This is a session of Topic 5: Statistics education in the workplace, government and across disciplines

Session 5E (Monday 9th, 11:00-12:30,   Level 2 - Medium Conference Room)

Statistics Education Across Discipline

Organizer

• Joachim Engel (Germany) : Session chair

Abstract

Statistics courses rank among the most frequently attended classes throughout college and university. Quantitative analyses are the scientific standard for academic subjects ranging from anthropology to zoology. As instructors, we have to deal with very heterogeneous groups of learners. Some may be phobic of numbers or any quantification of the phenomena of the world around them, others may enter statistics class with little mathematics background and for others the analysis of data may be just among the least motivating factors driving their choice of academic field. For instructors it is important to take those anxieties serious, react with appropriate responses, apply teaching strategies that emphasize an interactive and hands-on approach to learning and demonstrate the usefulness of statistics to solve real-world problems. This session looks how anxiety hampers the learning of statistics and reports about successful approaches to motivate students for statistics through clever use of digital technology, with emphasis on visualization and computer–supported representations of phenomena.

Papers