In this presentation, bestselling author Neil J. Salkind discusses strategies that you can implement to reduce statistics anxiety in your students. Using his 30+ years of teaching experience, Neil covers some of the topics that students struggle with most, including correlation, understanding hypotheses, and significance (including z-scores and t-tests).

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Teaching
Statistics To
People Who
(Think They) Hate
Statistics
#SAGETalks

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Neil J. Salkind, Ph.D.
Author and Professor Emeritus,
University of Kansas
Susannah Goldes
Senior Associate Marketing Manager,
SAGE Publishing
Moderator
#SAGETalks

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While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, time constraints
may not allow us to answer every question. Thank you for understanding.
Send us your questions!
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1. Reducing Statistics Anxiety
2. Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal
3. Understanding Hypotheses
4. Significance (Yikes)
Today’s Talk

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• No joke on the previous cartoon.
• Help from study groups and if necessary, help
schedule even taking time from class.
• My availability before and after class.
• Online assistance as necessary.
• Noting other students’ success.
Reducing Statistics Anxiety

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Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal

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Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal
• Discussing simple positive and negative correlations
with scattergrams as illustrations.
• Understanding the nature of relationships and how
variables share something in common.
• Interpreting simple correlations
– Follow the rules
– Eyeballing is usually best

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A Simple Scattergram A Perfect Direct or
Positive Correlation
Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal

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A Strong but Not Perfect
Direct Relationship
A Strong but Not Perfect
Indirect Relationship
Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal

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Understanding Relationships and the Ice Cream Deal
Teach students to trust their intuition.
Eyeballing is usually best.

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Understanding Hypotheses:
What They Are And How They Work
The definition of
hypotheses

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Understanding Hypotheses:
What They Are And How They Work
What it
looks
like…
What it
says…
Who it
applies to?
What’s really
important…
Null
Hypothesis
Ho: μ1=μ2 Equality Population Indirectly tested
Research
Hypothesis
H1: m1≠m2 Lack of
equality
Samples Directly tested

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Significance (Yikes)
All about the normal distribution and
the idea of chance. If there’s a 100%
chance of rain, it’s raining. And, there’s
never a 0% chance of raining (or
anything else for that matter).

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Number of Heads Probability
0 1/1,024 or .001
1 10/1,024 or .01
2 45/1,024 or .05
3 120/1,2024 or 12
4 210/1,024 or .21
5 245/1,024 or .24
6 210/1,024 or .21
7 120/1,024 or .12
8 45/1,024 or .05
9 10/1,024 or .01
10 1/1,024 or .001
• Flipping coins
• Pascal’s triangle
• The binomial
distribution
Significance (Yikes)

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The concept of significance
Significance (Yikes)

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Significance (Yikes)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
1 2 3 4 5
Random Sample of 50 Values
Between 1 and 5
The Central Limit Theorem 1

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0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Averagesof 40
Samples of Size 4
Significance (Yikes)
The Central Limit Theorem 2

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Significance (Yikes)

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• Significance versus Meaningfulness
• The relationship between intelligence and shoe size.
Surely statistically significant but not meaningful.
Significance (Yikes)

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The Eight Magic Steps
1. Set the null
2. Set alpha
3. Select the appropriate test statistic
4. Compute the obtained value
5. Determine the critical value
6. Compare obtained value to critical value
7. If obtained value>critical value null cannot be accepted
8. If critical value>obtained value null is best explanation
Significance (Yikes)

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Significance (Yikes)
You can assign a probability to any event, but
whether or not that event is meaningful is up to
you, based on the rules you apply.
Significance (Yikes)

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While we do our best to answer as many questions as we can, time constraints
may not allow us to answer every question. Thank you for understanding.
Send us your questions!
Send in your questions
via the Question Box
on your screen. →
Using Twitter? Use
the hashtag
#SAGETalks
#SAGETalks

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Authored By Neil J. SalkindAuthored by Neil J. Salkind

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Webinar recording, slides, and follow-up Q&A will be emailed to you and available on
connection.sagepub.com.
Thank you!
Neil J. Salkind
StatisticsforPeople.com
Be sure to check our website for updates on our webinar series!
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