A New (Old) Approach to Teaching: The Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm (IPP) and Its Application to Statistics Mary Malliaris, Mike Hewitt, Gezinus Hidding Information Systems & Supply Chain Management

IPP IPP began about 450 years ago and was initially used in spiritual retreats Focus: to make you more aware of your decision-making process and the forces that shape your judgement Suggested Reading: Ignatian Pedagogy, A Practical Approach by Vincent Duminuco, S.J.

Our Experiment To incorporate IPP into quantitative courses We began with Statistics and Operations Management Goal in Statistics: to make the student more aware of how they already make decisions and how they might use statistics in their decision making processes.

Course Overview MBA students 2 sections of 24 One 3-hour class each week for a quarter Self-divided into teams of 3 or 4 (sat together during class) Each team selected a question to investigate over the course of the quarter

Process in IPP There are between 5 and 8 steps in this process (depending on author) I want to talk about three and how they were used: Context Experience Reflection

Context: What they already understand; their predisposition toward the material How it was used: Each topic was introduced through context and discussed in class Examples: What does it mean to be average? Have you ever felt that sample results did not represent you? How different do two numbers have to be before we say they are really different?

Experience: Assimilating new information In addition to course material and homework, each team worked on a project during the term They used each night’s topics in some way Sample topics: Gender Equity. Incarceration. Donating to charities. Population, aging, and costs. Is school worth the cost?

Reflection: Using their knowledge and feelings to grasp the meaning of what is being learned and to clarify their motivation What concept tonight was most interesting and why? How could I apply this? What did I find out that I did not expect? How is this useful? What are its shortcomings? Where might there be uncertainty in my answer? How does what I learned today fit with what I already know? What did I contribute to my team today?

Results for Me Class was more interesting Students were more engaged Teams were more functional

Student Comment “Just wanted to reach out and say thanks for teaching us this quarter and for making the lessons relevant. The concepts were easy to learn because you presented the opportunity to relate them to something I could understand.  The class was very interesting and I can use a majority of the concepts at work. “

Student Comment “Thank you for everything this past quarter. Although I was terrified of statistics coming in to this class, and I kind of wish I had more time to devote to each subject we covered, my brain definitely soaked up some new ways of thinking about things. I really appreciate that.”

Student Comment Statistics worked to both broaden my perspective and, at the same time, make me far more critical of any problem or previously held belief.

Student Comment I am looking forward to both applying statistics in the workplace and being a savvier consumer of statistics in the media. I think I tend to trust numbers without questioning where they came from or how they were calculated; this course helped me actually understand the principles behind statistics that are thrown out and will allow me to decide whether or not I think they are useful. I feel far more confident as a user and consumer of statistics now than I did before this course.

What’s Next Work to make this available for every section Build a template for any instructors teaching these courses Common Context Questions Common Reflection Exercises

Questions?