Teaching Statistics With Student Survey Data: A Pedagogical Innovation in Support of Student Learning

• Published in: Journal of education for business Vol. 78; no. 6; pp. 335 - 339
• Main Author: Stork, Diana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Taylor & Francis Group 01-07-2003; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Business education; Business Schools; Cooperative learning; Data Analysis; Data collection; Datasets; Demographics; Design; Food service; Learning; Living arrangements; Pedagogy; Probability; Questionnaires; Social sciences; Statistical methods; Student Attitudes; Student Surveys; Students; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0883-2323; 1940-3356
• DOI: 10.1080/08832320309598623

Business statistics courses are not typically popular, and students often find the examples and textbook problems tedious and irrelevant. In this article, the author describes a pedagogy project that keeps students interested and working effectively in a large class. Through a student survey, the author gathered data on students' university experience and demographics. The class used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) data set for demonstration of a range of statistical techniques. The student survey instrument and data set provided examples and problems for each of the major topics of the course. Student comments and performance demonstrated the project's positive results.