Sequencing of Topics in an Introductory Course: Does Order Make a Difference?

The procedural steps involved in completing a statistical investigation are often discussed in an introductory statistics course. For example, students usually gain knowledge about developing an appropriate research question, performing appropriate descriptive and graphical summaries, completing the necessary inferential procedures, and communicating the results of such an analysis. The traditional sequencing of topics in an introductory course places statistical inference near the end. As a result, students have limited opportunities to perform a complete statistical investigation. We propose a new sequencing of topics that may enhance students' ability to perform a complete statistical investigation from beginning to end.