LESSON 8

ANALYSIS,
INTERPRETATION ,
AND USE OF DATA
PREQUISITE OF THIS LESSON
The discussions in this lesson will build upon the concepts and
examples presented in Lesson 7, which focused on the tabular
and graphical presentation and interpretation of test results. In
this lesson, other ways of summarizing test data using
descriptive statistics, which provides a more precise means of
describing a set of scores, will be discussed. The word
"measures" is commonly associated with numerical and
quantitative data. Hence, the prerequisite to understanding the
concepts contained in this lesson is your basic knowledge of
mathematics, e.g., summation of values, simple operations on
integers, squaring and finding the square roots, etc. 2
WHAT ARE THE MEASURES OF
CENTRAL TENDENCY?
The word "measures of central tendency" means the central
location or point of convergence of a set of values. Test scores
have
v
a tendency to converge at a central value. This value is the
average of the set of scores. In other words. a measure of central
tendency gives a single value that represents a given set of scores.
Three commonly-used measures of central tendency or measures
of central location are the mean, the median, and the mode.
3
 MEAN
This is the most preferred measure of central
tendency for use with test scores, also referred
to as the arithmetic mean. The computation is
very simple. When a student has added up the
examination scores he/she made in a subject
during the grading period and divided it by the
number of examinations taken, then he/she has
computed the arithmetic mean.
5
5
You have many ways of computing the mean. The traditional long
computation techniques have outlived their relevance due to
advancement of technology and the emergence of statistical
software. Using your scientific calculator, you will see the symbols
X, EX. Just follow the simple steps indicated in the guide. There are
also simple steps in Excel. Different versions of the statistical
software SPSS offer the fastest way of obtaining the mean, even
with hundreds of scores in a set. There is no loss of original
information because you are dealing with original Individual scores.
The use of statistical software will be explained later.

While we recognize the power of technology, there is information

that is unappreciated because of the short-hand processing of data
through mechanical computations. Look at the conventional way of
presenting data in a frequency distribution table as done in Lesson
7: 5
In the traditional way, it cannot be argued that you can see at a glance how the scores are
distributed among the range of values in a condensed manner. You can even estimate the
average of the scores by looking at the frequency in each class interval. In the absence of
statistical program, the mean can be computed with the following formula:

Looking at the table, do you find the value reasonable? Why?

The easiest way is to use SPSS by simply following these steps:

1. Open the Data Editor window. It is understood you have prepared the dataset earlier.

2. On the menu bar click Analyze, then Descriptive Statistic, then Frequencies. This opens the
Frequencies dialog box. 6
MEDIAN
Median is the value that divides the ranked score into halves, or the
middle value of the ranked scores. If the number of scores is odd,
then there is only one middle value that gives the median.
However, if the number of scores in the set is an even number, then
there are two middle values. In this case, the median is the average
of these two middle values. But if there are more than 50 scores,
arranging the scores and finding the middle value will take time.
The scientific calculator will not give you the median. Again,
statistical software can do this for you with simple steps similar to
finding the mean.
6
1. On the menu bar click on Analyze, then Descriptive Statistic,
then Frequencies. This opens the Frequencies dialog box.

2. Click on the desired variable name in the left box. In the

dataset, let us consider the test scores also in Table 8.1. Move
your cursor to Statistics and the Frequency Statistics box will
v pop out. Click Median.
3. You will also see that you can use the same process in finding
the mean. Earlier, we opted to use the Descriptives instead of
the Frequencies. The click Continue. Then press OK.
3
 Again, how do you work it out the conventional way? Either, you
rank the 100 scores, which takes time, or you arrange the scores in
the frequency distribution as shown here:

6
Applying the formula:

1. You need a column for cumulative frequency. This is now shown on the 5th
column for data in Table 8.2

2. Determine, which is one-half of number of scores of examinees.

3. Find the class interval of the 50th score. In this case where there are 100
scores, the 50th score is in the class interval of 45-95. This class interval of
45-95 becomes the median class. We marked lines in the table to indicate
where the median class is located for easy reference when computing the
median value.

4. Find the exact limits of the median class. In this case, class 44.5-49.5. The
lower limit then is 44.5.
THANK YOU

FOR
LISTENING