Industry,Quality, Statistics and Vocational Education

This article reviews the development and current place of Statistical Quality Control and points out the implications for vocational education.     

Teaching Statistics – Despite Its Applications

Evidence‐based policy requires sophisticated modelling and reasoning about complex social data. The current UK statistics curricula do not equip tomorrow's citizens to understand such reasoning. We advocate radical curriculum reform, designed to require students to reason from complex data.     

Fans,Football and Federal Elections: A Real‐World Example of Statistics

This article evaluates and explores the correlation (+0.892) between the United States federal election winner and the most recent Washington Redskin home‐game winner, a relation perfectly linked for 17 of 18 elections since franchise inception in 1936.     

Bluebells and Bias,Stitchwort and Statistics

Infants are not too young to engage in real, useful statistical work. This activity allowed comparisons between distributions of two species of flowers in three different habitats.     

Statistics,Computer Packages,and the Real World

The pathway to success in college can be bumpy. To smooth it we first investigated self-assessment of college readiness by undergraduates in terms of skills and habits required for college success. In a survey of almost 700 students, one of every two reported that their college work was more challenging than expected. Although 70% reported that they felt well-prepared for college by their high schools, finer questioning revealed that they recognized deficits for such skills/habits as time management, attention to detail, going beyond minimum requirements and studying to learn deeply. When asked what skills they wished to develop further, 40% identified time management and 39% exam preparation; fewer than 20% identified transferable skills such as effective communication and critical thinking. We then used these data to develop an evolving set of presentations, mini-workshops and course content designed to assist students to develop strategies for self-regulated learning by linking these to the self-assessment data provided by their peers. We stress the importance of mastering these strategies, as well as knowledge of their majors' subject contents, for success in both college and future career. Reception to our presentations and mini-workshops has been encouragingly positive, and quantitative assessments of their effectiveness are underway.     

Employing Introductory Statistics Students at ‘Stats Dairy’

To combat students' fear of statistics I employ my students at a fictional company, Stats Dairy, run by cows. Almost all examples used in the class notes, exercises, humour and exams use data ‘collected’ from this company.     

Learning Statistics on the Web – DISCUSS

This article discusses the use of the Internet in teaching and learning statistics and describes how interactive spreadsheets can be integrated with Web‐based resources.     

统计歌曲在统计教学中的应用

统计歌曲属行业歌曲范畴,是统计文化建设和精神文明建设的重要载体。大部分统计歌曲不仅歌词格调高雅,且曲调优美。这些资源,如果能很好地应用在统计教学中,不仅可以促进学生加深对统计工作的理解,强化学生爱岗敬业的信念,提高学习效果,还可以活跃课堂气氛,丰富教学形式。     

Green Statistics

Environmental statistics is an exciting and rapidly growing area of statistical application. It requires complex new approaches and methods to be developed, to enable study of the crucial environmental problems we face: whether climate change, passive smoking, industrial pollution or forest fires. For the classroom, environmental statistics can bring some reality and immediacy to our teaching.     

Fishy Statistics

Being a statistical detective can provide a strong motivation for early work in data handling. Media reports can often start a fascinating chain of events, as this article shows.     

Examining the Relationship between Math Self‐Efficacy and Statistics Motivation in the Introductory Business Statistics Course: Self‐Compassion as a Mediator

Because business statistics students often experience a lack of statistical motivation, business educators need to understand the factors that influence students’ motivation levels in undergraduate‐level business statistics courses. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of math self‐efficacy and self‐compassion on students’ motivation levels and the gender differences among the main variables. The regression results showed that math self‐efficacy was a positive predictor of statistics motivation. Self‐compassion was also found to be a partial mediator of the relationship between math self‐efficacy and statistics motivation. Gender differences were also found in business students’ math self‐efficacy, self‐compassion, and statistics motivation.