Emerging professionals, particularly senior-level undergraduate and graduate students in kinesiology who have an interest in physical education for individuals with and without disabilities, should understand the basic assumptions of the quantitative research paradigm. Knowledge of basic assumptions is critical for conducting, analyzing, and…

Cluster randomized experiments are ubiquitous in modern education research. Although a variety of modeling approaches are used to analyze these data, perhaps the most common methodology is a normal mixed effects model where some effects, such as the treatment effect, are regarded as fixed, and others, such as the effect of group random assignment…

This study examined lecturers' perception of research activities for knowledge production in universities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Two hypotheses were isolated to give direction to this investigation. 240 university lecturers were sampled from a population of 1,868 from the two universities in Cross River State, using stratified random…

In cluster-randomized trials (CRTs) of social work interventions, groups are assigned to treatment conditions. Conducting a power analysis ensures that enough groups are sampled for testing hypotheses. The power analysis method and inputs must be informed by the hypotheses, effects to be tested, and the data analysis plans. The authors present a…

This report examines the differences in impact estimates and standard errors that arise when these are derived using state achievement tests only (as pre-tests and post-tests), study-administered tests only, or some combination of state- and study-administered tests. State tests may yield different evaluation results relative to a test that is…

The use of and emphasis on statistical significance testing has pervaded educational and behavioral research for many decades in spite of criticism by prominent researchers in this field. Much of the controversy is caused by lack of understanding or misinterpretations. This paper reviews criticisms of statistical significance testing and discusses…

Practical significance is concerned with whether a research result is useful in the real world. The use of procedures to supplement the null hypothesis significance test in four journals of the American Psychological Association is examined, and an approach to assessing practical significance is presented. (SLD)

This article addresses the importance of obtaining a sample of an adequate size for the purpose of testing hypotheses. The logic underlying the requirement for a minimum sample size for hypothesis testing is discussed, as well as the criteria for determining it. Implications for researchers working with convenient samples of a fixed size are also…

Thirty-four papers on educational statistics which were presented at the 1971 AERA Conference are summarized. Six major interest areas are covered: (a) general information; (b) non-parametric methods; (c) errors of measurement and correlation techniques; (d) regression theory; (e) univariate and multivariate analysis; (f) factor analysis. (MS)

Despite the increasing criticism of statistical significance testing by researchers, particularly in the publication of the 1994 American Psychological Association's style manual, statistical significance test results are still popular in journal articles. For this reason, it remains important to understand the logic of inferential statistics. A…

Examines children's readers to find out whether Riesman, Glazer, Denney, and William F. Whyte's descriptions of changes in the American character are represented in the models offered to school children. Compares the models used in the early McGuffey Readers with contemporary readers. (Editor/RK)

Discusses the application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample tests, as an alternative to the Chi-square test, for survey research problems in business education and includes a computer program written for the convenience of researchers. The two-sample test is recommended for differentiating independent distributions. (MF)

The meta-analytic techniques of G. V. Glass (1976) and J. E. Hunter and F. L. Schmidt (1977) were compared through their application to three meta-analytic studies from education literature. The following hypotheses were explored: (1) the overall mean effect size would be larger in a Hunter-Schmidt meta-analysis (HSMA) than in a Glass…

The testing of research hypotheses is directly comparable to the dichotomous decision-making of medical diagnosis or jury trials--not ill/ill, or innocent/guilty decisions. There are costs in both kinds of error, type I errors of falsely rejecting a null hypothesis or type II errors of falsely rejecting an alternative hypothesis. It is important…

An influential statistics test recommends a Levene text for homogeneity of variance. A recent note suggests that Levene's test is upwardly biased for small samples. Another report shows inflated Alpha estimates and low power. Neither study utilized more than two sample sizes. This Monte Carlo study involved sampling from a normal population for…