The desired outcome of this post is to be proved wrong. Here is my assertion: It is really difficult to find appropriate sets of data to use for teaching and assessing statistical analysis. This is a problem; one of the … Continue reading →
The desired outcome of this post is to be proved wrong. Here is my assertion: It is really difficult to find appropriate sets of data to use for teaching and assessing statistical analysis. This is a problem; one of the … Continue reading →
The role of context in statistical analysis The wonderful advantage of teaching statistics is the real-life context within which any applicaton must exist. This can also be one of the difficulties. Statistics without context is merely the mathematics of statistics, … Continue reading →
The one-armed operations researcher My mentor, Hans Daellenbach told me a story about a client asking for a one-armed Operations Researcher. The client was sick of getting answers that went, “On the one hand, the best decision would be to … Continue reading →
I am forever grateful to the teachers at my convent high school. In my first year I was required to take thirteen different subjects, one of which was typing. At the time computers were still objects mainly occurring in science … Continue reading →
Teaching Experimental Design – a cross-curricular opportunity The elements that make up a statistics, operations research or quantitative methods course cover three different dimensions (and more). There are: techniques we wish students to master, concepts we wish students to internalise, … Continue reading →
One of the most famous sayings about statistics is the line: “There are three types of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics.” This was stated by author Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) and quoted by British statesman Benjamin Disraeli. There is … Continue reading →
What is the point of what we teach? “But what use is this?” Through the ages, maths students have whined this to their frustrated teachers. Generally the question is a diversion tactic, to avoid work, but sometimes the question is … Continue reading →
Use real data when teaching statistics In statistical analysis the context of the data is integral, not a story added on afterwards to make it more interesting. It is not like algebra where “making it real” means you make up … Continue reading →
