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I.C Belarmino, R.S. Blancas and K.S. Liao. Statistics: An Introduction. Philippines: University of the East, 1976 Statistics: What It Is Statistics, as the name implies, originally refers to information that is useful to the state for such purpose as taxation or the raising of an army. The meaning attached to statistics was expanded later on to include other quantitative data which tend to fluctuate in a more or less predictable manner. Highway accidents, births, deaths by various causes, and marriages are types of information which have become associated with statistics. Newspapers began reporting them as such, and the public came to know and understand them. As a consequence, the word statistics came to be used interchangeably with data or sets of information. Data is the plural form of the Latin word datum which means a fact or information which is accepted as base for inference. In this particular instance, statistics is taken as the plural form of the word statistic (with the same meaning as the Latin word datum ). The utility of statistics in the decision-making processes generated interest in the methods of collection, presentation and analysis of such quantitative data. Hence the development of statistics as a science dealing with the study of efficient methods of collecting and presenting information for a definite purpose and of effective and systematic methods of interpretation and use of facts in the making of decisions. In effect, statistical methods are devices for obtaining and/or using data or information in order that a rational action can be taken on particular problems. Such phase of statistics which offer only a description and an analysis of some given data without attempting to generalize or make inferences about a larger set of data is called descriptive or deductive statistics. If the data under the study can be taken as representative of a much larger set of data, then certain conclusions, predictions or inferences can be made about a larger group on the basis of an analysis of the data at hand. The phase of statistics concerned with the conditions under which such inferences are valid is called inductive statistics or statistical inference. And since inferences are never certain, inductive statistics depends largely on the theory of probability. The early development of the theory of probability came about as a result of friendly collaborations between gamblers and mathematician. Gamblers, in their desire to increase their winnings, called upon their mathematician friends to provide them with optimum strategies for various games of chance. Importance of Statistics: Philippine Setting Statistics in the Philippines has finally come of age. The 1969 presidential elections demonstrated the vast capabilities and potentialities of statistical techniques when a multi-network election coverage gave extrapolated results of the elections for the president, the vice-president, and the eight senators, only a few hours after the closing of precincts all over the country. Such projected results were finally proven to be very close to the actual results when the official figures released by the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) closely resembled the extrapolated results. Thus, extrapolation and computers became household bywords especially for those who followed the election coverage on television, radio and/or newspapers. Even before the launching of the said multi-network election coverage, opinion surveys using the latest statistical sampling techniques were already being used in the market research studies by large manufacturing establishments and independent research organizations. Lately, the proliferation of independent research organization indicates the growing demand for such services, and hence, the increasing acceptance by business establishments of such statistical techniques. Maintaining the high-quality products in the manufacturing industries is another area where statistical techniques and methods have found a very important and fertile field of application. Statistical quality control techniques have been developed to such an extent that consumers now are assured that the products they buy are of uniform quality and in accordance with the quality-assurance made by the manufacturers. More and more establishments are now maintaining rigid quality standards in their products, the imposition of which is made easier through the application of modern statistical quality control techniques. Statistics has also become an indispensable tool in studies and researches in the physical and social sciences. By following certain statistical designs of experiments, more information can be extracted from an otherwise limited body of observations. As a result, research costs can be reduced to the minimum, while at the same time the amount of information which can be derived from the experiments is increased to the maximum. Thus, studies conducted within the confines of the laboratories in the experimental fields, or under uncontrolled conditions such as the natural habitat of individuals (say, the social or economic conditions of people in a given area), are being made more productive and less expensive through the use of various statistical techniques (both in the design of the studies or experiments as well as in the analysis of the results. Education authorities in the country have taken cognizance of the increased use of statistics in almost all fields of endeavor. Schools and colleges have started to place increasing emphasis on the teaching of statistics as a required subject. More and more undergraduate courses have included statistics as a required subject. For most undergraduate courses, a number of statistics subjects have been incorporated into the curriculum. And lately, the secondary schools have started to offer elementary statistics as an elective subject. The first formal statistics curriculum I the graduate level was offered at the University of the Philippines, with the establishment of its Statistical Center in 1953 under the joint sponsorship of the United Nations Development Program and the Philippines Government. In 1965 the U.P. Statistical Center started offering a bachelor s degree program in statistics. The Ateneo de Manila University followed suit with the opening of a formal graduate degree program in statistics in 1969. And with the approval by the Department of Education and Culture in 1976 of its proposed bachelor s degree curriculum in statistics, the University of the East (through the College of Arts and Sciences) has taken
the signal honor of becoming the first private school in the country to offer a bachelor s degree program in statistics. Basic Fields of Application Some of the most important subject areas which make use of statistical theory and techniques were listed down by Oñate (1964) in a paper entitled Statistical Requirements of Planning and Development. They are as follows: Biology. Basic research and experimentation in life processes, biometry. Business. Production statistics, volume of sales, management, inventory control, plant location, communications, and control theory, and auditing and accounting procedures. Demography. Study of growth of human populations, including birth rates, death rates, and migration rates, ad the distribution and composition of populations, including personal, social and economic characteristics. Economics. Measurement of production, prices, volume of trade, resources, labor force and levels of living, analysis of consumers and producers behavior and market responses to such factors as price changes, advertising, and government regulations. Problems related to the size of the market, the most efficient system of distribution, location of outlet, study of consumer preferences and purchasing habits. Education. Problems of the teaching and learning processes, measurement, testing, and studies of educational institutions. Engineering. Research and experimentation of many kinds, among which are design and test of performance, improvement of methods for control of quality. Health. Occurrence and cost of accidents, diseases and handicaps; problems of medical care, hospitalization, insurance, and the public health program. Insurance. Determination of mortality, morbidity and accident rates among insured lives and in the general population, and the determination of rates of premiums for property and liability insurance programs. Medicine. Epidemiology, basic research and experiments on causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Operations and Administration. Operations research, including problems of management related to people, jobs, materials, equipment, method and working conditions. Psychology and Psychometry. Problems related to the measurement of learning ability, intelligence, personality characteristics, normal and abnormal behavior of individuals, as well as the creation of scales and measuring instruments for use in these general areas.
Social Sciences. Designs of sample surveys to help build and test theories about social systems and social welfare, cost analysis of social insurance, analysis of data from different cultures to explain differences in values, attitudes, and behavior patterns or groups of people and the design and analysis of experiments to describe and explain group behavior. Space Sciences. Reduction and interpretation of experimental measurements collected by space vehicles. Automatic Data Processing. Construction, operation and use of high speed computing and data processing equipment. Basic Research in Statistics. Probability and statistical theory and methods.
Garcia, Ligaya. Statistics for High School. Manila: Saint Mary s Publishing, 1977 Why we Study Statistics The vocabulary of statistics. Since statistics is a new subject to students, it is always necessary to build up an adequate vocabulary. The beginner should consider statistics like a foreign language one that will not for long remain entirely foreign. The vocabulary in statistics is composed of concepts that are represented by words and by letter symbols. As a branch of mathematics, statistics uses the ordinary symbol in numerical operations. Therefore, much of the vocabulary is not new to the student. New concepts will become familiar to them in their daily lives. Skill in computation. Although the ability to compute well is not the main purpose of statistics, computation is important. Concepts become meaningful only when applied to computational operations. An average student in any subject has always something to compute or solve. It involves application of formulas as well as planning operations. Computational skill is similar to other skills in the sense that the more one practices it, the more he becomes good in it. Interpret results of statistics. Statistical results become useful only when correctly interpreted. To interpret means to explain in one s own word the meaning of symbols. Statistical results are the most powerful source of meaning and significance when proper interpretations are made. On the other hand, if the interpretations are wrong, they only make the results worse than useless. In the hands of expert statisticians, statistics make data talks. It is therefore, necessary that a beginner be trained to interpret results of statistics correctly. Thinking properly. Statistics provide not only vocabulary and language, but also a way of thinking. A good researcher is one who thinks well the step by step procedure before doing his investigation or experiment. Many researchers think of a question and rush to gather data before knowing what it is they want to find out. Too much time and effort are wasted when the problem is not well understood and no proper decisions are made as to what data are needed. A well-planned experiment includes the specific statistical operations to be used.
Learn where to apply statistics and where not to. Statistics is learned as a purely mathematical idea. It is in this respect that a beginner will suffer the most from lack of mathematical background. The beginner should realize that whenever a new statistics is introduced it is always accompanied with situations in which such statistics maybe used. Therefore, a beginner should ask help to avoid making incorrect applications. Statistical Method Statistical Method --- The process of presenting and analyzing data is called statistical method. In shorter definition, it is the statistical analysis of data The ability to organize and analyze data is one of the basic requirements in effective statistical method. SUMMARY Statistics has several meaning which are applied in different situations. It is a branch of Mathematics which deals with enumeration and metric data. It employs counting and measuring to form numerical records the knowledge of which is relayed to others. Statisticians make use of this knowledge in the making of decisions in the field of statistics. Statistics today is very important. It is helpful in understanding statistical data found in newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed matters. To the teacher, statistics help very much in ascertaining the progress of his students It helps to interpret test results and similar measures of learning. The same is true with the researcher. Statistics enables him to make exact reports and descriptions of phenomena observed in his particular field and to draw appropriate conclusions based on data he obtained. For the student, statistics instill discipline of thinking. Since statistics require exact and precise answers the student is likewise trained to be exact and precise in his computation. Thus, we see that statistics develop not only in the intellect but the character as well.
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) closely resembled the extrapolated results. Thus, extrapolation and computers became household bywords especially for those who followed the election coverage on television, radio and/or newspapers. Even before the launching of the said multi-network election coverage, opinion surveys using the latest statistical sampling techniques were already being used in the market research studies by large manufacturing establishments and independent research organizations. Lately, the proliferation of independent research organization indicates the growing demand for such services, and hence, the increasing acceptance by business establishments of such statistical techniques. Maintaining the high-quality products in the manufacturing industries is another area where statistical techniques and methods have found a very important and fertile field of application. Statistical quality control techniques have been developed to such an extent that consumers now are assured that the products they buy are of uniform quality and in accordance with the quality-assurance made by the manufacturers. More and more establishments are now maintaining rigid quality standards in their products, the imposition of which is made easier through the application of modern statistical quality control techniques. Statistics has also become an indispensable tool in studies and researches in the physical and social sciences. By following certain statistical designs of experiments, more information can be extracted from an otherwise limited body of observations. As a result, research costs can be reduced to the minimum, while at the same time the amount of information which can be derived from the experiments is increased to the maximum. Thus, studies conducted within the confines of the laboratories in the experimental fields, or under uncontrolled conditions such as the natural habitat of individuals (say, the social or economic conditions of people in a given area), are being made more productive and less expensive through the use of various statistical techniques (both in the design of the studies or experiments as well as in the analysis of the results. Education authorities in the country have taken cognizance of the increased use of statistics in almost all fields of endeavor. Schools and colleges have started to place increasing emphasis on the teaching of statistics as a required subject. More and more undergraduate courses have included statistics as a required subject. For most undergraduate courses, a number of statistics subjects have been incorporated into the curriculum. And lately, the secondary schools have started to offer elementary statistics as an elective subject. The first formal statistics curriculum I the graduate level was offered at the University of the Philippines, with the establishment of its Statistical Center in 1953 under the joint sponsorship of the United Nations Development Program and the Philippines Government. In 1965 the U.P. Statistical Center started offering a bachelor s degree program in statistics. The Ateneo de Manila University followed suit with the opening of a formal graduate degree program in statistics in 1969. And with the approval by the Department of Education and Culture in 1976 of its proposed bachelor s degree curriculum in statistics, the University of the East (through the College of Arts and Sciences) has taken
the signal honor of becoming the first private school in the country to offer a bachelor s degree program in statistics. Basic Fields of Application Some of the most important subject areas which make use of statistical theory and techniques were listed down by Oñate (1964) in a paper entitled Statistical Requirements of Planning and Development. They are as follows: Biology. Basic research and experimentation in life processes, biometry. Business. Production statistics, volume of sales, management, inventory control, plant location, communications, and control theory, and auditing and accounting procedures. Demography. Study of growth of human populations, including birth rates, death rates, and migration rates, ad the distribution and composition of populations, including personal, social and economic characteristics. Economics. Measurement of production, prices, volume of trade, resources, labor force and levels of living, analysis of consumers and producers behavior and market responses to such factors as price changes, advertising, and government regulations. Problems related to the size of the market, the most efficient system of distribution, location of outlet, study of consumer preferences and purchasing habits. Education. Problems of the teaching and learning processes, measurement, testing, and studies of educational institutions. Engineering. Research and experimentation of many kinds, among which are design and test of performance, improvement of methods for control of quality. Health. Occurrence and cost of accidents, diseases and handicaps; problems of medical care, hospitalization, insurance, and the public health program. Insurance. Determination of mortality, morbidity and accident rates among insured lives and in the general population, and the determination of rates of premiums for property and liability insurance programs. Medicine. Epidemiology, basic research and experiments on causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Operations and Administration. Operations research, including problems of management related to people, jobs, materials, equipment, method and working conditions. Psychology and Psychometry. Problems related to the measurement of learning ability, intelligence, personality characteristics, normal and abnormal behavior of individuals, as well as the creation of scales and measuring instruments for use in these general areas.
Social Sciences. Designs of sample surveys to help build and test theories about social systems and social welfare, cost analysis of social insurance, analysis of data from different cultures to explain differences in values, attitudes, and behavior patterns or groups of people and the design and analysis of experiments to describe and explain group behavior. Space Sciences. Reduction and interpretation of experimental measurements collected by space vehicles. Automatic Data Processing. Construction, operation and use of high speed computing and data processing equipment. Basic Research in Statistics. Probability and statistical theory and methods.
Garcia, Ligaya. Statistics for High School. Manila: Saint Mary s Publishing, 1977 Why we Study Statistics The vocabulary of statistics. Since statistics is a new subject to students, it is always necessary to build up an adequate vocabulary. The beginner should consider statistics like a foreign language one that will not for long remain entirely foreign. The vocabulary in statistics is composed of concepts that are represented by words and by letter symbols. As a branch of mathematics, statistics uses the ordinary symbol in numerical operations. Therefore, much of the vocabulary is not new to the student. New concepts will become familiar to them in their daily lives. Skill in computation. Although the ability to compute well is not the main purpose of statistics, computation is important. Concepts become meaningful only when applied to computational operations. An average student in any subject has always something to compute or solve. It involves application of formulas as well as planning operations. Computational skill is similar to other skills in the sense that the more one practices it, the more he becomes good in it. Interpret results of statistics. Statistical results become useful only when correctly interpreted. To interpret means to explain in one s own word the meaning of symbols. Statistical results are the most powerful source of meaning and significance when proper interpretations are made. On the other hand, if the interpretations are wrong, they only make the results worse than useless. In the hands of expert statisticians, statistics make data talks. It is therefore, necessary that a beginner be trained to interpret results of statistics correctly. Thinking properly. Statistics provide not only vocabulary and language, but also a way of thinking. A good researcher is one who thinks well the step by step procedure before doing his investigation or experiment. Many researchers think of a question and rush to gather data before knowing what it is they want to find out. Too much time and effort are wasted when the problem is not well understood and no proper decisions are made as to what data are needed. A well-planned experiment includes the specific statistical operations to be used.
Learn where to apply statistics and where not to. Statistics is learned as a purely mathematical idea. It is in this respect that a beginner will suffer the most from lack of mathematical background. The beginner should realize that whenever a new statistics is introduced it is always accompanied with situations in which such statistics maybe used. Therefore, a beginner should ask help to avoid making incorrect applications. Statistical Method Statistical Method --- The process of presenting and analyzing data is called statistical method. In shorter definition, it is the statistical analysis of data The ability to organize and analyze data is one of the basic requirements in effective statistical method. SUMMARY Statistics has several meaning which are applied in different situations. It is a branch of Mathematics which deals with enumeration and metric data. It employs counting and measuring to form numerical records the knowledge of which is relayed to others. Statisticians make use of this knowledge in the making of decisions in the field of statistics. Statistics today is very important. It is helpful in understanding statistical data found in newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed matters. To the teacher, statistics help very much in ascertaining the progress of his students It helps to interpret test results and similar measures of learning. The same is true with the researcher. Statistics enables him to make exact reports and descriptions of phenomena observed in his particular field and to draw appropriate conclusions based on data he obtained. For the student, statistics instill discipline of thinking. Since statistics require exact and precise answers the student is likewise trained to be exact and precise in his computation. Thus, we see that statistics develop not only in the intellect but the character as well.
