Are statisticians cold‐blooded bosses? a new perspective on the ‘old’ concept of statistical population

Spurred by recent writings regarding statistical pragmatism, we propose a simple, practical approach to introducing students to a new style of statistical thinking that models nature through the lens of data‐generating processes, not populations.     

Exploring a complex gender wage gap dataset: an introductory activity in identifying issues and data visualization

In this paper, we provide instructors with an approach for a classroom activity for students in an introductory data science or statistics course who have little or no statistical programming experience. We designed this activity to help students improve their statistical literacy while exploring a social justice problem-the gender wage gap. To minimize the challenges of developing statistical literacy in students who lack programming skills, we developed a web-based data visualization application that does not require users to have any prior programming knowledge. The data in this visualization application comes from the March 2018 Current Population Uniform Extracts detailed by the Center for Economic Policy Research. Students can use the visualization application to create tables and plots to explore data on factors such as earnings and gender. Instructors can also use the application for other wage-related variables, such as race, occupation and family size.     

Paper‐Clip Case: A Practical Activity to Improve Statistical Thinking for Engineering Students

In this article I present an activity introducing statistical concepts to engineering students to help them develop inductive reasoning and problem‐solving skills.     

Collaboration in the Assessment Process: An initial evaluation of collaboration on an undergraduate business and management course

It is often claimed that collaborative approaches to assessment improve student performance and help students to develop key transferable skills. There are, however, considerable difficulties associated with the introduction and management of such approaches. This article utilises the author's experience of introducing collaborative assessment on an undergraduate business and management course. The article focuses on the role of values, and how both student and lecturer values can have a significant influence on their attitude to such forms of assessment. The paper concludes by suggesting that we should attempt to obtain a more in-depth understanding of student and staff values, and try to address these when introducing collaborative assessment. It also suggests that an incremental approach might be adopted in order to foster commitment, help create a culture of co-operation, and facilitate an action research approach that enables those involved to learn from their experience.     

高职院校实行学分制存在的问题及对策

高职院校学分制实施过程中存在部分学生缺乏科学的学习规划、教育资源短缺、学有余力的学生不能提前毕业等问题。其对策为:组织和开发更多的选修课,给学生提供更大的选择余地;加强教学管理队伍建设,提高教学管理水平;增大教学计划的柔性,让优秀学生提前毕业;确定实践教学的中心地位,在实训教学方面创设更多的机会;采取淘汰制度,鞭策学生学习。     

Generalising the pattern rule for visual growth patterns: Actions that support 8 year olds’ thinking

A common approach used for introducing algebra to young adolescents is an exploration of visual growth patterns and expressing these patterns as functions and algebraic expressions. Past research has indicated that many adolescents experience difficulties with this approach. This paper explores teaching actions and thinking that begins to bridge many of these difficulties at an early age. A teaching experiment was conducted with two classes of students with an average age of eight years and six months. From the results it appears that young students are capable not only of thinking about the relationship between two data sets, but also of expressing this relationship in a very abstract form.     

“Seminar”在计算机类硕士研究生培养中的应用研究

由于经济和社会发展的需要,计算机类相关专业硕士研究生的招生数量在全国所有专业中名列前茅.计算机类硕士专业研究生的培养质量对研究生就业以及国民经济和科学技术的发展具有重要的作用.目前大多数计算机研究生培养仍然采用课堂讲授的方式,不利于研究生知识面的开阔和研究能力的形成.讨论了在计算机类研究生培养中引入"senlinar"这一教学方式的必要性、迫切性和具体方法与措施以及实施效果.     

Internet Approach versus Lecture and Lab‐Based Approach for Teaching an Introductory Statistical Methods Course: Students’ Opinions

The use of the Internet as a teaching tool continues to grow in popularity at colleges and universities. We consider, from the students’ perspective, the use of an Internet approach compared to a lecture and lab‐based approach for teaching an introductory course in statistical methods. We conducted a survey of introductory statistics students. Contradictory to what was hypothesized by the authors, they favoured keeping the lecture and lab‐based approach for teaching the class.     

Wiki环境下大学生元学习探析

元学习不仅是学会学习的有效途径,也是培养创新能力的基本途径.针对目前大学生元学习存在"学习资源相对不足"、"学习方式单一"等问题,引入Wiki技术,分析Wiki环境下元学习的特征,探讨Wiki环境下有效进行元学习的方法,以提高元学习效率,改善元学习质量.     

引入项目教学法改进高职人才培养模式

"以学生为中心"的项目教学法,通过将课程项目化的方式,使学生在完成项目的过程中,以协作学习的方式,增进知识,提高实践能力.     

Using Excel for White's Test—An Important Technique for Evaluating the Equality of Variance Assumption and Model Specification in a Regression Analysis

There is consensus in the statistical literature that severe departures from its assumptions invalidate the use of regression modeling for purposes of inference. The assumptions of regression modeling are usually evaluated subjectively through visual, graphic displays in a residual analysis but such an approach, taken alone, may be insufficient for assessing the appropriateness of the fitted model. Here, an easy‐to‐use test of the assumption of equal variance (i.e., homoscedasticity) as well as model specification is provided. Given the importance of the equal‐variance assumption (i.e., if uncorrected, severe violations preclude the use of statistical inference and moderate violations result in a loss of statistical power) and given the fact that, if uncorrected, a misspecified or underspecified model could invalidate an entire study, the test developed by Halbert White in 1980 is recommended for supplementing a graphic residual analysis when teaching regression modeling to business students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Using this confirmatory approach to supplement a traditional residual analysis has value because students often find that graphic displays are too subjective for determining what constitutes severe from moderate departures from the equal variance assumption or for assessing patterns in plots that might indicate model misspecification or underspecification.     

The first day: it happens only once

Research findings on optimum use of the first day of class are mixed. Past data gathered from students from various disciplines support a first day designed to distribute the course syllabus and explain class expectations, rules, and policies. Additional literature supports a different approach to the first day; one designed to immediately engage students in the course through activities designed intentionally to accomplish more than introducing students to the scholarly objectives of the class. The purpose of this paper is threefold – to identify feasible goals for the first day of class, to present an overview of the limited research related to first-day goals and expectations, and to provide an example of a Recreation and Leisure Studies discipline-related activity to address first-day goals.     

Thinking in Objects and their Collaboration: Introducing Object-Oriented Technology

Although many professionals in education believe that an ‘objects first’ approach is the best method of introducing object-oriented technology, there is no common agreement on how to start such courses. Current study programs often begin by teaching a chosen object-oriented programing language, where students are confronted by a large amount of syntactical detail. Instead of focusing on the basics of object-oriented technology, namely objects and their collaborations, difficulties in handling the details of the programing language lead to a very scattered knowledge of object-oriented concepts. This is dangerous, as learners are left with a set of unconnected knowledge fragments. Approaches which embed different knowledge fragments in an overall knowledge view are known as “cognitive apprenticeship” approaches. The main idea of cognitive apprenticeship is continuous practice. We present a learning environment for introducing object-oriented technology in upper secondary schools based on cognitive apprenticeship. We use a visual programing language to away from the details and provide tool support to aid practice. We present the learning sequencewhich is used and show the impacts it makes on the course structure in our experiment in the chosen object-oriented programming language The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society.     

Linking academic knowledge and professional experience in using statistics: a design experiment for business school students

The aim of the empirical study presented in this paper is to explore how students link academic knowledge with workplace experience. I carried out a research study with a group of 36 business school students entering a 3-year masters level apprenticeship programme. In an introductory statistics course, I designed and implemented a four-step learning activity, based on an Exploratory Data Analysis approach and inspired by an authentic workplace situation. I report the findings of qualitative research based on the recorded discussions between students and the reports they wrote at each step in the experience. I found that three different forms of rationality—technical, pragmatic and scientific—led them to shape the problem differently. I observed that they hardly used statistical tools because pragmatic rationality which is linked to their experience as salespersons prevails, although access to a managerial approach suggests the use of more statistical knowledge.     

M·克莱因的HPM思想——以《微积分》为例

M·克莱因是杰出的数学家、数学教育家,其著作《微积分》中的HPM思想可概括为4个方面:以直观和物理的方法接近数学问题的本原;以"问题驱动"的方式引入教学内容,体现数学发展的动力;展示数学家的困难与错误,提高学生辨析能力;结合学生的认知水平和历史顺序来组织教学内容等.     

Teaching Social Work Students to Analyze and Apply Organizational Theory

This paper describes an approach to introducing social work students to perspectives on organizations based on two change-related aspects of a theory. The first dimension is a theory's emphasis on change versus stability. The second dimension is whether a theory stresses high or low control over change. To be useful, a theory must be restated into propositions to guide intervention. A focus on these two change-related aspects helps students to develop their ability to recast theories into practice strategies. Class exercises and course assignments are presented.     

Visualizing Matrix Multiplication

Efficient visualizations of computational algorithms are important tools for students, educators, and researchers. In this article, we point out an innovative visualization technique for matrix multiplication. This method differs from the standard, formal approach by using block matrices to make computations more visual. We find this method a helpful alternative for introducing matrix multiplication.     

Enhancing automatic control learning through Arduino-based projects

Systems dynamics and automatic control is classified as one of the toughest courses in the college of engineering at Qassim University according to the statistical analysis of the final grades. This motivated us to think about a new approach to teach this course by extending the design term project to include experimental part beside the theoretical analysis. This approach has become feasible due to the publicity of the low-cost microcontrollers such as the Arduino in the recent years. In this paper, we present our experience in conducting Arduino-based projects and how we used them to support the teaching of all the automatic control subjects in the course such as the mathematical modelling, the stability analysis, the controller design and the implementation of the PID controller. It was found that the new approach improves the attention and the overall performance of the students in the course which was reflected in the students’ marks in the quizzes and exams. Moreover, it motivated the students to be creative by utilising the control theory to design new systems that can be useful for their local community.