Teaching Introductory Statistics to Students in the Basic Sciences

• Activity Number: 495
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences
• Author(s): Constantine Daskalakis*+ and Benjamin Leiby
• Companies: Thomas Jefferson University and Thomas Jefferson University
• Keywords: statistical education ; graduate education ; introductory statistics ; teaching

Abstract

A two-course sequence of introductory statistics (total of 48 contact hours) was taught to 36 graduate students in basic science programs, during the 2009 and 2010 spring terms. In place of a required text, notes and handouts were written specifically for the class. Stata was used as the software package. Most students had a recipe-type inclination towards statistics, particularly focused on significance. Three quarters of the students pointed to Stata as the most unsatisfactory element of course, expressing strong preference for the use of packages currently used in their labs. A strong minority of the students also expressed desire for more paper and pencil hand calculations, at least for the beginning of the course. Some students reported that the material taught was too advanced and that they only needed to know enough to be consumers of statistics, but others felt that the course did not cover sufficiently advanced situations relevant to their research work. Students felt that the course goals and objectives were moderately clear (mean = 3.1 in 2009, 3.7 in 2010) and were only partially met (mean = 3.2 and 3.3). Overall satisfaction was low (mean = 2.4 and 2.5).