Using SPSS as Instruction Assisted Program in Improving Postgraduate Students’ Comprehension to Statistical Concepts

Abstract

The main aim of this study was investigating the effects of using Statistical Package of Social Sciences software (SPSS) as computer-assisted statistics instruction in improving post-graduate students’ comprehension of statistical concepts. Fifty postgraduate students were assigned randomly into three groups. In the first group, both the theoretical and SPSS sessions were presented simultaneously, whereas, in the second group, the theoretical component was introduced prior to the use of SPSS. The last group was taught using the traditional method, in which students only received theoretical lecturing about specific statistical content. A valid and reliable achievement test was used to measure students’ understanding of statistics, before and after applying the mentioned methods. The results showed that the second technique was the best method, that improves postgraduate students’ understanding of statistical concepts regardless of their gender. Finally, Jacobson-Truax method (JT) was used to estimate the clinical significance of the results