1. What is there to discuss in a Statistics course?
Michelle Everson
Department of Statistics
The Ohio State University

2. Answer: Lots of things! Ask students to brainstorm
Ask students to explain, in their own words, what particular concepts mean to them
Ask students to relate important concepts/ideas to their own fields of study or their own lives
Ask students to come up with unique examples
Ask students to critique examples posted by their peers
Ask students to try to describe how they arrived at the answer to a particular question
Ask students to reason about why certain results might occur when they attempt to explore data
Ask students to discuss a concept that you know they might have misconceptions/misunderstandings about

3. Example #1: Statistics in the News
Ask students to read and reflect on a media report where the results of a study have been presented.
Are the results believable? Why or why not?
What questions does the report raise?
Is it possible to conduct a better study?
Studies that have led to a lot of discussion:
Facebook use and GPA
Swearing as a response to pain
Grading with red ink
A new idea: Do dogs not like to be hugged?

4. Example #2: A class survey
Start the semester with a class survey and come back to that data throughout the semester
Students can explore the data and answer particular questions
Ask them to predict which variables will have the most and least variability (and why) before seeing the data, and then have them test their predictions
Ask students to think about what variables might be related to each other and why, and have them test their predictions
Use the data to illustrate issues related to sampling and surveys (e.g., types of samples, question wording, response bias, etc.)
If there are clear outliers in the data set, ask students to reflect on why these values are outliers and how they should be handled

5. Example #3: Dr. X and Dr. Y
Students are provided with information about how two professors (Dr. X and Dr. Y) grade final exams in their courses.
They must use what they understand about the normal distribution to construct arguments for and against taking a course from each professor.
Students can use technology (e.g., an applet) to complete this assignment, or can practice working through calculations by hand.
Students can reflect on all the other kind of data they would want to collect (beyond just final exam grade distributions) in order to decide which course to take.

6. Example #4: Peer Teaching
If there is a topic (like sampling distributions) that tends to be very challenging for students, you might share several problems and ask each student to choose a problem and attempt to teach peers how to solve that problem.
This works well in small groups where you can give students incentives (maybe some extra credit) for correctly solving each problem.

7. Example #5: Journal articles
Ask students to read and critique a simple journal article
If you can obtain the actual data, ask students to replicate the analyses from the article
Example: “Love is in the air”
Goes along well with contingency tables/Chi-square
Question: Is a female more apt to give her phone number to a male if romantic music is playing in the background?
Can lead to some great discussion on experimental design, ethical issues, and generalizability of findings

8. Example #6: Statistics in your field
You might introduce hypothesis tests or confidence intervals by asking students to come up with examples of questions from their own fields that would lend themselves to certain kinds of procedures
Example questions:
What type of question would lead you to conduct a paired t-test rather than a two-sample t-test?
What would your hypotheses be?
How would you decide if the results are statistically significant?
How would you decide if the results are practically significant?
What would lead you to construct a confidence interval rather than conduct a hypothesis test?

9. Some logistical issues to consider
What kinds of guidelines for discussion will be shared with students?
Will students work in smaller groups, or will discussion involve the whole class?
How will discussions be graded?
How much time will be allotted for students to work through a discussion activity?
How will the instructor (or should) the instructor be involved in discussion?
How will the instructor keep track of who is participating and how each student is participating?

10. A Few Important Lessons Learned…
Establishing deadlines and providing students with clear guidelines for discussion is critical
It’s helpful (if you can) to keep discussions hidden from student view until students post their own unique answers
Online discussion forums have the power to give all students a voice
Instructor involvement in discussion is important and is often appreciated by students

11. Instructor Presence
There are lots of ways the instructor can be involved without stifling discussion:
Cheer students on and let them know when they are on the right track
Highlight important points made during discussion
Question students about their understanding, or ask students for clarification
Attempt to correct misconceptions/misunderstandings (if nobody else does first)
Provide direct instruction if students appear to be struggling to understand material

12. Thank you!