For questions about the teaching of probability and statistics, at any level.
Questions tagged [teaching]
200 questions
370
votes
80 answers
What is your favorite "data analysis" cartoon?
Data analysis cartoons can be useful for many reasons: they help communicate; they show that quantitative people have a sense of humor too; they can instigate good teaching moments; and they can help us remember important principles and…
Shane
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262
votes
10 answers
How would you explain covariance to someone who understands only the mean?
...assuming that I'm able to augment their knowledge about variance in an intuitive fashion ( Understanding "variance" intuitively ) or by saying: It's the average distance of the data values from the 'mean' - and since variance is in square units,…
PhD
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261
votes
11 answers
How would you explain Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to a layperson?
Maybe the concept, why it's used, and an example.
Neil McGuigan
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204
votes
17 answers
Intuitive explanation for dividing by $n-1$ when calculating standard deviation?
I was asked today in class why you divide the sum of square error by $n-1$ instead of with $n$, when calculating the standard deviation.
I said I am not going to answer it in class (since I didn't wanna go into unbiased estimators), but later I…
Tal Galili
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140
votes
21 answers
What's the difference between probability and statistics?
What's the difference between probability and statistics, and why are they studied together?
hslc
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128
votes
28 answers
Free statistical textbooks
Are there any free statistical textbooks available?
csgillespie
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103
votes
25 answers
Locating freely available data samples
I've been working on a new method for analyzing and parsing datasets to identify and isolate subgroups of a population without foreknowledge of any subgroup's characteristics. While the method works well enough with artificial data samples (i.e.…
EAMann
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83
votes
28 answers
Examples for teaching: Correlation does not mean causation
There is an old saying: "Correlation does not mean causation". When I teach, I tend to use the following standard examples to illustrate this point:
number of storks and birth rate in Denmark;
number of priests in America and alcoholism;
in the…
csgillespie
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78
votes
12 answers
Famous statistical wins and horror stories for teaching purposes
I am designing a one year program in data analysis with a local community college. The program aims to prepare students to handle basic tasks in data analysis, visualization and summarization, advanced Excel skills and R programming.
I would like…
Placidia
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66
votes
9 answers
How to visualize what ANOVA does?
What way (ways?) is there to visually explain what is ANOVA?
Any references, link(s) (R packages?) will be welcomed.
Tal Galili
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63
votes
32 answers
What are the worst (commonly adopted) ideas/principles in statistics?
In my statistical teaching, I encounter some stubborn ideas/principles relating to statistics that have become popularised, yet seem to me to be misleading, or in some cases utterly without merit. I would like to solicit the views of others on this…
Ben
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57
votes
8 answers
Why continue to teach and use hypothesis testing (when confidence intervals are available)?
Why continue to teach and use hypothesis testing (with all its difficult concepts and which are among the most statistical sins) for problems where there is an interval estimator (confidence, bootstrap, credibility or whatever)? What is the best…
Washington S. Silva
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53
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3 answers
Why do we care so much about normally distributed error terms (and homoskedasticity) in linear regression when we don't have to?
I suppose I get frustrated every time I hear someone say that non-normality of residuals and /or heteroskedasticity violates OLS assumptions. To estimate parameters in an OLS model neither of these assumptions are necessary by the Gauss-Markov…
Zachary Blumenfeld
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44
votes
9 answers
Tiny (real) datasets for giving examples in class?
When teaching an introductory level class, the teachers I know tend to invent some numbers and a story in order to exemplify the method they are teaching.
What I would prefer is to tell a real story with real numbers. However, these stories needs…
Tal Galili
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41
votes
5 answers
Good games for learning statistical thinking?
Are there any games that get the player "think like a statistician"?
For example, lightbot gets you to "think like a programmer" (in a very basic way). Are there any games - designed for entertainment or teaching - that can help get one comfortable…
Emile
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