The demand for data in applied statistics courses has increased dramatically in recent years as the growth in computer technology has enabled students to perform more sophisticated analyses on larger and more complicated data sets. This has increased the burden on instructors and textbook authors to supply interesting data to illustrate desired concepts and allow students to practice techniques. We will describe some ways the computer itself can be used to help satisfy the demand for data.
The situation is described in terms of 1) degree programs, 2) applied statistics courses in tertiary education, 3) statistics in high school and 4) equipment and service. Problems in teaching statistics in the Philippines and possible solutions are outlined.
What I intend to present are various impressions based on experiences as a teacher and examinator of statistics in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Lesotho. It is natural that I use Sweden, my home country, as a frame of reference.
In the late sixties Hong Kong took her first step in introducing statistics into the secondary school mathematics curriculum as recommended by many national and international working groups in the mid fifties and early sixties. As statistics forms only a small portion of the entire mathematics syllabus, it is seldom singled out for inspection by mathematics educators in Hong Kong. We wish to take a first step in addressing this problem.
This paper discusses the educational system in Saudi Arabia and addresses problems the teaching of statistics faces. The objectives and content of the curriculum in Probability and Statistics are described. Recommendations are offered regarding the training of suitable teachers and the development of an improved curriculum.
The goal of ISPC training program (both international and domestic) has been, and will continue to be to promote personal and organizational statistical development by equipping statisticians and data processing specialists with the practical skills and conceptual background to enable them to adapt the latest technologies to the circumstances and needs of their countries or organizations. As the development needs of members of the world statistical community change, as new technologies emerge, and as new instructional methods become feasible, the ISPC training programs must continue to adapt to these challenges and opportunities.
Many statistics teaching groups have been founded in recent years, and doubtless more will be created in the future. In the great majority of cases at least part of the aim has been to strengthen the contribution of statistics to national development, and in some cases this has been the principal aim. How well such groups function will always depend mainly on the vision and determination of the staff involved, and on other individual matters such as the resources, human and financial, available, but there are also a number of general points that can be made, and this paper represents an attempt to discuss them systematically. It may be useful as a checklist, perhaps especially if those facing the task are relatively inexperienced, but individual circumstances are so variable that it can, of course, only be a general guide.
Many of the lectures here expressed their opinion that the primary task of statistics departments is to produce truly professional statisticians. However at least a part of the statisticians must have a serious mathematical background especially in probability theory, stochastic processes and mathematical statistics. The new term stochastics is very suitable for these three disciplines. Scientists working in the field of stochastics will be called stochasticians. It is obvious that the stochasticians are educated at the mathematics departments of universities. So, the main problem is how to organize the teaching process for the students in order to produce good statisticians and stochasticians who would be able to solve problems arising in the real world as well as other purely theoretical problems.
As Director of Research and Training at the Indian Statistical Institute for over 35 years, I had the opportunity to develop and institute a wide variety of educational and training programs in statistics at various levels: - Pre-college, undergraduate and graduate courses leading to bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. degrees. - Applied courses for research scientists working in basic disciplines like biology, psychology, sociology and economics. - Refresher and advanced courses for statisticians employed in government offices, business, industry and research organizations. - Short courses for factory workers to help in the implementation of quality control programs. - Workshops for field workers who gather information by interviewing people or by direct observation. I shall describe the efforts we have made in formulating these varied types of educational and training programs and in implementing them. I hope my experience will be of some use to others engaged in these endeavours.
It is my intention to demonstrate in a very pragmatic way that statistics is a subject of vital importance; it enters substantially into the quantitative content of many (if not all) other professional studies. Statistical information is pervasive: a detailed analysis of The New York Times newspaper for Saturday 22 May 1982 will leave us in little doubt of this fact. The intelligent reading of such a newspaper, or of any other current information material, therefore makes a basic grounding in statistics essential for all citizens. This premise leads very naturally to a discussion of what a common core of statistical training should consist of, and how it might best be imparted to students in schools and colleges throughout the world.