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- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
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- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
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The Beginners’ Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS
[New page 23 October 2014: last updated 9 Nov 2014]
(Original title "Clods' Guide" suggested as a joke during a conversation with Steve Tagg (Strathclyde) following a meeting at LSE in 1973)
Training workshop (10am to (approx) 12-45pm including (approx) 20 minute coffee break)
At least this was the plan, but it went straight through to 13:45 without a break, the slides were rapidly skipped over and a whole new series of topics were covered. Follow up emails were later sent to all particippants with more screenshots and explanations, but it will take me a while to organise these into a coherent document and associated slide-show.
This site won't play files in MS Office *. ppt format: having trouble sorting the download links out..
You can play them direct from my academia.edu page
Clods' Guide: slide-show 1
Clods' Guide: slide-show 2
See also the outline document
The Beginners’ [Clods’ ] Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS (pdf file with hyperlinks)
Trainer: John Hall, formerly Senior Research Fellow (1970-76) Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council and Principal Lecturer in Sociology (1976-92) and Unit Director, Survey Research Unit at the then Polytechnic of North London (now part of London Metropolitan University)
Target audience:
This workshop is suitable for:
1: People who have little or no experience of the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys, or even of SPSS.
2: SPSS users who are familiar with the Graphic User Interface (GUI) toolbar, but not with SPSS syntax (the English-like SPSS command language) which, for basic operations, is both quicker and easier. Examples and exercises will use both syntax and GUI.
3: Support staff in computing and statistics who need to provide advice and assistance to users from sociology, social policy, political science etc.
The course tutor:
John has used SPSS since 1972 to process and analyse dozens of surveys conducted by himself, by clients or by students. He specialised in "rescue jobs". He has also designed and taught courses in survey analysis using SPSS to hundreds of students at all levels, both at the Survey Unit of the then Social Science Research Council (now Economic and Social Research Council) and the Survey Research Unit at the then Polytechnic of North London (now part of London Metropolitan University. He took early retirement in 1992 but since 2009 has been developing his website Journeys in Survey Research in which he has detailed much of his 50 years in survey research. One section is Survey Analysis Workshop, a self-teaching course for absolute beginners (based on his earlier teaching materials, but converted, updated and greatly expanded for use with SPSS for Windows)
Course summary:
The tutorials and exercises in this half-day course will show how to use SPSS to capture, manage and perform basic analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. The emphasis will be on substantive research questions, logic and process rather than on computing and statistics. It will follow the usual research sequence of data capture, data processing and data analysis, with occasional (cynical, wise and experienced) comments on problem formulation, research design and survey practice as well as on how SPSS works (or not!).
It will include exercises on data from one or more real surveys and be drawn (much foreshortened) from selected learning materials in Survey Analysis Workshop (See: Summary Guide to SPSS tutorials) which are arranged in four main blocks:
Block 1: From questionnaire to SPSS saved file
Block 2: Analysing one variable
Block 3: Analysing two variables (and sometimes three)
Block 4: Hypothesis testing
What will I learn?
("I'm playing . . all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order!" as Eric Morecambe famously declared to André Prévin in the brilliant 1971 sketch Grieg's Piano Concerto .
1: An understanding of where data come from in the first place
2: Basic language and logic of survey analysis (and SPSS)
3: Basic data management; basic analyses using percentages and charts
4: Simple tests for differences between groups
5: Standards of good practice in file design and documentation
6: How to check files for structure and content
7: A knowledge and skill platform for progression to higher things (inferential stats, modelling etc.)
8: That, for most basic procedures, syntax is both quicker and easier than the GUI
9: That the GUI is also useful, sometimes in unexpected ways
(Original title "Clods' Guide" suggested as a joke during a conversation with Steve Tagg (Strathclyde) following a meeting at LSE in 1973)
Training workshop (10am to (approx) 12-45pm including (approx) 20 minute coffee break)
At least this was the plan, but it went straight through to 13:45 without a break, the slides were rapidly skipped over and a whole new series of topics were covered. Follow up emails were later sent to all particippants with more screenshots and explanations, but it will take me a while to organise these into a coherent document and associated slide-show.
This site won't play files in MS Office *. ppt format: having trouble sorting the download links out..
You can play them direct from my academia.edu page
Clods' Guide: slide-show 1
Clods' Guide: slide-show 2
See also the outline document
The Beginners’ [Clods’ ] Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS (pdf file with hyperlinks)
Trainer: John Hall, formerly Senior Research Fellow (1970-76) Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council and Principal Lecturer in Sociology (1976-92) and Unit Director, Survey Research Unit at the then Polytechnic of North London (now part of London Metropolitan University)
Target audience:
This workshop is suitable for:
1: People who have little or no experience of the capture, management and analysis of data from questionnaire surveys, or even of SPSS.
2: SPSS users who are familiar with the Graphic User Interface (GUI) toolbar, but not with SPSS syntax (the English-like SPSS command language) which, for basic operations, is both quicker and easier. Examples and exercises will use both syntax and GUI.
3: Support staff in computing and statistics who need to provide advice and assistance to users from sociology, social policy, political science etc.
The course tutor:
John has used SPSS since 1972 to process and analyse dozens of surveys conducted by himself, by clients or by students. He specialised in "rescue jobs". He has also designed and taught courses in survey analysis using SPSS to hundreds of students at all levels, both at the Survey Unit of the then Social Science Research Council (now Economic and Social Research Council) and the Survey Research Unit at the then Polytechnic of North London (now part of London Metropolitan University. He took early retirement in 1992 but since 2009 has been developing his website Journeys in Survey Research in which he has detailed much of his 50 years in survey research. One section is Survey Analysis Workshop, a self-teaching course for absolute beginners (based on his earlier teaching materials, but converted, updated and greatly expanded for use with SPSS for Windows)
Course summary:
The tutorials and exercises in this half-day course will show how to use SPSS to capture, manage and perform basic analysis of data from questionnaire surveys. The emphasis will be on substantive research questions, logic and process rather than on computing and statistics. It will follow the usual research sequence of data capture, data processing and data analysis, with occasional (cynical, wise and experienced) comments on problem formulation, research design and survey practice as well as on how SPSS works (or not!).
It will include exercises on data from one or more real surveys and be drawn (much foreshortened) from selected learning materials in Survey Analysis Workshop (See: Summary Guide to SPSS tutorials) which are arranged in four main blocks:
Block 1: From questionnaire to SPSS saved file
Block 2: Analysing one variable
Block 3: Analysing two variables (and sometimes three)
Block 4: Hypothesis testing
What will I learn?
("I'm playing . . all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order!" as Eric Morecambe famously declared to André Prévin in the brilliant 1971 sketch Grieg's Piano Concerto .
1: An understanding of where data come from in the first place
2: Basic language and logic of survey analysis (and SPSS)
3: Basic data management; basic analyses using percentages and charts
4: Simple tests for differences between groups
5: Standards of good practice in file design and documentation
6: How to check files for structure and content
7: A knowledge and skill platform for progression to higher things (inferential stats, modelling etc.)
8: That, for most basic procedures, syntax is both quicker and easier than the GUI
9: That the GUI is also useful, sometimes in unexpected ways