MAKALAH

“Descriptive Statistics”

Written by:

OKTAL USKA PUTRA

RRA1B215020

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

JAMBI UNIVERSITY
 Descriptive Statistics
Statistics is concerned with the scientific method by which information is collected,
organised, analysed and interpreted for the purpose of description and decision making. Then,
the purpose of any statistical analysis is therefore to simplify large amounts of data, find any key
facts and present the information in an interesting and easily understandable way.

Descriptive statistics are methods that help researchers organize, summarize, and
simplify the results obtained from research studies. Then,Descriptive statisticsare techniques that
help describe a set of data. Examples of descriptive statistics include organizing a set of scores
into a graph or a table and calculatinga single value, such as the average score, that describes the
entire set. So, in writer opinion, Descriptive Statistics is the method that we used to aggregation
and shows about a data up to give information to the readers.

When we can use mean, percentage ?

One of the first impressions that we like to get from a variable is its general location. You
might think of this as the center of the variable on the number line. The average (mean) is a
common measure of location. So, we can use mean, percentage and so on When investigating the
center of a variable, the main descriptors are the mean, median, mode, and the trimmed mean.
Other averages, such as the geometric and harmonic mean, have specialized uses. We will now
briefly compare these measures. If the data come from the normal distribution, the mean,
median, mode, and the trimmed mean are all equal. If the mean and median are very different,
most likely there are outliers in the data or the distribution is skewed. If this is the case, the
median is probably a better measure of location. The mean is very sensitive to extreme values
and can be seriously contaminated by just one observation. A compromise between the mean and
median is given by the trimmed mean (where a predetermined number of observations are
trimmed from each end of the data distribution). This trimmed mean is more robust than the
mean but more sensitive than the median. Comparison of the trimmed mean to the median should
show thetrimmed mean approaching the median as the degree of trimming increases. If the
trimmed mean converges to the median for a small degree of trimming, say 5 or 10%, the
number of outliers is relatively few.

In the descriptive statistics, we can find 3 important part of statistics, there are :
1. Frequency Distributions
2. The central tendency
3. The dispersion

Example of practical Descriptive Statistics in a research

the title “The effect of integrating traditional classroom and online teaching”
 As seen in Table 2, although the mean score for the experimental group was higher than
that for the control group in ‘‘satisfaction with the overall curriculum’’, there were no significant
differences between these two groups. However, experimental preservice teachers thought that
this curriculum combined the effect of both traditional classroom and online teaching. In online
learning, the participants reflected that they could not understand some theories and applications
of instruction from their own study, but they would achieve a better understanding when the
instructor explained the concept in the classroom first. One of the participants said that
‘‘I did not fully understand the meaning of constructivism by reading from the books and slides
on my own, but after the explanation from the instructor in the class, I understand more.
Therefore, I still think that traditional class learning is needed.’’ (Amy’s observation report)
Table 2

From Table 2 shows descriptive statistics of the preservice teachers’ questionnaires about
the five aspects of preservice teachers mean scores and standard deviation of both the control and
experimental groups. In order to see if teaching methods were significantly related to the scores
of the experimental and control groups, a one way ANOVA was employed to compare the scores
of the two groups. According to the results, there were significant differences in ‘‘interactive
teaching and learning’’ and ‘‘application of the computer technology and instructional theories’’
(F = 9.728, P < 0.01, and F = 16.88, P < 0.001, respectively.), but there were no significant
differences in ‘‘satisfaction with the overall curriculum’’ (F = 2.506, P > 0.01), ‘‘stimulation of
learning desire’’ (F = 0.144, P > 0.01) and the ‘‘understanding of the teaching knowledge and
theories’’ (F = 0.028, P > 0.01). The results of the study were divided into the following
categories.
1. Frequency Distributions

an organized display that shows the entire set. The display is called a frequency
distribution and consists of a tabulation of the number of individuals in each category on
the scale of measurement. Thus, a frequency distribution displays two sets of
information: first, Theset of categories that make up the scale of measurement. Then,
second The number of individuals with scores in each of the categories.
The advantage of a frequency distribution is that it allows a researcher to view
the entire set of scores. The disadvantage is that constructing a frequency distribution
without the aid of a computer can be somewhat tedious, especially with large sets of data.

a. Frequency Distribution Tables

A frequency distribution table consists of two columns of information. The
first column presents the scale of measurement or simply lists the set of categories
into which individuals have been assigned. The second column lists the frequency, or
the number of individuals, located in each category. Table 15.1 is a frequency
distribution table summarizing the scores from a 5-point quiz given to a class of n _
15 students. The first column lists the entire set of possible quiz scores (categories of
measurement) in order from 5 to 0; it is headed X to indicate that these are the
potential scores. The second column shows the frequency of occurrence for each
score. In this example, one person had a perfect score of X _ 5 on the quiz, three
people had scores of X _ 4, and so on.
Example :
The table shows the distribution of scores from a 5-point quiz.

X F
5 1
4 3
3 4
2 3
1 2
0 2

b. Frequency Distribution Graphs

The same information that is presented in a frequency distribution table can be
presented in a graph. The graph shows the scale of measurement (set of categories)
along the horizontal axis and the frequencies on the vertical axis. Recall from Chapter
3 that there are four different scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and
ratio.
 1). A histogram shows a bar above each score so that the height of the bar indicates
the frequency of occurrence for that particular score. The bars for adjacent scores
touch each other.
Example :

2). A polygon shows a point above each score so that the height of the point indicates
the frequency. Straight lines connect the points, and additional straight lines are drawn
down to the horizontal axis at each end to complete the figure.
Example :

3). A Pie Chart shows to us about how a writer compare about a data by means of
circle divided into sectors, in which the relative size or proportions of the quantities .
Example :
2. The Central Tendency
Central tendency describes the tendency of the observations to bunch around a
particular value, or category. The mean, median and mode are all measures of central
tendency. They are all measures of the ‘average’ of the distribution. The best one to use
in a given situation depends on the type of variable given. They are the mean, the median
and the mode and are calculated as follows.

a. Mean
The mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency. The mean is
computed by adding the scores and dividing the sum by the number of individuals.
Conceptually, the mean is the amount each individual would receive if the total were
divided equally.
Formula :
 Xi
b. Median
X n
The median is the score that divides a distribution in half, so that 50% of the
individuals have scores that are less than or equal to the median. Usually, the median
is used for data sets in which the mean does not provide a good representative value.

c. Mode (modus)
The mode is the score or category with the greatest frequency or the most
commonly occurring number. In a frequency distribution graph, the mode identifies
the location of the peak (highest point) in the distribution.

Let’s illustrate these by calculating the mean, median and mode for the following data.Weight of
luggage presented by airline passengers at the check-in (measured to the nearest kg).

18, 23, 20, 21, 24, 23, 20, 20, 15, 19, 24
Mean = 20.64

18 + 23 + 20 + 21 + 24 + 23 + 20 + 20 + 15 + 19 + 24 = 20.64.
 11

Median = 20.
15, 18, 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 23, 23, 24, 24
↑
middle value
Mode = 20. The number 20 occurs here 3 times.

3. Measures of Dispersion
Dispersion refers to the spread of the values around the central tendency. We will
consider several measures of dispersion and discuss the merits and pitfalls of each.
a. Range
Range is the difference between two extreme values. The range is easy to
calculate but cannot be obtained if open ended grouped data are given.
Formula : R = Xmax – Xmin
Example :
15, 18, 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 23, 23, 24, 24
R = 24 – 15
R= 9

b. Variance and Standard Deviation

The standard deviation is the most common measure of variability, measuring the
spread of the data set and the relationship of the mean to the rest of the data. If the data
points are close to the mean, indicating that the responses are fairly uniform, then the
standard deviation will be small. Conversely, if many data points are far from the mean,
indicating that there is a wide variance in the responses, then the standard deviation will be
large. If all the data values are equal, then the standard deviation will zero .
Example :
Take, for example, the following grades of 6 students:
56 48 63 60 51 52.
Mean = 55.
To find how much our observed values deviate from the mean, we subtract the mean from
each.
Observed values 56 48 63 60 51 52
Deviations from Mean +1 −7 +8 +5 −4 −3

We cannot, at this stage, simply take the average of the deviations as their sum is zero.
(+1) + (−7) + (+8) + (+5) + (−4) + (−3) = 0
We get around this difficulty by taking the square of the deviations. This gets rid of the
minus signs. (Remember (−7) × (−7) = 49.)
Deviations +1 −7 +8 +5 −4 −3
 Squared deviations 1 49 64 25 16 9

We can now take the mean of these squared deviations. This is called the variance.
Variance = 1 + 49 + 64 + 25 + 16 + 9 = 27.33
6
The variance is a very useful measure of dispersion for statistical inference, but for our
purposes it has a major disadvantage. Because we squared the deviations, we now have a
quantity in square units. So to get the measure of dispersion back into the same units as the
observed values, we define standard deviation as the square root of the variance.

Standard Deviation = √Variance = √27.33 = 5.228.

 References
Frederick, J.G., Lori-Ann, B.F. ( 2009). Research Methods For The Behavioral Sciences.
United State Of America.

Hadijah, S. (2014). Dinamika Ilmu. Investigating the problems of english speaking of The
students of islamic boarding school program At stain samarinda, Vol. 14. No 2,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.