Statistical Vistas: Perspectives on Purpose and Structure

Abstract

A body of research on enhancing the teaching of statistics has been accumulating now for more than fifty years since the pioneering contributions of Wishart (1939) and Hotelling (1940). Yet undergraduates continue to find courses in statistics unappealing. Perhaps this is because their teachers ‐‐ even those clear and conscientious in explaining subject-matter detail, and thoughtful in their reading of the statistics education literature ‐‐ too commonly fail to open statistical vistas, and thus fail to convey a rich understanding of the purpose and structure of the subject. A vista is inherently a perspective view. This paper shows, with examples, how perspective views can illuminate both purpose and structure. A well-devised perspective on purpose, offered early, can make each topic in the course immediately meaningful. And perspectives on structure, unveiled strategically, can highlight the coherence of statistics. The author's experience over twenty-five years shows that teaching with perspectives can help to produce that ideal ‐‐ long-term retention of learning.

• Effective use of overviews in teaching statistics
• Long-term learning

Acknowledgments

In an earlier version, this was an invited paper at SISC-96, the Sydney International Statistical Congress, July 1996. I am indebted to three anonymous referees for their perceptive and helpful critiques.