Teaching statistics: what I have learned (so far) John Reidy Sheffield Hallam University Co-sponsored by: Scottish Universities Psychology Postgraduates Research Training (S.U.P.PO.R.T. ) Scotland

Overview About me Some activities What I do Some more activities Some advice

Degree from PEL PhD from Birkbeck College 1994 Teaching at UEL ( ) ◦ Taught 1 st & 2 nd year stats / RM ◦ Stats without maths Teaching at Hallam since 1999 ◦ Teach stats /RM at all levels My background

Activity Think about the way you were taught statistics / RM ◦ What worked well for you & your peers? ◦ What didn’t work? Discuss for 10 minutes with people around you Record you thoughts on sheets of paper

Feedback from the activity

Felt confident A-level maths Hand calculations No SPSS Did well & enjoyed it But didn’t have a deep understanding My own learning experience

Activity “If I had only one day left to live, I would live it in my statistics class: it would seem so much longer” What are the major challenges in teaching statistics? Discuss this for 10 mins

Feedback from the activity

Philosophy for my teaching of stats No formulae No hand calculations Supportive Active

What we do at Hallam Spend time on the basics Start with SPSS early Assess use of SPSS Peer review of laboratory reports Lots of hands-on exercises Provide links to other learning Screencasts

Spend time on basics A module devoted to descriptives ◦ Including correlations Thorough overview of NHST ◦ Underlying concepts ◦ Criticisms Confidence intervals Sampling error

SPSS The hardest thing for students They struggle with this part of the course We introduce SPSS in first week Give them plenty of practice through exercises Test them

Peer review Get them to look at each others reports Provide feedback The feedback is not the important bit though Get’s them thinking critically about what is required in a report

MCQs Introduced in last couple of years Students generate MCQs Posted on Blackboard I provide feedback Why?

Examples What are the measures of central tendancy? 1) Mean, standard deviation, mode 2) Mode, standard deviation, median or 3) Mean, median and mode. 4) Mean, Median, Standard deviation Which of the following represents a strong positive correlation? Which of these is a valid criticism of a correlation statistical test: 1. It is too difficult. 2. Causation cannot be inferred. 3. It is boring What is the measure of correlation coefficiant? 1) 1 2) ) 0.5 4) 0.25

Links with other learning Ensure that the lab exercises link to learning in other modules E.g. memory study carried out when they are covering memory in a cognitive module

Activity Discuss with those near you the techniques you have already used in teaching stats / RM How well did these work do you think?

Feedback from the activity

My Advice BBWVPRL Be patient Be empathic Work with your strengths Variety Prepare well Reflect often Look at resources available to you e.g. HEA Psychology Network

Thank you Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions: Co-sponsored by: Scottish Universities Psychology Postgraduates Research Training (S.U.P.PO.R.T. ) Scotland