EVENTS

Seminar: Experiential Learning in Statistics: Expanding its role (Larry Weldon)

Seminar

Department of Statistics

Thursday, 29 October 2009 at 3:30PM

Sidney Smith Hall, Room 1086

Experiential Learning in Statistics: Expanding its role

Professor Larry Weldon

Simon Fraser University

Statistics has evolved to embrace a wide scope of tools and concepts. The answer to “What are the basics?” seems to expand as the years pass. The difficult task for curriculum planners is to design programs that reflect the dynamic nature of the discipline. A common approach is to start with mathematical simplicity and build a scaffold of general tools. One problem with this approach is the lack of motivation it implies for students with an interest in the real world. Another is the lack of intuition it imparts to students with a thirst for abstract concepts. In this talk I want to make the case for an expanded role of experiential learning in an academic setting. For students requiring the abstract scaffold of general tools, this can be provided after the experiential immersion. For students interested in the power of statistics for their particular applied interest, this experiential approach can provide context-specific examples that convey useful intuition and practical advice. The experiential approach has the additional advantage that it also adapts the course content to modern contexts, and helps to keep pace with changes in statistical practice. I will provide some examples of this approach from my teaching experience at SFU.