Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edstat-l
Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 14:50:28 EDT
Reply-To:     pgill@kean.ucs.mun.ca
From:         pgill@KEAN.UCS.MUN.CA
Subject:      impact of stat
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From:	MX%"JAMES@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU" 10-APR-1992 14:12:51.59
To:	PGILL
CC:
Subj:	RE: impact of stat

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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 9:40:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: JAMES@UCRAC1.UCR.EDU
Subject: RE: impact of stat
To: pgill@kean.ucs.mun.ca
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my 2 cts worth:

i believe 'saddistics' is hard to tearn because of the way it is taught: as a
dry, boring subject in which the prof comes in and dives into formulas and
derivations and some gibberish about hypotheses etc never telling us what
PRACTICAL use this stuff, if any. just look at the text books, they could all
have been written by the same author. what are the central ideas or concepts of
statistics? how did it all develop? biologists do a better job at teaching than
 do statisticians and look at the benefits: the PUBLIC is concerned and involved
in biological issues like endangered species, ecology, pollution etc. statisti-
cians on the other hand FAIL to even put accross the simple ideas involved in
quality control, the result? when these students become factory workers, they
can not even relate to this very practical idea!

to be fair to statisticians, biologists have longer contact with students-- all
the way from grade school. why cann't statisticians talk about concepts, what
insecurity drives them to hide behind long formulas, why do they fail so very
miserably to use graphics to put accross ideas? if you are a professor, give
your students (including grads) the following quiz of 2 questions: 1. what is
statistics? 2. what are the central ideas/concepts/dogmas of statistics?  i
think the answers you will generate (feel free to embarrass your fellow profs
by asking them these same questions) will help you (and others) in
 understandingwhy 'saddistics' is 'hard' to learn.

as for text books, i've not read them all, but of the few that i've read, the
really outstanding ones (i.e. one i'd read for leisure) are Scheaffer,
 Mendenhall and Ott - Elementary Survey Sampling (they deserve a gold medal for
 being ableto write english, taking the trouble to find good examples, all this
 with
brevity while successfully putting across to the reader ideas and concepts). a
somewhat more advanced text is Larsen & Marx -- an intro to mathematical
statistics and its applications.

last year i watched a good series on statistics on PBS hosted by a lady who
came accross as knowing what she was talking about. and more importantly she
knew how to come down a couple of notches to explain it to mere mortals. i wish
there were more of folks like her around!!

james ssemakula
computing & communications
university of california, riverside

usual disclaimers ...
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