spss Sample Second Assignment.docx

spss Sample Second Assignment.docx

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spssSampleSecondAssignment

UniversityofGlamorgan

MScAccounting

Module:

AccountingResearchManagementandMethods

Assignment2:

StatisticalStudy

To:

UniversityofGlamorgan

From:

StudentNumberXXXXX

Date:

XXXXXXX

StatisticalResearchStudy:

AnalysingtheperformanceofafirstyearundergraduateclassintheFinancialAccountingModule.

StatisticalStudy:

TableofContents:

Page3Introduction

Page3-4SelectionandSourceofData

Page4ResearchStudy

Page5-11ResultsofStudy

Page12LimitationsofStudy

Page12FurtherResearch

Page12Conclusions

Page13-15Appendices1-3

Page16Referencelisting

1.

Introduction:

ThisreportisananalysisofstudentperformanceintheFinancialAccountingmoduleofanundergraduatebusinessstudiescourseattheXXXInstituteofTechnology.Thegroupof79studentswereenrolledontheNationalCertificateinBusinessStudies（GeneralOptions）andtheparticipantsstudiedFinancialAccountingforthefirsttime.Onachievinganaveragegradeofatleast40%inthistwoyearcourse,thesuccessfulgraduateshavetheoptiontofurthertheirstudiesfirstlywithaNationalDiplomainBusinessStudiesandthenaBachelorofBusinessStudiesDegree（subjecttoachievingatleastamerit2intheDiplomawhichisanaveragegradeof55%）.Atthediplomaanddegreestages,eachcandidatehastheoptiontopursueaqualificationinMarketing,AccountingorManagement.（Thiscourseprogressionisillustratedinappendix1）.

Previousresearchinthisareahasindicatedthatstudentsenrolledonnon-specialistaccountingcoursesperformpoorlyinthecoreaccountingmodules（LaneandPorch,2002）.

Thestudy,usingaquantitativeapproach,consideredwhetherornotthisgroupofstudentsperformedpoorlyintheFinancialAccountingmoduleandtriedtoestablishwhatwerethekeyquantifiablemeasuresinfluencingperformance.

ItisrecognisedattheoutsetthatthissampleisnotnecessarilyrepresentativeoftheentirepopulationoffirstyearundergraduatestudentsenrolledonsimilarcoursesatotherthirdlevelcollegesthroughoutIreland.Itisalsoacknowledgedthattherearelikelytobemanyunknownsocialfactorsinfluencingtheperformanceofstudentsenrolledonfirstyearundergraduatecourses.Thisstudyisexploratoryinnatureandtheresultswillhopefullyindicateareasforfurtherresearch.

2.Selection&Sourceofdataset:

2.1Choiceofgroup:

TheprimaryobjectiveofthestudywastoexploretheperformanceofagroupofstudentsinaFinancialAccountingmodule.ThismodulewasoneofthecoresubjectsinthetwoyearNationalCertificateinBusinessStudies（GeneralOption）offeredattheXXXInstituteofTechnology.Inordertogainentrytothiscourseforthe2003/4academicyear,theapplicanthadtoachieveaminimumof200pointsintheirfinalsecondaryschoolexamination,theLeavingCertificate.ThemethodusedtocalculatethenumberofpointsachievedbyacandidateintheLeavingCertificateisshowninappendix2.

2.2Selectionofappropriatedata:

Thefollowingdatawasusedtoanalysetheperformanceofthegroup:

✓FinalgradesachievedintheFinancialAccountingmodule;

✓ContinuousassessmentgradesachievedintheFinancialAccountingmodule;

✓Percentageattendancetoaccountinglecturesforeachstudentduringtheyear;

✓Thetotalgradepointaverageachievedbyeachstudentinyearone;

✓FinalgradesachievedintheStatisticsmodule;

✓Genderdetailsfortheclass;

✓EntrylevelpointsobtainedintheLeavingCertificateforeachstudent;

✓PercentageachievedbyeachstudentinLeavingCertificatemathematics;（Note:

allstudents,withoneexception,satthelowerlevelLeavingCertificatemathspaper.Thestudentwhosatthehigherlevelmathspaperwasgiventheequivalentpercentagegradebasedonthetablesinappendix2.）

2.3SourceofData:

InformationrelatingtofirstyeargradesandgradesobtainedintheLeavingCertificatedetailswereobtained,inconfidence,fromtheRegistrarsOfficeattheXXXInstituteofTechnology.Alloftheremaininginformation（gender,continuousassessmentmarksandclassattendance）wasrecordedbythelecturerduringtheyear.

3.TheResearchStudy:

3.1Objectives:

Theobjectivesofthisstudyaretoquestionif:

A.Thisgroupofstudentsperformedpoorlyintheaccountingmodulewhencomparedwiththeiroverallperformanceinthefirstyearofthecourse?

B.Genderdifferencesexist?

C.Therearecorrelationsbetween:

i.ThelevelofclassattendanceandFinancialAccountinggrades;

ii.LeavingCertificatepointsandFinancialAccountinggrades;

iii.LeavingCertificatemathsgradesandFinancialAccountinggrades;

iv.ThegradesachievedintheStatisticsmoduleandtheFinancialAccountingmodule;

v.Continuousassessmentgradesforaccountingandthefinalgradesforaccounting;

vi.TheoverallgradepointaverageandtheFinancialAccountinggrades.

3.2Approach:

Themethodologyusedtoanswertheresearchquestionsposedat3.1abovewastoselectanappropriatestatisticalpackage（SPSSused）,runappropriatestatisticaltestsandinterpretresultsinaclearandconciseformat.

4.ResultsofStudy:

Thestatisticalresultsaredulyconsideredunderthefollowingfourcategories:

ØFrequencies;

ØCrossTabulations;

ØTtests（comparisonofmeans）;

ØLinearRegression.

4.1Frequencies:

Thefirsttestsperformedonthedatasetweretoestablishfrequenciesforthescaledatawithinthedataset.Byperformingbasictestsweareabletoestablishthemean,median,mode,standarddeviationandrangeofvalues.Thishelpsustounderstandourdatabetterbyestablishingwhattheaveragegradeswereandiftheyarenormallydistributedwhilstatthesametimehighlightinganyobviousdiscrepanciesarisingfromincorrectdatainput.

Itisevidentfromthesummarystatisticstable（figure1）thatthedataforLeavingCertpoints,LeavingCertmaths%,continuousassessment,FinancialAccountinggrades,Statisticsgradesandgradepointaverageallhavethecharacteristicsofanormaldistributionasthemeanandthemedianineachcaseareverysimilar（althoughthedistributionforcontinuousassessmentisslightlyskewedtotheleft）.

Figure1:

SummaryStatistics

LeavingCertPoints

Leavingcertmath’s%

Attendance

%

ContinuousAss.%

Financialaccountinggrade%

Statisticsgrade

%

Gradepointaverage

Mean

295.57

61.29

63.9

56.39

47.01

43.41

50.23

Median

295

62

68.32

57.5

47

42

50

Modea

275

57

70

60

40

40

51

Std.Deviation

41.309

13.243

19.137

15.95

15.023

17.109

11.335

Variance

1706.402

175.389

366.236

254.393

225.679

292.706

128.486

Range

205

53

91

87

74

68

50

Minimum

200

42

7

0

9

12

25

Maximum

405

95

98

87

83

80

75

First（25th）Percentiles

270

52

53.47

48.33

38

29

42

Third（75th）Percentiles

325

67

78.22

68.33

56

57

59

aMultiplemodesexist.Thesmallestvalueisshown

Figure2showsthattheresultsachievedinFinancialAccountingfollowanormaldistribution.Thesignificanceofthisisthatwecannowrunafullsetofstatisticaltestsonthedataasitissymmetric.

Thefirstobservationofnotefromthesummarystatisticspresentedinfigure1isthatthemeangradefortheFinancialAccountingmodule（47%）islowerthanthegradepointaverageforthefirstyear（50%）.WhereasthisconfirmsthatthisgroupofstudentsdidnotperformaswellintheFinancialAccountingmodulewhencomparedwiththeiroverallperformanceinfirstyear,thedifferenceisnotthatlargeat3%.ItisworthnotingthatthemeangradeforfirstyearStatistics（43%）islower,asthesearetheonlytwosubjectsthatrequireanalyticalskills.

Itisalsoworthnotingthatthedistributionofattendancesforthisgrouparenotsymmetric,beingskewedtotheleftwithameanof63.9%andamedianof68.3%.Whereasthemeanoraverageattendancefortheyearis63.9%,themedianvalue（midpointfortheclass）indicatesthat50%oftheclassattendedconsiderablymorethanthemeanat68.3%attendance.Thereforethemedianismoreinformativehere.Whereastherewassomeverygoodattendancefiguresrecordedforthisclass,therewerealsosomeverypoorattendanceswhichdraggedtheaverageattendancefortheclassdown.

4.2CrossTabulations:

Followingonfromthefrequencytestsdescribedabove,itwasdecidedtocarryoutsomecrosstabulationteststohaveacloserlookathowmalestudentsandfemalestudentsperformed.Inordertoperformthesetests,itwasnecessarytorecodecertainvariablesintosmallermoremanageablegroupings.ThiswasdoneforFinancialAccounting%,LeavingCertpoints,gradepointaverage,attendanceandLeavingCertMaths%.Thecrosstabsillustratedinfigures3-8inclusiveshowhorizontalpercentagetotalsforeachofthesubgroupingsformaleandfemale.

Thecrosstabspresentedallshowthatfemalestudentsintheclasshaveout-performedtheirmalecounterparts.ForFinancialAccounting,ofthe16studentsthatachievedgradesinexcessof60%,81%ofthemwerefemaleand19%male.ThisbetterperformancebyfemalestudentsisconfirmedwhenonelooksatthegradepointaverageandtheLeavingCertpoints.Ofthe18studentswhoachievedagradepointaverageinexcessof60%,72%ofthemarefemalestudentsand18%male.Ofthe35studentswhoenteredthiscoursewith300pointsormore,66%ofthemarefemaleand34%male.Acloserlookatattendancesshowsusthat68%ofthosewhoattended60%ormoreofallclasseswerefemalestudents.Wheninterpretingtheseresultsitshouldbenotedthattherearemorefemalestudentsthanmaleintheclass（57%oftheclassarefemalestudentsand43%male）.

Despitethefactthatfemalestuden