Teaching Statistics as a University Service Course: An Overview of Past Experiences, Present Dilemmas, and Future Challenges

Summary: 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. You can download the slides from this talk in PDF format Please note: The video resolution is not optimal for desktop viewing. 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. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License