Statistical Education and the Nature of Science-FR

Event Date(s):
March 27, 2018
Time(s):
02:30 PM - 04:00 PM
Category:
Fredericton
Location:
Fredericton

Event Details:

Join Jeff Picka from Math & Stats for this session.

Many programs include a statistics course or a research methods course that includes statistics. Anyone who teaches such a course is invited to this presentation and to join in the ensuing discussion.
 
Students will have difficulty in introductory statistics courses if they cannot understand why statistics is useful. They may arrive in introductory statistics classes with misconceptions about the nature of science (NOS), which may make statistics seem pointless or threatening. Scientific misconceptions have been challenged through attempts to directly teach NOS to students. NOS education has been largely ineffective, but analyses of its failings have revealed the benefits to using approaches based on the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). 
 
I will explain how confronting scientific misconceptions with SSK-based NOS offers a new way of improving introductory statistics based on use, rather than on mathematics and computation. I will also show how these insights can also apply to students from non-scientific fields, including the social sciences, the applied sciences, nursing, mathematics, and computer science. Feedback and discussion are welcome, especially from anyone teaching research methods courses or anyone who needs statistically-aware students in advanced courses within their fields. 

To register for this session, please visit the CETL Event Registration site.  

Building: Carleton Hall

Room Number: 104

Contact:

Nancy Fitzpatrick
1 506 453 4645
nef@unb.ca