To:  Dr. Spencer Baker
sbaker@odu.edu;

From:  Thomas Meyer
tmeyer@ph.vccs.edu
(276) 656-0283
Patrick Henry Community College

Subject:  Statistics - w/  Dr.Spencer Baker - Homework Assignment #1, Ch 1 - Problem 18, page25.

filename: StatHW1Ch1Prob18page25TomMeyer.doc

Facts:

Math achievement and career selection may be attributable to:
prior math success
math anxiety
attitudes held by teachers, mothers, and fathers.
Age. gender and grade level may also be involved in determining math achievement and career selection.

What variables would you want to measure?

Answer: 
Achievement in math
Career choices using math
Prior achievement in math
Perceptions of mother's attitude toward math
Perceptions of father's attitude toward math
Perceptions of teacher's attitudes toward math
Math anxiety
Gender
Grade level

How would you measure them?

Answer:
Achievement in math - current math achievement test score
Career choices using math - Respondents could record preferred areas from a list of job careers provided by a school career counselor
Present achievement in math - present grade level math grade
Prior achievement in math - prior grade level math grade
Perceptions of mother's attitude toward math - Likert scale math attitude score
Perceptions of father's attitude toward math - Likert scale math attitude score
Perceptions of teacher's attitudes toward math - Likert scale math attitude score
Math anxiety - Likert scale math anxiety score
Gender - response on survey
Grade level - response on survey
Age - response on survey

What level of scale does each variable represent?

                 

  Variable Nominal Scale Ordinal Scale Interval Scale Ratio scale
a. Achievement in math
(Prior and present)		     X
X		  
b. Career choices using math        
c. Prior achievement in math        
d. Perceptions of mother's attitude toward math     X  
e. Perceptions of father's attitude toward math     X  
f. Perceptions of teacher's attitudes toward math     X  
g. Math anxiety     X  
h. Respondent Gender X      
i. Grade level   X    
j. Age       X
k. Teacher Gender X     X

What questions would you have about the data?  How would you answer them?

1.  Do attitudes held by significant others, and do math achievement scores  influence career choice?

After gathering the data, answers could be sorted by gender, by age, and by grade level.

2.  Is achievement in math influenced by math anxiety, and by perceptions of parents and teachers?

Math achievement, both past and present can be related to resulting measures about math anxiety and perceptions of significant others.

3.  Whose influence is the strongest in terms of math achievement - mother, father, or teacher?

Examine the patterns found by pairing achievement scores with these significant others?

4.  Do men and women learn equally well from male and female teachers?

Compare the achievement scores of men with male teachers; of men with female teachers: of women with male teachers, and of women with female teachers.
 

Tom Meyer

Thomas Meyer