Teaching statistics = teaching thinking statistically

Issue title: Teaching Statistics

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kozak, Marcin

Affiliations: Department of Experimental Design and Bioinformatics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: What is “Objective statistics”? How can a statistics teacher teach it? Is it possible at all? These topics are discussed in this essay. It is shown that statistics is subjective; this is pictured with an example of a relationship between two quantitative continuous variables, for which various statistical approaches can be applied. This subjectivity should not nevertheless be thought of as a bad thing – it is the intrinsic part that makes statistics an art of dealing with data. To teach statistics well, then, means to teach thinking statistically, to teach understanding statistics, and not only to teach applying statistics.

Keywords: Correlation, statistical teaching, subjectivity

DOI: 10.3233/MAS-2009-0133

Journal: Model Assisted Statistics and Applications, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 275-279, 2009