures such as the central tendency, variability,
association etc. You will in addition learn the types of corves and their properties; and how to transform
raw scores into standard scores. Statistics as a course is very necessary for you because there is nothing
you will do in education which does not require your knowledge of it.
 Definition of Statistics

• Statistics is concerned with scientific method of collecting, organising, summarising, presenting and
analysing masses of numerical data so as to comprehend the essential features and relationship of the
data. It can as well be defined as the study of the methods of collecting and analysis of data in such a way
as to minimise any uncertainty in the conclusion drawn from the data. A mass of data has little or no
meaning until they are subjected to statistical analysis. Major steps in statistical analysis are data
collection organising and summarising data analysing and interpreting the result using the result to make
rational decision
 Definition

• Statistic is the branch or party of applied mathematics that deals with data
collection ,organizing , interpreting data ,well defined procedure.
 MEANING OF STATISTICS Statistic

• is the science of handling information, particularly quantitative information (data), it is

the science of organising describing summarising and interpreting data to provide
concise manageable information for decision making. Now let us consider further our
example in table suppose the following day, the same menu of three varieties are
offered and the choices this time.
 PURPOSES OF STATISTICS

• From the foregoing, it may be concluded that statistics helps us to:

• present a large amount of quantitative information
• in an organised way, go beyond a meaningless record of school test results to a
meaningful interpretation
• predict how likely an event will occur
• make inferences from observations
• save us time and energy by condensing large amount of information concisely and
conveniently in a table.
• large populations, it is impossible to do a head count every time we want to know the
population or some characteristics about it.
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• In addition, there is hardly any discipline today even in education, the arts and social
sciences that does not require some level of statistics for its understanding. Research
reports in most disciplines are enriched by statistics. Lastly, one requirement for higher
degree in most disciplines is that you carry out and report your own independent
research. School managers are constantly faced with situations in which they have to
make inferences from observations, for instance, the proprietor of a private school took
a week’s attendance.
 MEASUREMENT

• Measurement is a basic process in science, all observations whether it is qualitative or

quantitative must be measured to some degree of accuracy. If an observation is
qualitative, such as would be observed by colour change at the end point of a titration
experiment in a chemistry laboratory, the chemist would like to know how much of the
acid is titrated to what quantity of base before the change of colour. Note that the
change of colour is an observation and that for our observation to be scientifically useful
it must be transformed into measurement
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• You will be expected to pay special attention to the procedure, rather than the theory of
statistics. A distinction should also be made between statistical methods and perhaps,
the more familiar educational statistics. Whereas statistical methods is concerned with
the manner in which statistics are derived, the latter is concerned with school related
statistics such as enrolment, teacher to pupil ratio, learning event, female/male
participation urban/rural participation and so on. This information is important to
educational planning and management.
 Types of Statistics

• There are two major classifications of statistics: descriptive and inferential statistics.
• Descriptive statistics: This describes and summarises the entire population through tables or charts, in
order to bring out the important facts about the data. Examples of descriptive statistics are mean,
median, mode and percentages.
• Inferential statistics: This is sometimes called objective or analytical statistics which is a method for
studying only a part of the population in order to draw conclusions on the population based on the
analysis of the sample data. Examples of inferential statistics are probability distributions, correlation and
regression analysis. The main purpose of inferential statistics is to make an inference about a population
based on the information contained in the sample.
 Roles of Statistics

• The following are some of the roles of statistics:

• Statistics simplifies complex mass of data and presents them in a comprehensive way that they are at
once made easy to comprehend and interpret. Instead of having a large raw data, the data are prepared
in percentages and means which can be grasped more easily than a mass of data. Also, statistical analyses
in the form of histogram, bar chart, or pie chart, make it easier for you to understand.
• Statistics presents data in more comprehensive and definite form: Statistics made conclusion that are
stated numerically and more convincing than conclusions stated qualitatively. For example, it is more
attractive and convincing to say 85% of candidates that sat for beco passed in than saying most
candidates.
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• statistics interpret conditions that are more presentable: Statistics present conditions in
an attractive ways such as pie chart and histogram or bar charts of the phenomenon
under investigation. Also, certain conditions are proved statistically to find out the
probability of future occurrence of such situation so that necessary actions could be
taken to prevent future occurrence of such conditions.
• It provides easy way of classifying numerical data the method of classification in
statistics provides the salient features of the variables that is under consideration. For
example, statistical methods provide appropriate method of classifying two or more
data by bringing out the maximum, minimum and the standard deviation of the various
categories.
 SCOPE OF STATISTICS AND ITS LIMITATIONS

• will make you aware of the scope of statistics or how wide its area of application is this is
very important because you need to know the areas in which statistics is applicable the
objectives specify what you are expected to learn after going through this.
 Statistics as a Subject and its Application Statistics

• has very wide application in many fields. It is very useful in government‟s analysis and
publication of many countries. For example, in population and housing, wages and
salaries, budgets, education, agriculture, health, births and deaths of a country, etc.
statistical tools are highly useful in population censuses and sample survey of national
and international assignments.
• The different fields of application of statistics are: i. Economics: Statistical data are
highly useful in the understanding of economic policy and economic problems. In
economics, numerical data are usually analysed statistically for ease of understanding.
For example, volume of trade in somalai , price of commodities in certain year, wages
and salaries of workers etc.
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• Agricultural and biological sciences: In Agriculture, statistics is very important in crop

experimental designs. It is used in comparing the results of crops from different fields
and different designs. Statistical tools are also very useful in Biological Sciences as a
means of testing the significance of results of experiments. It is also used in determining
the relationship between the growth of different levels of feeding. It is applied in the
estimation of fish population in a lake.
• Physical sciences: Some statistical methods were applied and developed in the field of
physical sciences like Physics, Geology, Chemistry, etc. In the recent time, physical
sciences are making good use of statistics in complex cases of molecular, nuclear and
atomic structures.
 Limitations of Statistics

• Despite the usefulness of statistics in many fields, it also has some limitations and
cannot be an answer to the whole affairs of the world. The following are some of its
limitations
• Statistics deals with group or set of data and attach less importance to individual items.
Statistics proves inadequate where the knowledge of individual items becomes
necessary. It is most suited to those problems where aggregate characteristics are
required.
• Statistics deals mainly with quantitative or numerical data: It is not all subjects that can
be expressed numerically; there are situations where qualitative data are required. For
example, poverty, intelligence and health are all qualitative data which cannot be
directly quantified. So, these types of data are not suitable for statistical analysis.
• Error during sampling could be to establish wrong conclusions if not handled by
experts. Incorrect application of methods could lead to the drawing of wrong
conclusions in statistics.
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• it provides an easy way of comparing data: Some data may be meaningless unless they
are subjected to statistical analysis before they can be compared with similar data at
other places. Statistics made an easy way of relating two different masses of numerical
data by comparing some relevant information from the two data such as comparing
their means, median and mode of their distribution.
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• activity which is devoid completely of the knowledge of statistics. It is important in the

home, in the farm, in the office in the market and in all aspects of life. This is why you
must take it with every seriousness due to it.
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• The raw material of all statistical works is data whether you are looking at the enrolment
figures in our school system, the number of participants from various states in a national
conference; the number of successful candidates in a public examination or the salaries
of teachers, you are presented with a large amount of information, often in the form of
numerical figures.
• These figures are referred to as data (from singular-datum). In a world that is
increasingly demanding for evidence to support decision making, the provision of
numerical data, or what is sometimes referred to as empirical data/evidence, help to
strengthen your case. In the sciences, all observations are presumed describable either
quantitatively or qualitatively. Qualitative observations, such as gender classification, are
sometimes represented by figures (such as o for female, I for male) to make the record
easy for processing. Thus, all scientific observations are also referred to as data.
 THE NATURE OF STATISTICAL METHOD

• You will notice that this course is described as statistical methods as opposed to
statistics which we have been discussing indeed, there is a complementary statistical
methods II course which you may be required to take during the second semester. They
are so called in order to draw attention to the fact that the emphasis in this course is not
to make you statisticians. Rather, you are expected to grasp the method statisticians use
to process information, the circumstances in which one approach is used in preference
to another and the limitation accompanying any so-called hand/statistical facts.
 BASIC CONCEPTS OF POPULATION AND SAMPLE

• We have already asserted that data are the fundamental raw material of statistics and
data are usually numerical information about objects, events, etc. We cited the example
of a school proprietor who monitored and took a week’s attendance in the private
school, clearly the proprietor can come to some conclusion only for that week, from the
observations or data generated in table If she wanted to know the attendances
throughout the school term or school year, she would have to take attendance every
week during the whole term of school year, as the case may be. Thus, the one week
attendance is only part of a large body of possible information. When a statistician deals
with whole rather than part information about an object, events or phenomenon he is
dealing with a population, population is all possible objects, beings, events incidences
with the same characteristics that are the focus of the observer.
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• Similarly tailors would measure the circumference of your waist line to make your
trouser waist fits However, experienced tailors can often estimate the trouser
length of their clients by observation. After sewing clothes for a long time, you
can observe a client and simply “guess” his height and trouser length.
• Note that different objects, events or phenomena require different measuring
instruments or measuring scales. The tape or ruler is useful in measuring lengths.
• The weighing balance is used to measure weights.
• The semester is used to measure an academic year. Intensity is used to measure
the colour of light. The degree of agreement is used to measure perception or
attitude.
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• Thus any object, event or phenomenon with a scientific study must have some
measurable property/quality. It is these measurements that give rise to the data which
the statistician uses for his/her analysis. Thus, performance in a test is measured
(scored) against the criteria defined in the marking scheme.
 CONCLUSION
• In this unit you should have learnt the concept of data, as the foundation of all statistical analyses and
how data are derived from repeated events, information or scientific observation. You should also have
learnt to define statistics, the purpose of statistics and types of statistics. The statistical methods course is
concerned with how to handle data derived in educational contexts clearly, several of such contexts exist
in education and other social sectors.
• The statistical methods course is applicable in a wide variety of disciplines. examined unit, we defined
data as the reduction to numerical figures, a large body of information and that data are the basis of all
scientific investigation and analysis.
• The decision maker who has no data to back his/her claim is unlikely to convince many listeners. We also
identified three types of statistics, namely: descriptive, co-relational and inferential. We are aware that
not all users of statistics want to be statisticians, just like not all drivers of motor vehicles would want to
be repairers to know how the motor works so that when you are faced with a problem, you would know
what to report to the repairer and how to go about it. Statistical methods are a “how-to” course.
CHAPTER TWO DATA COLLECTION, CLASSIFICATION AND
PRESENTATION

What is the CHAPTER TWO DATA COLLECTION, CLASSIFICATION AND

PRESENTATION?