This is probably the biggest error that educators make.įor example, there is a strong correlation between people wearing warm coats and cold weather. Thus, a strong positive correlation does not mean that one event causes the next event. Yet, it is also important to know that a correlation does not imply cause and effect. It is important to know that correlations are often helpful in predicting events. That is one of the reasons why post-high school institutions are so interested in high school class rank before admitting incoming freshmen. One of the most common predictions from a strong positive correlation is high school class rank and success in college. Or, a teacher may identify a negative correlation, such as the more time that recess cuts into the spelling instruction period, the lower students’ spelling scores begin to fall.Ĭorrelations are often used to predict events. For instance, a teacher may find that completing a particular activity in class had no effect on student performance. Some things do not correlate well together. The teacher would then know to suggest that the students take the review packet seriously and complete it thoughtfully. For instance, it may be helpful for the teacher to know that a score greater than 75% on a student’s review packet has a strong positive correlation to student performance on the subsequent exam. Although there was not much meaning in the correlation, the example does show that any two items, regardless of how similar or dissimilar they are, can be correlated.įor educational purposes, a correlation may be quite useful. One of my classmates in a statistics class in college correlated the birth dates of everyone in class to their score on the midterm. In this case, the faster the cars were able to travel, the less the chance of an accident-free day. For example, before the advent of safety devices in cars, a negative correlation existed between increasing car speed and the number of days without car accidents. In this case, when one event increases, the other decreases. In America, the more people make, the more they spend.Ī negative correlation describes an inverse relationship. An example of a strong positive correlation is the relationship between an increase in wealth and an increase in spending. A strong positive correlation means that when the value of one item increases, the value of the other item also increases. However, since there are plenty of “short” people who weigh as much or more than “tall” people, the correlation cannot be described as strong. An example of a positive correlation is the relationship between height and weight: taller people generally weigh more than shorter people. Sometimes correlations are useful, sometimes they are not sometimes they are positive, sometimes they are negative.Ī positive correlation between two events means that when the value of one item increases, then the value of the other item is likely to increase. Other correlations have real value to a teacher, such as the correlation between the amount of time that students study and student achievement. Some correlations are silly, such as the correlation made between the relative abundance of clouds in the sky to a winning lottery ticket. It is possible to correlate any item to any other item. Correlations also hold the distinction of being the statistic that is most likely to be misunderstood and misused in education. A correlation is simply a co-relation which defines how well two separate variables “go together.” For a teacher, the two variables might be items such as correlating a successful homework assignment for students to their grades on a related assessment. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation CoefficientĪ correlation is the measure of a relationship between two or more variables.This lesson will introduce correlations which help teachers to gain information about the relationships between different classroom data. The accompanying video will review statistical concepts and calculations. In this workshop, you will develop the ability to identify the educational significance of statistics and to interpret and apply useful statistics for the classroom. ⬅ Previous Lesson Workshop Index Next Workshop ➡ Correlations Objective
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