Viva La Difference in Statistics

Viva La Difference in Statistics consists of 12 chapters covering descriptive and inferential statistics in an introductory, one-semester statistics course.  Chapters range in length from 4 to 14 pages.  A persistent challenge for introductory students is staying anchored to the meaningfulness of the content as the content becomes more complex. To meet this challenge, the writing strives for clarity and accessibility, and pedagogical supports for learning are infused throughout the book.

Two glossaries of all symbols and their meanings and all formulas in order of appearance in the book are located before Chapter 1.  Chapter 1 is a review of arithmetic and algebra required by the course and concludes with a diagnostic assessment that students and instructors can use for strengthening computational skills. Exercises and sample problems from a variety of disciplines are located in and at the end of each chapter.  The answers, including both written and computational explanations, to all end-of-the-chapter problems appear at the end of the book.  Critical thinking questions and their answers are embedded in all chapters as self-assessments to maximize productivity of study time. A positive “can do” tone and the book’s title reflects statistics being understandable and useful.

For all instructors including those using problem-based learning, one end-of-chapter problem for each of the inferential statistics chapters is a “Researcher Problem” where students analyze the data and interpret the results in the context of a hypothesis or question.  These Researcher Problems include the data set in case the instructor wants students to use statistical software to complement the computational work.  Sample homework assignments for selected chapters conclude the book.