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Detective Work on Statistics Street: Teaching Statistics through Humorous Analogy
Abstract
Undergraduate students routinely react to the statistics component of a psychology course with trepidation. This paper reports the outcome of an initiative designed to increase students' comprehension and enjoyment of statistics. The analogy of police detective work was used to illuminate the process of statistical reasoning, distributed to students in the form of a handout written in a non-technical, humorous style. In Study 1, feedback from 129 students, enrolled in either the second or third year of a psychology degree, was examined systematically to determine in what ways this innovative approach enhanced student understanding. In Study 2, performance of 318 students on course assignments associated with the handout was examined. Results showed significant improvements in performance for those who had received the handout, as compared to those who had not. These outcomes provide empirical support for the arguments of a growing number of textbook authors who advocate the use of non-traditional approaches to the teaching of statistics at the undergraduate level.
... This is because he thinks that the probability that there are two bombs on the plane is so small as to be infinitesimal! Another form of humor is to use a class exercise on statistical reasoning based on the analogy of police detective work, which is written in a humorous style (Zeedyk, 2006). Humor and song may also be used in combination (e.g., Lesser, 2002). ...
... statistics are many. However, in reviewing the literature, many of the claims are based on the teachersÕ own experiences. There are fewer studies that have sought feedback from students in a systematic way or used an experimental approach to examine the effectiveness of humor on test performance (see Section 2.4 for a brief review of such studies). Zeedyk (2006) provide an example of an empirical study in which second and third year undergraduate psychology students were given a class exercise on statistical reasoning that was based on the analogy of police detective work. A handout was used that was written in a humorous style. The initiative was shown to improve performance on an assignment f ...
... Prior studies that have investigated the use of humor in teaching statistics has tended to focus on the learning benefits associated with humor (e.g., Berk and Nanda, 2006; Garner, 2006; Zeedyk, 2006). The student reports obtained in the present study support these experimental studies. ...
Humor has been promoted as a teaching tool that enhances student engagement and learning. The present report traces the pathway from research to practice by reflecting upon various ways to incorporate humor into the face-to-face teaching of statistics. The use of humor in an introductory university statistics course was evaluated via interviews conducted with a random sample of 38 students. Responses indicated that humor aided teaching by providing amusement, breaking up content, bringing back attention, lightening the mood, increasing motivation, reducing monotony, and providing a mental break. Students that were already motivated and interested in statistics derived less benefit from humor, finding it at times irrelevant and distracting. The selective use of humor is recommended in teaching statistics, particularly for students that hold negative attitudes towards the subject. Yes Yes
... There are even several studies of methods related to specific content areas, such as statistics (Berk, 1996(Berk, , 2000(Berk, , 2001bBerk & Nanda, 1998Friedman, Friedman, & Amoo, 2002;Lesser & Pearl, 2008;Lomax & Moosavi, 2002;Neumann, Hood, & Neumann, 2009;Schacht & Stewart, 1992;Zeedyk, 2006). However, those studies suggest that professors can apply those methods generically to most other courses. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic upended higher education in March 2020 and has continued into 2022. Within days of the international lockdowns, an emergency conversion from face-to-face (F2F) to remote learning occurred. Educators scrambled to convert their in-class teaching into some version of online teaching. The transformations ignited a surge in e-learning platforms. Combining PowerPoint (PPT) or Keynote with those platforms enabled several forms of humor to be presented by any professor in online teaching. The research evidence on the educational benefits of humor is reviewed. The top 20 humor techniques initially tested in F2F classrooms are adapted to hybrid, hyflex, synchronous, and asynchronous delivery. Faculty have the opportunity to change their teaching back to F2F or adopt some form of online. That will involve a new teaching playbook. The intentional use of humor in F2F and online teaching will add value to their students’ academic experiences with restorative and therapeutic effects in addition to all of the instructional benefits. The humor can be a game-changer in their pandemic teaching and after COVID-19.
... Because these courses are required, but often disliked, research has explored ways to enhance learning in statistics classes (Hulsizer & Woolf, 2009). Some approaches include using a statistical package for calculations throughout the course or other forms of computer-aided instruction (Davidson et al., 2019 ; Gravetter et al., 2018;Sosa et al., 2011;Warner & Meehan, 2001), the use of humor (Lomax & Moosavi, 2002;Neumann et al., 2009;Schacht & Stewart, 1990;Zeedyk, 2006), active learning (Dierker et al., 2012(Dierker et al., , 2015Everson et al., 2008;Helman & Horswill, 2002;Nie & Lau, 2010) and one innovative technique uses dance routines to explain statistical concepts (Irving, 2015). ...
The statistical package chosen to aid in teaching quantitative methods is at the instructor’s discretion, but little research has investigated student attitude toward these different packages. This study compared Google Sheets, a spreadsheet package similar to Microsoft Excel, and a traditional package, SPSS, to determine which of the two programs students preferred to use. One hundred and thirty-nine students enrolled in a quantitative methods course completed surveys at the middle and end of the semester during Spring 2016 and Fall 2016. The results suggested Google Sheets was preferred to SPSS at both time points, and attitudes toward Google Sheets improved over time. Further research could investigate the perspectives of students in other levels of experience with statistics and other statistical packages.
... to the subject of instruction tend to perform better on course tasks (e.g., tests) than individuals who do not receive such humorous content (e.g., Sadowski, Gulgoz, & LoBello, 1994;Zeedyk, 2006). ...
... Guidelines to improve statistical learning (e.g., encouraging statistical thinking, using examples with technology and real data, emphasizing concepts, promoting active learning) reiterate this approach of engaging students in the process (Everson, Zieffler, & Garfield, 2008;Franklin & Garfield, 2006). Humor is also a great ice-breaker, catching students' attention (e.g., Cobb, 1999Cobb, , 2007Zeedyk, 2006), helping to diffuse tension, and surreptitiously calling students back to quantitative learning. ...
This chapter strives to enliven quantitative psychology teaching and encourage statistical literacy. Summaries of quantitative training, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, offer guidelines to improve instruction and call for greater emphasis on measurement, research, and quantitative methods. Strategies for effectively teaching quantitative psychology are suggested, including active, hands-on learning for engaging students, e-learning and Web-based instruction, mentoring and role models, and encouraging conceptual understanding. Quantitative students are encouraged to focus on the nature of research questions, similarities and differences in statistical methods, and interpreting findings with statistical tests, effect sizes, and confidence intervals. Future directions are offered regarding model building, quantitative learning beyond the classroom through workshops, membership in quantitative societies, and reading the quantitative literature. The reach of quantitative training should be widened to more readily include those from disadvantaged, early career, and under-represented groups to further strengthen the field and enlighten greater numbers about the wonders of quantitative psychology.
This study investigates students' perceptions of computer-based learning environments, their attitude towards business statistics, and their academic achievement in higher education. Guided by learning environments concepts and attitudinal theory, a theoretical model was proposed with two instruments, one for measuring the learning environment and the other for measuring student attitude. Data were collected from 453 postgraduate business students in a UK university. Factor analyses were carried out to validate the instruments, whilst structural equation modelling was employed to validate the proposed model. The results demonstrate the importance of students' perceptions of subject integration within the learning environment and the relationship between their perceptions of cohesiveness, task orientation, and anxiety. The findings show that attitude towards statistics is significantly related to achievement, explaining almost 40% of variation, whilst perception of the learning environment (indirectly) explains about 29% of the achievement. Implications for teaching business statistics in higher education are discussed.
This chapter introduces four assessment tasks based on new and used car data. It is shown that such data, collected carefully, can be used for individualised assessments of both simple and more complex statistical techniques. The chapter emphasizes on the complexity of the data collection process, the study design and the need for clear guidelines and instructions. Plagiarism can be a problem and, with the advent of social networking web sites, students may even be tempted to obtain copies of work completed in previous years. The use of individualised assignments can help ease this problem. These can easily be modified to reflect different approaches and the level of teaching. The assignments discussed in the chapter serve many purposes, such as the collection and use of real data from the Internet, individualised assessment, group assessment and problem-based learning. data collection; internet
Statistics educators have previously noted that university students experience some difficulty in knowing when to use statistical concepts that they have encountered in their courses. In the present study, statistics educators were asked rate the importance of various descriptive and inferential statistical procedures for inclusion in introductory statistics courses for the behavioural sciences. Items describing research situations and presenting sample data were written, each item representing a different statistical procedure. A sample of 23 students enrolled in various departments in two universities in Melbourne, Australia was presented with these items. During a one-hour interview, students attempted as many of these items as time permitted, and asked to identify which procedure(s) they considered appropriate for answering the research question, to justify their choice, to state other choices they had considered and rejected, to express their level of confidence in their choice, and to rate their familiarity with the various procedures. Quantitative and qualitative data are reported, and provide detailed confirmation that the skill of applying statistical procedures to new situations is indeed difficult. Error patterns have been identified which provide a basis for some alternative approaches to teaching this skill.
This paper discusses reasons for using humor in the statistics classroom. Humor strengthens the relationship between student and teacher, reduces stress, makes a course more interesting, and, if relevant to the subject, may even enhance recall of the material. The authors provide examples of humorous material for teaching students such topics as descriptive statistics, probability and independence, sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and regression and forecasting. Also, some references, summarized strategies, and suggestions for becoming more humorous in the classroom are provided. Copyright © 2002 by Hersey H. Friedman, Linda W. Friedman, and Taiwo Amoo, all rights reserved.
This three-year study evaluated the effectiveness of 10 system-atic strategies for using humor as a teaching tool: (a) humorous material on syllabi; (b) descriptors, cautions, and warnings on the covers of handouts; (c) opening jokes; (d) skits/dramatiza-tions; (e) spontaneous humor; (f) humorous questions; (g) humorous examples; (h) humorous problem sets; (i) Jeopar-dy! ™ -type reviews for exams; and (j) humorous material on exams. Student ratings at the end of three undergraduate and five graduate statistics courses assessed the extent to which each strategy reduced anxiety, improved the ability to learn, and made it possible to perform at one's best on problems and exams. Median student ratings of the three outcomes for all of the strategies across all of the classes over three years indicated consistent evaluations of Very Effective to Extremely Effec-tive.
We report a study in which five non-traditional teaching techniques were applied to an introductory statistics course for psychology undergraduates: active and implicit learning, use of breaks, mastery learning, peer tutoring and problem-based learning. Collectively, these techniques improved students’ scores in a statistics examination by ten percent compared with a matched control group and this improvement was statistically significant. Students’ responses to the new course were positive.
It is often claimed that humour is a desirable characteristic of teaching and learning. Justifications for the use of humour include the promotion of understanding, holding the attention of students, managing disruptive behaviour, creating a positive attitude to the subject matter, and reducing anxiety. Empirical studies of the connections between humour and learning are reviewed. These indicate that humour, provided it is not used to excess, can increase attention and interest and help to illustrate and reinforce what is being taught. It is suggested that the presentation of humorous material involves skills which can be learnt through practice and that staff development programmes should provide opportunities for academics to acquire such skills.
An overriding goal of teaching is to stimulate learning that lasts. A way to achieve this is, surely, to make teaching memorable. By asking “what makes teaching memorable?”, this paper identifies a number of fundamental characteristics of statistics teaching that will assist students in long-term retention of ideas. It structures these attributes of memorable statistics teaching and then shows, with examples, how they can be realised. The author's reflection on his extensive teaching experience underpins this paper.
The logic underlying the formulation of statistical tests of hypothesis can be counterintuitive for the non-mathematician, e.g. to test whether two treatments are different, why suppose they are equal? When introducing the topic of hypothesis testing, it is easy to present the formal fiamework for the testing procedure without explaining the logic behind it. In courses for statisticians, one may often (unjustifiably) rely on the understanding of probability concepts as a foundation for understanding statistical inference, but in courses taught to non-statisticians where there is minimal discussion of probability, it is essential that explanations must be based on concepts the students can readily understand. The method proposed here for teaching the concept of hypothesis testing makes an analogy to the judicial system, whereby a person is assumed innocent until sufficient evidence warrants a verdict of guilty. Analogies for the different elements of statistical tests are presented and discussed, together with a classroom fiamework for discussion of statistical tests.
Students often come to their first statistics class with the preconception that statistics is confusing and dull. This problem is compounded when even introductory techniques are steeped in jargon. One approach that can overcome some of these problems is to align the statistical techniques under study with elements from students' everyday experiences. The use of simple physical analogies is a powerful way to motivate even complicated statistical ideas. In this article, I describe several analogies, some well known and some new, that I have found useful. The analogies are designed to demystify statistical ideas by placing them in a physical context and by appealing to students' common experiences. As a result, some frequent misconceptions and mistakes about statistical techniques can be addressed.
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