Seminar by Irena Ograjenšek

University of Ljubljana

The video was recorded at the 2009 International Conference of the Royal Statistical Society and is provided for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

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Educational organizations should not be regarded solely as vehicles for social and structural change. They are also expected to preserve and transmit traditional values to younger members of society and thus represent an element of stability in a rapidly changing world. At the same time, they have to react to rapid changes in their environments and offer access to new knowledge to active population as well. It would thus seem that educational services nowadays must somehow succeed in integrating stability and change at the same time.

This is best reflected in curricula of the university service courses on statistics: they have been continuously adapted to the latest developments in information and telecommunication technology (ITT). On the other hand, statistical philosophy, inherent to all steps of the statistical production and dissemination process, represents one of the key elements of the curricula stability. In other words, while ITT enables a simplified access to course materials, a steady electronic communication flow between lecturers and students, easier and less time-consuming computing, etc., the underlying logic of quantitative reasoning which should be conveyed to students in the teaching and learning process remains unchanged. Additionally (and sadly), another element of stability in university service courses on statistics can be identified: the negative attitude of students towards statistics.

In the framework of this paper we focus both on elements of change and stability while reflecting on past experiences, present dilemmas, and future challenges faced by the teachers of university service courses on statistics.

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Seminar by Dr Helen Johnson and Professor Helen MacGillivray

Queensland University of Technology

The video was recorded at the 2009 International Conference of the Royal Statistical Society and is provided for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

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Concepts of statistical citizenship, statistical literacy, statistical reasoning and statistical thinking are increasingly influencing educational developments, policy and research. Combinations of research in learning and teaching in statistics, considerations of the nature of statistical enquiry and how statisticians think, and general educational research have contributed to educational development, principles and strategies in statistics teaching in higher education. Previous strategies that were teacher-centred, with theory followed by examples, are supplanted by student-centred, data- and context-driven, experiential learning, with emphasis on concepts and development of statistical thinking. Although opinions differ on the balance of structured and unstructured styles, the strengths of problem-solving approaches, student ownership of contexts, and carefully designed and managed constructs of learning and assessment are widely accepted by statistical educators. Although mathematical models underpin statistical thinking in both data analysis and statistical modelling, the need for greater clarity in distinguishing statistical and mathematical thinking is recognised. This presentation will discuss the development, implementation and evaluation of higher education learning environments that aim to develop sound foundations in statistical thinking in both data and models, with approaches that integrate experiential learning in data, contexts, problem-solving and communication, within learning constructs designed for steady development of concepts, operational knowledge and skills.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Seminar by Allan Rossman

California Polytechnic State University

The video was recorded at the 2009 International Conference of the Royal Statistical Society and is provided for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.

You can download the slides from this talk in PDF format

Please note: The video resolution is not optimal for desktop viewing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Seminar by Professor Nigel Mathers

Academic Unit of Primary Care Medicine, University of Sheffield

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What do GPs need to know about statistics? The four statistical areas which help GPs to improve their clinical practice are: Predictive values (Bayes theorem), Regression to the mean, Dichotomous and continuous variables, Geoffrey Rose population strategy. These four areas will be discussed.

Please note: The video has a very slight audio problem in the first minute; this quickly goes away.

Seminar by Dr Mark Shapley

Primary Care Sciences, Keele University & G.P.

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There has been very little published research on the statistical wants and needs of non-academic and academic general practitioners. Medical statisticians have a well recognised role in research design and analysis but should they have a greater role in general practitioner education and clinical practice, and an even greater role in primary care research? The talk will meander through the speaker's 20 year experience as a practising general practitioner and university academic.

Seminar by Professor Steven Young

Department of Accounting and Finance; Lancaster University

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Individual dissertation supervision creates significant challenges for large programmes. The Department of Accounting and Finance employs an alternative model to cope with MSc numbers in excess of 120 students per year. The approach involves offering a small number of standard dissertation streams (currently three). Each stream is centred on an advanced topic in accounting or finance and is normally managed by two faculty members. Students on each stream receive a generic dataset (or access to data sources) relating to the topic area, from which they must produce an individual piece of research. To support their work, students receive 40 classroom hours introduction to the topic, six weeks of drop-in 'surgery' sessions, and detailed comments on the first draft of their dissertation submitted mid-July.

Seminar by Dr. Thomas Jaki

Department of Mathematics and Statistics; Lancaster University

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This talk focuses on enhancing students experiences through the use of technology. The first part discusses the use of screen capture, a fast and easy way of recording lectures, through an example of an introductory statistics course for first year biology students, and provides student feedback on the use of these recordings.

In the second half discusses a partial distance learning course at postgraduate level, that is based upon the experiences with screen capture. Student feedback is used to deduce the advantages and disadvantages of this hybrid course.

Seminar by Prof. Karen Evans

Lifelong and Comparative Education; Institute of Education, University of London

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Approaches to the longstanding challenges of 'integrating' subject-based and work-based knowledge have typically focused on questions of how learning can be 'transferred' from one setting to another, usually from theory into practice. The presentation will offer a fresh approach that concentrates on different forms of knowledge and the ways in which these are contextualised and 'recontextualised' as people move between different sites of learning in universities, colleges and workplaces.

The aim has been to improve practice in work-based learning (WBL) by researching how the subject-based and work-based aspects of a curriculum or learning programme can articulate with one another. In a research field that has come to be dominated by consideration of organisational arrangements and the technical issues that accompany credit and quality assurance frameworks, questions of knowledge, teaching and learning have been relatively neglected. The concept of recontextualisation provides some new ways into longstanding and seemingly intractable problems, by articulating what is involved in successfully moving knowledge from disciplines, professions and workplaces into a curriculum; from a curriculum into successful pedagogic strategies and learner engagement in educational institutions and workplaces.

Seminar by Dr Carl Scarrott

Department of Mathematics and Statistics; University of Canterbury

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A substantial challenge in teaching large service courses in statistics is student motivation. Many teaching approaches and tools have been proposed in the literature to motivate students. Of particular note are practical and interactive activities, which are also beneficial for kinesthetic learners who are typically not catered for in traditional lecture style presentations. However, many of these activities are limited in application for large class situations due to them being unmanageable.

This seminar provides an outline of a variety of activities which have successfully been applied in large classes (typically 100-1000 students), and shares experience in ensuring the resultant workload is manageable.