This workshop is designed as a gentle introduction to the field of statistics, where absolutely no prior knowledge of statistics is assumed. Workshop participants will also be introduced to one of the most popular statistical software packages, SPSS. Participants can choose which package they would like to use during individual hands-on exercises throughout the workshop.

The workshop will cover:

• The role of statistics in academic research – summarising data, exploring data, and testing a hypothesis

• The different types of variables – continuous and categorical

• Simple graphs for viewing a dataset – scatterplot, histogram, and boxplot

• An overview of statistical tests and p-values

• A flowchart for identifying which statistical method to use for particular research questions

• T-tests and chi-squared tests

• The importance of testing assumptions made by statistical tests

• Non-parametric statistics (such as the Mann-Whitney test)

• A brief overview of linear and logistic regression

• A very brief overview of more advanced statistical methods

This workshop consists of 4 x 1.5 hour sessions in PowerPoint, and 4 x 1.5 hour practical sessions in SPSS.

This workshop is intended for non-statisticians wishing to develop a solid foundation in the use of these techniques. No prior knowledge of statistics is assumed. Participants will also be introduced to SPSS, where no prior knowledge of the software package is also assumed.

These workshops are designed for a broad range of participants, researchers from various application fields who only spend a small portion of their time doing statistics (but researchers who when they do statistics want to be doing statistics well). Communicating complex statistical ideas to a non-statistical audience requires significant skill. Equations for example are vital for statisticians who want to describe statistical models accurately but succinctly, however these equations can be a stumbling block for a larger audience who are not used to working with complex equations. We think one sign of a good statistician is that they know the pictures that go on behind the equations, and in our workshops we focus on the pictures rather than the equations.

Working with this broad audience we teach complex statistical theory (we find it heart-breaking when excellent research studies are undone by a poor understanding of underlying statistical theory), but we teach this theory using a number of practical real-world examples. We are also a strong believer in the use of humour in a training context, where humour means that participants are more likely to relax in a training context, to engage with the training content and the presenter, and are more comfortable to ask the questions that they really want to ask about the content as a result.

Each workshop will be capped at 20 participants.