Why Do We Study This? Critical Concepts to Retain from Stat Class

• Activity Number: 355
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Kathryn B. Hall*+ and Diane K. Michelson
• Companies: Hewlett-Packard and ISMI
• Keywords: Teaching ; Retention ; Core concepts

Abstract

Most university programs require some level of statistics instruction. The majority of students retain little from these classes. Industries that must have statistically literate employees re-teach and support statistics in ways that must be more effective. We look at methods that optimize our instructional time and course retention. Corporate training courses focus on developing specific skills, often more conceptual than computational. Effective professionals need to know how to get support or a quick refresher when exact methods are forgotten and that methods exist for more complex problems; they need to know how to identify when they need support and effective strategies to get it. This is exactly the knowledge that seems reasonable to expect students from any statistics class to retain.