The Effects of Statistical Analysis Software and Calculators on Statistics Achievement

This study compared the effects of microcomputer-based statistical software and hand-held calculators on the statistics achievement of university males and females. The subjects, 73 graduate students enrolled in univariate statistics classes at a public comprehensive university, were randomly assigned to groups that used either microcomputer-based statistics software or hand-held calculators in performing their statistical calculations. The effects of the independent variables of microcomputer-based statistics software and hand-held calculators on the dependent variable of statistics achievement were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance that revealed no significant difference on the basis of gender (p = 0.622). However, the two-way analysis of variance revealed a significant difference between the achievement of students who used the microcomputer-based statistics software and those who used hand-held calculators (p = 0.024), with those students who used microcomputer-based statistical analysis software scoring higher. Additionally, a significant interaction effect was disclosed (p = 0.027), with an effect size of 0.621, indicating that, on average, those males who used microcomputers outperformed 73% of the females who used microcomputers in performing their statistical calculations; while the females who used hand-held calculators outperformed 71% of the male users of calculators, on the basis of an effect size calculation of 0.545.