ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors present several examples of published research that used the paired samples t-test. The researchers in the first case study followed first-year undergraduate chemistry students, measuring their attitudes, self-efficacy, and self-reported experiences both before and after a process-oriented guided inquiry learning intervention. The authors identify two dependent variables: emotional satisfaction and intellectual accessibility. They measure both intellectual accessibility and emotional satisfaction using the Attitudes toward the Study of Chemistry Inventory. In the second case study, the authors interest in assessing students' gains in statistical knowledge during an undergraduate sociology course. The design is relatively straightforward: M. Delucci administered pre-test and post-test assessments of statistical knowledge to students. The authors use the paired samples t-test to determine if there was a significant difference in statistical knowledge after an undergraduate sociology research course as compared to before the course.
