Bag of Tricks for Teaching Statistics

• Activity Number: 99
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 12, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education*
• Author(s): Andrew Gelman*+ and Deborah Nolan
• Affiliation(s): Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley
• Keywords: demonstrations ; activities ; education

Abstract

Many (most?) of the students in introductory statistics courses have little interest in the subject. In lectures, instructors usually present examples--realistic applications of statistics and also simplified examples to clarify the key issues that are covered in the text and homeworks. We have found that the simplified examples can be effectively taught by involving students in participatory demonstrations, rather than merely following the lecturer on the blackboard.

Here, we present several demonstrations, all based on well-known statistical concepts, that we and our students have found thought-provoking. We also consider more general issues such as the characteristics of good statistics examples, and we discuss the tradeoffs involved in choosing a style of lecturing.

We have collected and developed dozens of these demonstrations and examples, and we include at least one in every lecture in our introductory statistics class.

This work will appear in the forthcoming book, "Bag of Tricks for Teaching Statistics," by Andrew Gelman and Deborah Nolan (Oxford University Press, 2002).