This is a session of Topic 6: Statistics education, training and the workplace
(Friday 16th, 14:00-16:00)
Statistics training for researchers in other disciplines
Organizer
Abstract
As both the importance of statistics and the computational power increase in other disciplines, considerations of meeting the wishes or needs of postgraduates and researchers in other disciplines become more complex and cannot all be met with just one approach. Postgraduate student needs are different to those of researchers, and researchers themselves vary in what they want - some are happy to leave statistics in the hands of statistical co-researchers, some to receive instructions, some wish to understand more but only within their particular interest, some wish to become more independent and unfortunately, some allow the specific context to rule their statistics. Postgraduate students need to feel secure with underlying concepts and principles, to be able to defend what they do and to understand why their own discipline chooses procedures and interpretations that sometimes seem idiosyncratic. Thus postgraduate students in other disciplines often need a bridge from their undergraduate experiences to statistical thinking in research. However both are needed - the undergraduate introduction to statistics and the bridge to statistical thinking in research in other disciplines. Although meeting the range of needs and wishes of researchers in other disciplines often depends on the individuals involved, there are common challenges in balancing understanding and application of statistical techniques in specific research contexts. This session considers a number of the challenges in statistical support of both postgraduates and researchers in other disciplines.
Papers
