The Statistics Coach: Learning Through Practice - Tapa blanda

A companion volume to core texts targeting introductory social statistics courses, The Statistics Coach: Learning Through Practice helps students bridge the 'knowing-doing gap'. That is, while core texts help students understand statistics, the coaching program in this supplementary volume helps students do statistics. The Statistics Coach accomplishes this goal using a three-part structure - a 'tune-up', a lab application, and constructive feedback (tips on common errors and answers to the applications appear on the companion website) - that optimizes students' ability to apply and practise the theories, concepts, and techniques involved in using statistics as part of sociological research. In addition, a reference section at the end of the volume provides step-by-step guidelines for using SPSS, an essential application for working with data. As a result, The Statistics Coach offers much more than conventional study guides, which instead tend to focus on learning comprehension via chapter summaries, review of major concepts, and sample test questions.

Lance W. Roberts is a professor in the sociology department and a fellow of St John's College at the University of Manitoba. He recently completed a term as director of the Winnipeg Area Study, a survey research unit. For over three decades he has taught undergraduate and graduate methods and statistics courses and is the author of several books and dozens of articles on topics related to social trends, ethnic relations, education, and inequality. Karen Kampen is a doctoral candidate in the sociology department's PhD program at the University of Manitoba, where she holds the position of lab instructor. Her main areas of interest are environmental sociology and research methods. She has spent 15 years working in universities as a research associate, collecting and analyzing data for long-term projects such as a health-care program evaluation and books on social trends and poverty. She also serves as an instructor for introductory sociology and undergraduate methods courses.