Sunday, February 11, 2007

Everybody Raise Your Hand Who Flunked or Dropped Out of Statistics!

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OK, I want you to go see Sister Edith at St Scholastica who blogs at Monastic Musings!

I teach an upper division statistics course that is required for students in several professional programs at our college. Many of them dread the course. One, in fact, wrote Sadistics 3331 on the front of her notebook. I knew right away that we didn't have the same vision for the course.

Each semester, during the first week of class, I will receive visits from several students. They tell different versions of the same story: Why I May Fail Statistics. There are elements of reality in these tales: I never took math after 9th grade, or It has been 15 years since I had to do any math. The most common statement, though, is one which admit no help or response from a teacher: My brain doesn't work that way. [snip] Read it All

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