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Teaching Statistics. Sally Barnes Graduate School of Education University of Bristol. Issues. Purpose What to cover When to teach Mixed Abilities By-hand/by-computer How to teach. Purpose: Why do we teach Statistics at all?. To use procedures for self
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Teaching Statistics Sally BarnesGraduate School of Education University of Bristol
Issues • Purpose • What to cover • When to teach • Mixed Abilities • By-hand/by-computer • How to teach
Purpose: Why do we teach Statistics at all? • To use procedures for self • To read and understand what others have done • To critically evaluate others’ research • To meet ESRC or other requirements
What to cover • How basic / how sophisticated • How much do people need to know about formulas? • Most common? Most used? Most mis-used? • Descriptive?/Inferential? statistics • How advanced do advanced courses need to be?
Is there a ‘best time’ to teach • At the beginning of a course • In the middle • Before or after data collection
Class composition Mixed Abilities: • Is this a problem? • How to deal with • Class size: • Is there an optimal number?
By hand/ by computer • What are the advantages by teaching by hand • What are the advantages of teaching by computer • Avoiding Statistics by recipe
How to Teach Statistics • Learn by doing • Is jargon unavoidable? • Communication • face-to-face • email
Multiple methods • Talk and chalk • Books • Exercises (real and/or imagined) • Handouts • Powerpoint • Statistics packages (which one??) • Websites • Assessment • How do we know if/when learning is occurring? • Is the only assessment through dissertations?
The Future • What comes next? • How can we anticipate? • How can we prepare?