This paper is from Session 7G: Statistics for non-quantitative majors
which comes under Topic 7: Statistics education and the wider society
(Tuesday 13th, 14:00-16:00)
How we can all learn to think critically about data
Presenter
Co-author
- Sue Finch (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Abstract
“Critical thinking with data” aims to teach undergraduate students to review and evaluate critically statistical information and arguments, to convince them of the relevance of statistical literacy, and to imbue them with the disposition of an enquiring statistical consultant. We use diverse strategies for engagement and broad content. Our materials are relevant, accessible, rich, interesting and varied; many are taken from the general media and are media rich. Presentation of statistical content is enriched through the use of eminent guest lecturers, case studies, and many real world examples. We do not rely on mathematics but present multiple perspectives on ideas, concepts and principles. Our abstract building block concepts are first presented through appealing and concrete case studies. Once students grasped the ideas in one context, they generalise these concepts through repeated exposure to manageable open-ended interpretative tasks using on-line and standard assessment tools. We provide illustrations of our approach.
