This article describes the evaluation of the teaching of statistical inference in a first statistics class. A sample survey project is described as a means of assessing the effectiveness of a Bayesian approach in communicating the basis tenets of inference. There are several advantages of the Bayes viewpoint in performing this survey project, including the explicit modeling of one's prior opinion by means of a probability distribution and the relative ease in reporting statistical conclusions. Some evidence is presented to show that students with sufficient knowledge can accurately specify probability distributions. The success of the survey project is evaluated, and changes to the structure of the project are described that facilitate the interaction of the instructor with the students.
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