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An Adventure in Statistics
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An Adventure in Statistics
The Reality Enigma

Second Edition
Additional resources:


April 2022 | 664 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

APEX Award 2023 for Publication Excellence: Print Media - Education & Training
Shortlisted for the British Psychological Society Book Award 2017
Shortlisted for the British Book Design and Production Awards 2016
Shortlisted for the Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers Award for Innovation in Publishing 2016

Now in its second edition, An Adventure in Statistics: The Reality Enigma by best-selling author and award-winning teacher Andy Field offers a better way to learn statistics. It combines rock-solid statistics coverage with compelling visual storytelling to address the conceptual difficulties that students learning statistics for the first time often encounter in introductory courses. Students are guided away from rote memorization towards independent, critical thinking and problem solving.

This essential foundation to understanding statistics is woven into the unique action-packed story of Zach, who thinks, processes information and faces challenges to his understanding in the same way as a statistics novice. Illustrated with stunning, graphic novel-style art and featuring Socratic dialogue, the story captivates readers as it introduces them to concepts, eliminating potential statistics anxiety. 

No previous statistics knowledge is presumed, and no use of data analysis software is required – everything you would expect for an introductory course is covered but with a contemporary twist, arming students with a strong grounding in understanding classical and Bayesian approaches to data analysis. 

With its unique combination of story, concepts and terminology, this complete introduction to statistics from bestselling author Andy Field breaks the mould to present a statistical tale like no other.

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Prologue
 
Chapter 1: Why you need science
 
Chapter 2: Reporting research, variables and measurement
 
Chapter 3: Summarizing data
 
Chapter 4: Fitting models (central tendency)
 
Chapter 5: Presenting data
 
Chapter 6: Z-scores
 
Chapter 7: Probability
 
Chapter 8: Inferential statistics: going beyond the data
 
Chapter 9: Robust estimation
 
Chapter 10: Hypothesis testing
 
Chapter 11: Modern approaches to theory testing
 
Chapter 12: Assumptions
 
Chapter 13: Relationships
 
Chapter 14: The general linear model
 
Chapter 15: Comparing two means
 
Chapter 16: Comparing several means
 
Chapter 17: Factorial designs
 
Epilogue: The genial night

Supplements

Find the Online Resources
Instructor Resources (Log-in needed)

Editable PowerPoint Slides to allow you to easily integrate each chapter into your lessons
A Teaching Guide, containing advice on using the narrative and learning features in your teaching
A testbank of multiple choice questions and short exercises to test students' understanding of the material 
Resource Pack to easily upload all the lecturer and student resources into your university’s online learning platform (i.e. Blackboard or Moodle), and customise the content to suit your teaching needs.
Student Resources (Free to access)

Multiple-Choice Questions to help you practice and prepare for assessments and exams.
Solutions to the end-of-chapter JIG:SAW Puzzles, to help you track your progress.
Datasets and R scripts from each chapter with hands-on exercises and problems that allow you to apply your knowledge and work through the Check your Brain problems and end-of-chapter puzzles in the text.
 

I like this textbook as well however I have chosen the other textbook "Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics" also by Andy Field.

Miss Lee Lui
Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Kingston University
May 10, 2024

A bit of an experiment. Covers everything we need, contains good and helpful examples, other books were too boring. Explanations very clear and clever. Also: examples are broad enough in scope (not strictly psychological) to fit this course in our interdisciplinary programme.

We are intrigued by the story-line-approach. Not sure whether this will actually work and whether students will like it, but we decided to try for at least one year and see how it is received. Also: curious to see how well it works in a course (like ours) that will use many of the topics in a different order than how it is presented in the book.

Mr Elmar Jansen
Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Amsterdam
February 4, 2024

This is a excellent text for students who are nervous around statistics. This is very readable text as a story and also provides the ability for staff to take content out of the book to teach in a more conventional style.

Mrs Theresa Jane Waight
School of Law, Criminology and Government, Plymouth University
October 30, 2023

Andy Field's book is not only essential but more than highly recommended for all students (BA/MA/Phd) and researchers working with statistics. I keep the book for many many years, and always come back to it while running analyses and facing other adventures of statistics.

Professor Andreas Zick
Faculty of Education, University of Bielefeld
May 9, 2024

Excellent practical guide that is easily accessible to students in healthcare

Dr Andy Graham
Occupational Therapy, Teesside University
June 29, 2023

Not aimed at appropriate level of students.

Dr Mark Fulford
School Of Business/Economics, Campbellsville University
May 9, 2023

This book seems like it is aimed at a younger audience. Although I found it very useful in parts I wonder if our mature students will respond well to the cartoon layout. I will use sections of the text to inform my teaching of the topic.

Ms Angela Woods
Dept of Health & Social Studies, Bolton University
July 11, 2022

A good informative book. However, to detailed in many ways for my students.

Dr John Donaghy
Allied Health & Medicine (Cambridge), Anglia Ruskin University
January 25, 2023

A good introduction to key concepts in a novel and engaging format.

Dr Gregory Allen
Business and Law, Anglia Ruskin University
June 20, 2022

This is a must-have book for any students doing their dissertation project using statistics and quantitative methods. The book is easy to follow and very comprehensive.

Mr Alfonso Pezzella
Dept of Mental Health, Social Work, Middlesex University
October 10, 2022
Key features
KEY FEATURES:

Access the sample chapters now and see these features in action! 

  • Compelling graphic novel-style story and illustrations (by an illustrator from the Doctor Who show) introduce and apply statistics concepts gradually, keeping students engaged from the start. Students are so enthralled by the story and the characters that they “forget” how much they are learning along the way!
  • Accessible pedagogy and style directly tackle student confusion by explaining concepts in an easy-to-grasp manner. Students learn things in a sensible order and build up their knowledge; in doing so they understand the material better.
  • “Student-to-student” approach addresses the conceptual difficulties that students learning statistics for the first time encounter because the main character in the story thinks like a student, processing information and the challenges of understanding it in the same way a statistics novice would—guiding readers away from rote memorization and toward critical thinking.
  • Socratic dialogue in the story helps students understand the basics behind even the more complex statistical concepts, reinforcing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Approachable material takes the fear out of statistics and does not require math expertise, previous statistics knowledge, or use of data analysis software.
  • Beginning-of-chapter sections introduce concepts for the first time and tell students where to focus their attention.
  • In the Next Chapter, Zach Discovers (Learning Objectives) sections offer a sneak preview of what comes next.
  • Reality Check presents real research that is referenced in the text to demonstrate applications in the real world
  • Check your Brain (in-chapter) exercises offer opportunities for students to apply what they’ve learned, enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
  • Figure boxes in the margins direct readers to visual representations of the material without interrupting the flow of the narrative.
  • Zach’s Facts (in-chapter summaries) recap chapter key concepts and offer another opportunity for targeted review.
  • Milton’s Meowsings (applied examples) promote critical thinking and include humorous letters (from Professor Milton Grey to Zach, the main character) giving more insight into how students could approach solving different statistical questions and how those approaches affect the outcome.
  • Key Terms at the end of each chapter help strengthen important, newly learned concepts.
  • Jig:Saw’s Puzzles give students a chance to further test their understanding of statistical concepts and work through problems at their own pace.

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