SPECIAL MATERIAL
Resources
statistics can be taught—or even less plausible, can
Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education
be learned—in a single term. Any objective consid-
(GAISE) Report,
www.amstat.org/education/gaise
eration of the breadth and depth of the concepts
and methods covered shows this to be absurdly
Hayes, Brian. (2006) “Gauss’s Day of Reckoning.” American Scientist,
optimistic. Yet, few academic programs require
94(3):200. more than one course, and many of those that
require two are cutting back. We need to argue as a
Velleman, P.F. (2008) “Truth, Damn Truth, and Statistics.” Journal of
discipline that an introductory statistics course must
Statistics Education, 16(2):
www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n2/
cover more than an introduction to inference for
velleman.html.
means if it is to teach the reasoning of statistics—
Velleman, P.F. (2003) “Thinking With Data: Seven Unnatural Acts
and that teaching that reasoning must be its goal
(not just teaching definitions and formulas.) But,
and Ten 400-Year-Old Aphorisms.” Keynote address to the Beyond
a more complete course that covers techniques that
the Formula conference, Rochester, New York.
require more than rudimentary sophistication, such
Weiss, Cindy. (2006) “New York Philharmonic Selects
as inference for regression and multiple regression,
UConn Prof to Revive Concert Series.” http://advance.uconn.
is unlikely to have time to teach judgment, plan-
edu/2006/060424/06042412.htm
ning, and communication. It will most likely be
pared down to a collection of equations and rules.
As a community, we need to make it clear that
the subject of statistics deserves both more respect
they may study. The reason they are taking statis-
and more time, not because it covers so many
tics (or perhaps, the reason it’s required) is that they
methods, but because it should teach the founda-
are accumulating the kind of knowledge about the
tions of reasoning when we have data. Part of the
real world that will help them write literature and
argument might be that, unlike students in subjects
read philosophy, and that kind of knowledge makes
that exhibit prodigies, our students must summon
them qualified to make statistical judgments. Of
their real-world knowledge to learn to think statisti-
course, by asking students to call upon what they’ve
cally. And, that the effort by statistics teachers and
learned in other courses, we are encouraging them
students will pay back correspondingly in all our
to solidify their knowledge from those courses.
students do. Math is sometimes said to be the lan-
Third, we must actually require students to
guage of science (and much social science), but sta-
demonstrate all the steps of a statistical analysis,
tistics should teach students the structure for what
from problem formulation to communicating the
it communicates.
results to making real-world recommendations on
Is the effort to teach the modern course
what they find. Unfortunately, homework and
worth it? We believe it is. Rather than a col-
exam problems that carry these requirements are
lection of techniques or a ‘cookbook’ of situa-
harder to write and harder to grade. Training teach-
tions and formulas, a modern course in statis-
ing assistants to reliably grade these efforts can be
tics must teach students to reason about the
problematic. Moreover, many statistics instructors
world. Although that makes the course more
are not trained in statistics, and they, too, can find
difficult to teach and assess, it will make a dif-
this approach challenging. But, the results of teach-
ference in students’ lives and serve them for the
ing a modern course reward both the student and
rest of their academic careers and beyond. ■
teacher, in spite of its challenges.
We should also face outward to the academic
Editor’s Note: This paper is based on several
community. There is a wide-
talks given by the authors at the United S tates
spread impression
Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS).
that introductory
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