a professor is interested in whether there is a differnce in counseling student's statistics competency scores among 1) those who have never taken any statistics ourse, 2) those who have only taken an undergraduate statistics course, 3)
What is your question?
To determine whether there is a difference in counseling students' statistics competency scores among those who have different levels of prior statistics courses (none, undergraduate-only, graduate), the professor should conduct a study or an experiment. Here are the steps the professor can follow:
1. Define the research question: The research question in this case would be: "Is there a difference in counseling students' statistics competency scores based on their prior statistics course experience?"
2. Select the participants: The professor needs to recruit a sample of counseling students who represent the three groups (those with no statistics course, those with only undergraduate statistics course, those with graduate-level statistics course).
3. Collect data: The professor needs to administer a statistics competency assessment to all the participants. This assessment should evaluate their knowledge and skills in statistics relevant to counseling.
4. Group formation: After collecting the data, the professor should categorize the participants into three groups based on their prior statistics course experience.
5. Analyze the data: The professor can employ statistical methods to compare the statistics competency scores between the three groups. One option is to use an analysis of variance (ANOVA) test to determine if there is a significant difference in means between the groups. Alternatively, if the sample sizes within each group are small, a non-parametric test like the Kruskal-Wallis test might be more appropriate.
6. Draw conclusions: Based on the results of the statistical analysis, the professor can determine whether there is a significant difference in counseling students' statistics competency scores among the different groups. If a significant difference exists, further analysis (such as post-hoc tests) can provide insights into which groups differ from each other.
It is essential to note that the professor should consider other factors that may affect statistics competency scores, such as students' overall academic performance and their exposure to statistics in other contexts. Controlling for these variables can help ensure that any observed differences are specifically attributable to the various levels of prior statistics course experience.