Statistical Analysis for Education and Psychology Researchers

Case study

A research student collected data on secondary school pupils attributions about chance,
mathematical self-concept and mathematical achievement as well as background
information about what class and maths set they were in. A self-completion questionnaire
was used and 227 useable scripts were returned by teachers to the researcher. Two class
teachers (57 student questionnaires) did not return any questionnaires.
Four attribution statements in the questionnaire included: ‘Winning the national lottery
depends on chance’, ‘Getting a 6 on a normal dice depends on knowing how to throw the
dice’, ‘Your success in life depends on chance’ and ‘If it rains in Manchester a week
from today this is just a matter of chance’. Each statement was given a score of 1 to 5
where 1 represents strongly disagree, 3 represents undecided and 5 represents strongly
agree.
Four statements used to assess mathematical self-concept included: ‘I can learn
mathematics if I work hard’, ‘I am as talented in mathematics as other pupils in my
class’, ‘I just cannot learn mathematics’, and ‘No matter how much I try I shall have
problems learning mathematics’. A mathematics achievement test was specially
constructed, based on relevant sections of the mathematics national curriculum. The
normative test contained 30 items designed to have different facility indices (easiness
levels). Scores could range from 0–30. The data coding sheet is shown in Table 3.6. and
the data set, Main.dat, is given in Table 2, Appendix A1.

Table 3.6: Coding sheet for data set on school

children’s mathematical self-concept and

mathematical achievement

Researcher: DSN:

Main.dat

(^) D/O/C: 16/05/94
Number of
cases=227
Variable Variable
Name
Number of
Columns
Column
Begin
Column
End
Range of
Variable
Missin
g Data
Case id caseid 3 1 3 1–127.
Classroom class 1 4 4 1–9.
Maths set set 1 5 5 1–6.
Attribute1 attb1 1 6 6 1–5.
Attribute2 attb2 1 7 7 1–5.
Attribute3 attb3 1 8 8 1–5.
Attribute4 attb4 1 9 9 1–5.
Self-concept1 selfc1 1 10 10 1–5.
Self-concept2 selfc2 1 11 11 1–5.
Self-concept3 selfc3 1 12 12 1–5.
Self-concept4 selfc4 1 13 13 1–5.
Maths score score 2 14 15 1–30.
The raw data as presented for analysis is shown in Table 2, Appendix A1
Statistical analysis for education and psychology researchers 80