This paper is from Session 6G: Preparing for the world of work: lessons for statistics education from beyond the field

which comes under Topic 6: Statistics education, training and the workplace

Other papers under session 6G ... 6G1: Lessons from medicine for training professional statisticians 6G2: Applying a model of professional learning to case studies in... 6G3: Statistical training for non-statistical staff at the Office for...

(Wednesday 14th, 11:00-13:00)

The importance of teaching statistics in a professional context

Presenter

• Kay Lipson (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)

Co-author

• Glenda Francis (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)

Abstract

This study investigates how the attitudes of marketing and psychology students differ and whether the differences are inherent from the start or develop as they progress through their degree. While statistics is equally useful for careers in marketing and psychology, third year marketing students are shown to have much less positive attitudes towards statistics than their psychology counterparts. It is suggested that this difference may be as a result of differences in the two course structures and that embedding statistics more fully into specific discipline areas improves student’ attitudes and helps to prepare them better for the workplace.

Other papers under session 6G ... 6G1: Lessons from medicine for training professional statisticians 6G2: Applying a model of professional learning to case studies in... 6G3: Statistical training for non-statistical staff at the Office for...