Ways of the World is one of the most successful and innovative new textbooks for world history in recent years. It is a pdf download rather than strictly online so the format is more classical textbook as would be experienced in a print version. Professors looking for in-depth coverage of research methods and data collection techniques will have to look elsewhere. The consistency of this text is quite good. Research methods training and future research - stressing the centrality of research methods in all walks of social life - from institutions, to UG and PG research, to careers. It is clear that the largest audience is assumed to be from the United States as most examples draw from regions in the U.
For example, there is a strong emphasis on assessing the normality assumption, even though most of the covered methods work well for non-normal data with reasonable sample sizes. The book has a great logical order, with concise thoughts and sections. There are also matching videos for students who need a little more help to figure something out. Selecting the method(s) 241. Students are able to follow the text on their own. The text is culturally inclusive with examples from diverse industries. I think it would work well for liberal arts/social science students, but not for economics/math/science students who would need more mathematical rigor. This text provides decent coverage of probability, inference, descriptive statistics, bivariate statistics, as well as introductory coverage of the bivariate and multiple linear regression model and logistics regression. Returning to the real world 10.
If the volunteer sample is covered also that would be great because it is very common nowadays. I did not view an material that I felt would be offensive. I have no idea how to characterize the cultural relevance of a statistics textbook. The sections on these advanced topics would make this a candidate for more advanced-level courses than the introductory undergraduate one I teach, and I think will help with longevity. The interface of the book appears to be fine for me, but more attractive colors would make it better. The book is divided into many subsections. I found no problems with the book itself. The section on model selection, covering just backward elimination and forward selection, seems especially old-fashioned. Approaches to observation 322.
They draw examples from sources (e. g., The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) and daily living (e. g., Mario Kart video games) that college students will surely appreciate. The book is written as though one will use tables to calculate, but there is an online supplement for TI-83 and TI-84 calculator. Unlike many modern books that seem to have random sentences scattered in between bullet points and boxes. The overall organization of the text is logical.
I believe students, as well as, instructors would find these additions helpful. It would be nice to see more examples of how statistics can bring cultural/social/economic issues to light (without being heavy handed) would be very motivating to students. According to the authors, the text is to help students "forming a foundation of statistical thinking and methods, " unfortunately, some basic topics are missed for reaching the goal. This text does indicate that some topics can be omitted by identifying them as 'special topics'. There are also a number of exercises embedded in the text immediately after key ideas and concepts are presented.
Evaluation and change 6. This diversity in discipline comes at the cost of specificity of techniques that appear in some fields such as the importance of measures of effect in psychology. Non]experimental fixed designs 139. I did not see any issues with accuracy, though I think the p-value definition could be simplified. The text is in PDF format; there are no problems of navigation. 65 - with rounding - in large samples; but the same tail p falls precisely halfway between z of 1. The textbook offers companion data sets on their website, and labs based on the free software, R and Rstudio. Display of graphs and figures is good, as is the use of color. More modern approaches to statistical methods, however, will need to include concepts of important to the current replicability crisis in research: measures of effect, extensive applications of power analyses, and Bayesian alternatives. I do like the case studies, videos, and slides. That is, do probability and inference topics for a SRS, then do probability and inference for a stratified sample and each time taking your probability and inference ideas further so that they are constantly being built upon, from day one! They authors already discussed 1-sample inference in chapter 4, so the first two sections in chapter 5 are Paired Data and Difference of Means, then they introduce the t-distribution and go back to 1-sample inference for the mean, and then to inference for two means using he t-distribution. Welcome to Learning Cloud by Oxford University Press!
The authors also offer an "alternative" series of sections that could be covered in class to fast-track to regression (the book deals with grouped analyses first) in their introduction to the book. Errors are not found as of yet. The examples for tree diagrams are very good, e. g., small pox in Boston, breast cancer. Teachers looking for a text that they can use to introduce students to probability and basic statistics should find this text helpful. The qualitative paradigm 24.
Types of qualitative analysis 460. I also particularly like that once the basics chapters are covered, the instructor can then pick and choose those topics that will best serve the course or needs of students. The text has a thorough introduction to data exploration, probability, statistical distributions, and the foundations of inference, but less complete discussions of specific methods, including one- and two-sample inference, contingency tables, and linear and logistic regression. The authors bold important terms, and frequently put boxes around important formulas or definitions. I realize this is how some prefer it, but I think introducing the t distribution sooner is more practical. So future sections will not rely on them. Researcher safety and risk 220. These concepts are reinforced by authentic examples that allow students to connect to the material and see how it is applied in the real world. The first chapter addresses treatments, control groups, data tables and experiments. They are challenged to discover the forces, issues, people, and movements that have shaped our modern world. In other words, breadth, yes; and depth, not so much. The book provides an effective index.
However, after reviewing the textbook at length, I did note that it did become easier to follow the text with the omission of colorful fonts and colors, which may also be noted as distraction for some readers. Alternative forms of presentation 500. ISBN: 978-1-118-74523-6 January 2016 560 Pages. The students can easily see the connections between the two types of tests. The Guided Practice problems allow students to try a problem with the solution in the footnote at the bottom. Chapter 2 Approaches to social research 14. This easily allow for small sets of reading on a class to class basis or larger sets of reading over a weekend. Single]case experiments 134. Integrating qualitative and quantitative data. A framework for research design 72. I do think there are some references that may become obsolete or lost somewhat quickly; however, I think a diligent editorial team could easily update data sets and questions to stay current. The distinction and common ground between "standard deviation" and "standard error" needs to be clarified.
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