Most managers do not instinctively think statistically, mainly because they are not convinced that statistical thinking adds any value to management and decision-making. Traditional business statistics courses tend to reinforce this view by concentrating on mathematical detail and computation. Without the ability to think statistically, and to understand and interpret data, managers have to resort to gut reactions, which are invariably misguided and unreliable. In this paper we advocate a problem centred approach to teaching statistical thinking based on realistic business examples. Students must be thoroughly involved in the learning process, and encouraged to discover for themselves the meaning, importance and relevance of statistical concepts. Time should be devoted to thinking about the key issues, and for significant interaction both between student and teacher and also, more importantly, between the students themselves.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education