Module 14

Testing the Differences Among

More than Two Means
• Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Prepared by:
EDWARD B. PESCUELA
Instructor

“Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost; more for support than
illumination”
― Andrew Lang

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 MODULE 14
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
Introduction
The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to determine whether there are any statistically
significant differences between the means of three or more independent (unrelated) groups. This guide
will provide a brief introduction to the one-way ANOVA, including the assumptions of the test and when
you should use this test. The one-way ANOVA compares the means between three or more groups you
are interested in and determines whether any of those means are statistically significantly different from
each other. Specifically, it tests the null hypothesis:

where µ = group mean and k = number of groups. If, however, the one-way ANOVA returns a statistically
significant result, we accept the alternative hypothesis (HA), which is that there are at least two group
means that are statistically significantly different from each other. At this point, it is important to realize that
the one-way ANOVA is an omnibus test statistic and cannot tell you which specific groups were
statistically significantly different from each other, only that at least two groups were. To determine which
specific groups differed from each other, you need to use a post hoc test.
Before each activity, fast facts and discussions are given to help you understand the concepts and
processes involved as well as to solve problems in each activity. The activities will be done individually.
Answers in every assessment must be written or encoded on a short bond paper following the given
format. Please do not forget to write your significant learning experience at the last part of your output. The
submission of Module 14 outputs will be on June 16, 2021. If you have queries, you may reach me through
FB Group Chat during our scheduled date. Thank you and have fun!

Format

Name: ______________________________________ Year & Section: ________________

Date: _______________________________________ Instructor: Mr. Edward B. Pescuela

MC Math 13: Elementary Statistics & Probability

Module 14: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Pretest/Exercise1/Activity 1
1.)
2.)
3.)

My Significant Learning Experience

In this module, I have learned that …
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________
Signature over Printed Name

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 Objectives
At the end of the week, the pre-service teacher (PST) should be able to:
1. Identify the number of groups or classification to be tested
2. Use the ANOVA technique to determine if there is a significant difference among
three or more means.
3. utilize digital technology in data processing
4. produce the interpretation of results in digital outputs

One-Way Analysis of Variance

When an F test is used to test a hypothesis concerning the means of three or more
populations, the technique is called analysis of variance (commonly abbreviated as ANOVA). At
first glance, you might think that to compare the means of three or more samples, you can use the
t test, comparing two means at a time. But there are several reasons why the t test should not be
done.
First, when you are comparing two means at a time, the rest of the means under study are
ignored. With the F test, all the means are compared simultaneously. Second, when you are
comparing two means at a time and making all pairwise comparisons, the probability of rejecting
the null hypothesis when it is true is increased, since the more t tests that are conducted, the greater
is the likelihood of getting significant differences by chance alone. Third, the more means there are
to compare, the more t tests are needed. For example, for the comparison of 3 means two at a time,
3 t tests are required. For the comparison of 5 means two at a time, 10 tests are required. And for
the comparison of 10 means two at a time, 45 tests are required.

Even though you are comparing three or more means in this use of the F test, variances
are used in the test instead of means.
With the F test, two different estimates of the population variance are made. The first
estimate is called the between-group variance, and it involves finding the variance of the means.
The second estimate, the within-group variance, is made by computing the variance using all the
data and is not affected by differences in the means. If there is no difference in the means, the
between-group variance estimate will be approximately equal to the within-group variance
estimate, and the F test value will be approximately equal to 1. The null hypothesis will not be
rejected. However, when the means differ significantly, the between-group variance will be much
larger than the within-group variance; the F test value will be significantly greater than 1; and the

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 null hypothesis will be rejected. Since variances are compared, this procedure is called analysis of
variance (ANOVA).
For a test of the difference among three or more means, the following hypotheses
should be used:

𝐻0 : 𝜇1 = 𝜇2 = ⋯ = 𝜇𝑘
𝐻1 : At least one mean is different from the others.

As stated previously, a significant test value means that there is a high probability that this
difference in means is not due to chance, but it does not indicate where the difference lies.
The degrees of freedom for this F test are 𝑑. 𝑓. 𝑁. = 𝑘 − 1, where k is the number of groups,
and 𝑑. 𝑓. 𝐷. = 𝑁 − 𝑘, where N is the sum of the sample sizes of the groups 𝑁 = 𝑛1 + 𝑛2 + ⋯ +
𝑛𝑘 . The sample sizes need not be equal. The F test to compare means is always right-tailed.
Examples 12–1 and 12–2 illustrate the computational procedure for the ANOVA technique
for comparing three or more means, and the steps are summarized in the Procedure Table shown
after the examples.

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021
 The numerator of the fraction obtained in step 3, part c, of the computational procedure is
called the sum of squares between groups, denoted by SSB. The numerator of the fraction
obtained in step 3, part d, of the computational procedure is called the sum of squares within
groups, denoted by 𝑆𝑆𝑊 . This statistic is also called the sum of squares for the error. 𝑆𝑆𝐵 is divided
by d.f.N. to obtain the between-group variance. SSW is divided by 𝑁 − 𝑘 to obtain the within-group
or error variance. These two variances are sometimes called mean squares, denoted by 𝑀𝑆𝐵 and
𝑀𝑆𝑊 . These terms are used to summarize the analysis of variance and are placed in a summary
table, as shown in Table 12–1

In the table,
𝑆𝑆𝐵 = sum of squares between groups
𝑆𝑆𝑊 = sum of squares within groups
𝑘 = number of groups
𝑁 = 𝑛1 + 𝑛2 + ⋯ + 𝑛𝑘 = sum of sample sizes for groups
𝑆𝑆𝐵
𝑀𝑆𝐵 =
𝑘−1
𝑆𝑆𝑊
𝑀𝑆𝑊 =
𝑁−𝑘
𝑀𝑆𝐵
𝐹=
𝑀𝑆𝑊
The totals are obtained by adding the corresponding columns. For Example 12–1, the ANOVA
summary table is shown in Table 12–2.

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 Example 2
A school district uses four different methods of teaching their students how to read and wants to
find out if there is any significant difference between the reading scores achieved using the four methods.
It creates a sample of 8 students for each of the four methods. The reading scores achieved by the
participants in each group are as follows:

Our null hypothesis is that any difference between the four groups is due to chance.

𝐻0 : 𝜇1 = 𝜇2 = 𝜇3 = 𝜇4

We interrupt the analysis of this example to give some background, after which we will resume the
analysis.

Step-by-Step Instructions for Running a One Factor ANOVA in

Excel
To perform a one-way ANOVA in Excel, arrange your data in columns, as shown above.

In Excel, do the following steps:

1. Click Data Analysis on the Data tab.
2. From the Data Analysis popup, choose Anova: Single Factor.
3. Under Input, select the ranges for all columns of data.
4. In Grouped By, choose Columns.
5. Check the Labels checkbox if you have meaningful variables labels in row 1. This option
helps make the output easier to interpret. Ensure that you include the label row in step #3.
6. Excel uses a default Alpha value of 0.05, which is usually a good value. Alpha is the
significance level. Change this value only when you have a specific reason for doing so.
7. Click OK.

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 Here’s how the popup should look:

Interpreting ANOVA Results

Figure 3 – Anova: Single Factor data analysis tool

This time the p-value = .04466 < .05 = α, and so we reject the null hypothesis, and conclude
that there are significant differences between the methods (i.e. all four methods don’t have the same
mean).

When using ANOVA, statistically significant results indicate that not all means are equal.
However, ANOVA does not determine which means are different from the others. To make that
determination, you need to perform post hoc tests, also known as multiple comparisons. In Latin,
post hoc means “after this.” You conduct post hoc analyses after obtaining statistically significant
ANOVA results. To locate the difference or differences among the means, it is necessary to use
other tests such as the Two-sample independent t-test, Tukey or the Scheffé test.

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 Evaluation
Answer the following problems by using the concepts in this Module.

1. A large high school offers three types of algebra courses: [1]

technical algebra, [2] general algebra, and [3] pre-college
algebra. All students have access to at least one course, and no
student is assigned a specific course. A principal is interested
in the type of algebra course that best serves at-risk students
identified as performing below grade level. She asks a teacher
of the three different types of algebra courses to record the
final scores for ten randomly selected at-risk students enrolled
in each type of course. None of the students has taken a prior
course in algebra. The principal believes that the median
scores of all three groups are equal.
a. Write the research question and the null hypothesis for this
study.
b. Perform One-Way ANOVA (Manual Computation) to
answer the research question and test the null hypothesis.
c. What are the results of the test?
d. Are follow-up tests necessary? If so, perform these tests.
e. Write a results section for this study

2. The amount of sodium (in milligrams) in one serving for a random sample of three different
kinds of foods is listed here. At the 0.05 level of significance, is there sufficient evidence to
conclude that a difference in mean sodium amounts exists among condiments, cereals, and
desserts?

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021

 a. Use ANOVA (MS Excel/SPSS/Minitab) to test for any significant differences between
the means.
b. What is the purpose of this study?
c. Are follow-up tests necessary? If so, perform these tests.

Reference
1Bluman, Allan G. Elementary Statistics: a step-by-step approach / Allan Bluman. - 8th ed.

2How to do One-Way ANOVA in Excel. Retrived from

https://statisticsbyjim.com/anova/one-way-anova-excel/
3CharlesZaiontz (n.d.). One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Retrieved from
https://www.real-statistics.com/one-way-analysis-of-variance-anova/

MC MATH 13: ELEMENTARY STATISTICS & PROBABILITY |PESCUELA s. 2021