A Gentle Introduction to Statistics in SPSS and R

Presented by the Australian Development Agency for Statistics and Information Systems.

For many people the field of statistics can be incredibly daunting. This workshop is designed as a gentle introduction to the field of statistics, where absolutely no prior knowledge of statistics is assumed. Workshop participants will also be introduced to two of the most popular statistical software packages, SPSS and R (participants can choose which package they would like to use during individual hands-on exercises throughout the workshop).

The workshop will cover:

• The role of statistics in academic research – summarising data, exploring data, and testing a hypothesis.
• The different types of variables – continuous and categorical.
• Simple graphs for viewing a dataset – scatterplot, histogram, and boxplot.
• An overview of statistical tests and p-values.
• A flowchart for identifying which statistical method to use for particular research questions.
• T-tests and chi-squared tests.
• The importance of testing assumptions made by statistical tests.
• Non-parametric statistics (such as the Mann-Whitney test).
• A brief overview of linear and logistic regression.
• A very brief overview of more advanced statistical methods.

This workshop is intended for non-statisticians wishing to develop a solid foundation in the use of these techniques. No prior knowledge of statistics is assumed. Participants will also be introduced to SPSS and R, where no prior knowledge of these software packages is also assumed. 

The workshop will use a combination of three teaching styles: lectures and classroom discussions, small group discussions and computer exercises.