Question

practice exercises

1. statistics is important for classroom teachers because it

a. enables them to write appropriate objectives.
b. helps them to construct good test items.
c. helps them to evaluate students’ grades.
d. is useful for promotion and certification.

1. which one of the following variables can be classified as unordered?

a. enrolment in a course
b. halls of residence
c. height of a student
d. scores in a quiz
7

Explanation:

Question 1

To determine why statistics is important for classroom teachers, we analyze each option:

• Option A: Writing appropriate objectives is more about educational planning and learning objectives, not directly related to statistics.
• Option B: Constructing good test items involves item analysis, validity, reliability, etc., which are more related to measurement and assessment in education, not the primary use of statistics for teachers.
• Option C: Evaluating students’ grades often involves statistical methods like calculating averages, distributions, and analyzing performance, which is a key use of statistics for teachers to understand student progress.
• Option D: Promotion and certification are administrative or career - related aspects, not a core reason for teachers to use statistics in the classroom context.

We need to identify the unordered variable (categorical and nominal, where there is no inherent order).

• Option A: Enrollment in a course can be considered as a binary variable (enrolled or not) or a count, but if we think of different courses, there can be an order in terms of prerequisites or levels, and also enrollment can be a quantitative measure (number of students enrolled).
• Option B: Halls of residence are different categories with no inherent order (e.g., Hall A, Hall B, Hall C - there is no natural ranking like better or worse, higher or lower).
• Option C: Height of a student is a continuous, quantitative variable with a clear order (we can compare heights as greater or less than).
• Option D: Scores in a quiz are quantitative and have a clear order (a score of 80 is higher than 70, etc.).

Answer:

C. helps them to evaluate students’ grades.

Question 2