Tag: Statistics
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On being misquoted
This post revisits an old frustration: being misquoted and misrepresented in a doctoral thesis on Likert scales. I explain what I actually wrote, highlight how selective citation distorts meaning, and consider why such lapses matter for scholarship. Ten years on, I argue for more rigorous research practices and point to initiatives that foster teachers’ research…
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How to summarise Likert scale data using SPSS
If you want to convert multiple Likert item scores in a combined scale, here’s one way to do it using SPSS.
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Dependent and independent variables, using SPSS, and minding one’s manners
This post will teach you three things: how to tell dependent and independent variables apart; how to calculate correlations; and how not to piss me off.
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Revisiting Likert scales, levels of measurement: a nuanced understanding
This post revisits the debate about Likert scales: are they ordinal or interval data, and what does this mean for analysis? While individual items only yield ordinal data, some argue composite scales may be treated as interval. The discussion weighs these perspectives, highlights common pitfalls (like calculating means), and points readers to further resources on…
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How to interpret Ordinal Data: Median and Interquartile Range for Likert Scales
Let’s assume that you have prepared a questionnaire, where respondents had to select among responses ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. For convenience, you have probably followed the established practice of replacing these responses with numbers: “1” for “strongly disagree”, “2” for “agree” and so on. How do you go about analysing these data?
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Doing research without a control group
This article discusses control groups in second language teaching research, and whether these might be omitted from a research design.
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How to Interpret Likert Scales: Midpoints, Means, Medians and Statistical Significance
Learn how to interpret Likert scale data: understand true midpoints, why medians are better than means, and how to test significance.
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Likert scales: Four things you may not know
If you use quantitative methods in your research project, you may want to read this first.
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Reporting data inaccurately: why, when and how to confidentialise data?
Research, we surely agree, is about finding the truth and accurately reporting it. In this post, however, I will talk about those cases when we might have to actually distort the truth while reporting on a research project. This is normally done in the interest of protecting research participants, and it is called ‘confidentialising’. In…