Other

  • This paper presents a framework for the design and analysis of introductory statistics courses. This framework logically precedes the usual process of putting together the syllabus for an introductory statistics course. Four approaches, or paradigms, of statistics teaching are put forward, together with tools for deciding which blend of approaches is most useful in any particular case. These approaches do not correspond to the two traditional schools of thought in statistics education -- probability-driven or data-driven -- but rather constitute a new approach.

  • In this curriculum and evaluation standards for School Mathematics (1989), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommends that the K-12 mathematics curriculum be broadened and designates statistics as an area deserving increased attention. The standards document promotes the concept that statistics be learned through the study of real problems with real data collected by the students. Rather than focus on developing formulas from which answers are simply computed, teachers should present statistics in a coherent fashion and develop the topic as a whole problem-solving process. The standards also encourage the use of appropriate technologies for learning mathematics. Appropriate technology allows us not only to expand what mathematics is taught but also to enhance how that mathematics is learned.

  • In the course of research conducted with Michael Harwell of the University of Pittsburgh, we have developed a series of five instruments intended to explore several aspects of statistics textbook selection. It should be noted that many of the categories of questions in these instruments were inspired by the previously named articles, and our debt to their groundwork is extensive. However, choosing a statistics text for social science students is not as straightforward a task as choosing a text for students in their major field of study, and therefore warrants a specialized series of instruments. The instruments we have developed range from a general survey for instructors and students who are currently using a statistics textbook in a course, to particular instruments are designed so that data obtained from their administration could be useful to broad-range researchers, to departments trying to choose a textbook, or to writers and publishers of new statistics texts. The five instruments are reproduced in whole in the appendix. These are: 1) a student survey for currently-used textbooks, 2) an instructor survey for currently-used textbooks, 3) an instructor survey of what an ideal statistics textbook would be like, 4) an expert evaluation instrument that may be used on any statistics textbook, and 5) an instrument covering relevant objective information about any statistics textbook.

  • This article classifies and discusses some of the common technical and conceptual mistakes found in the entries to student statistical project competitions in Hong-Kong.

  • Recent years have witnessed a strong movement away from what might be termed classical statistics to a more empirical, data-oriented approach to statistics, sometimes termed exploratory data analysis, or EDA. This movement has been active among professional statisticians for twenty or twenty-five years but has begun permeating the area of statistical education for non-statisticians only in the past five to ten years. At this point, there seems to be little doubt that EDA approaches to applied statistics will gain support over classical approaches in the years to come. That is not to say that classical statistics will disappear. The two approaches begin with different assumptions and have different objectives, but both are important. These differences will be outlined in this article.

  • Teachers of judgment and decision making can be found in psychology departments, business schools, economics departments, political science departments, medical schools, engineering schools, departments of social work, and yes, other places. Therefore, it will be no surprise to learn that there are few books on this topic that are prepared for the general reader - one who wishes to be introduced to the topic without becoming fully immersed in the substantive details of any one area of application. But because the topic of judgment and decision making is of great interest to almost everyone, its applications touching almost every human endeavor, a general introduction to this topic is bound to be useful. We have included 43 chapters organized in terms of 9 areas of application. Because our aim is one of introduction, we have not included any material (with the exception of one part) that requires anything more than en elementary understanding of algebra and statistics. Each part contains a brief introduction to the material included in it.

  • This is a collection of papers and discussion presented at the Second Conference on the Teaching of Statistics, held at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, April 24-25, 1987

  • In Section 2 of this article, we give a brief introduction to the contents and general structure of the undergraduate requirement in probability theory and mathematical statistics, and in Section 3, the proposals from some experts in China will be presented. The efforts made by some teachers and some changes and opinions in some recent textbooks will be introduced in Section 4.

  • This consideration of the question "What is basic statistics?" was initiated by an examination of training needs for statistics faculty at certain target universities in eastern Indonesia.

  • This paper is a discussion of the contributions Charles Babbage made to Statistics.

Pages