Teaching Bayesian statistics to undergraduate students through debates

Abstract

This paper describes a lecturer’s approach to teaching Bayesian statistics to students who were only exposed to the classical paradigm. The study shows how the lecturer extended himself by making use of ventriloquist dolls to grab hold of students’ attention and embed important ideas in revealing the differences between the Bayesian and classical paradigms. The results show that the dolls were vital and novel to the lecturer in bringing out the differences between the paradigms and the students found them interesting, funny and helpful in regard to their understanding.

Keywords:

• ventriloquist dolls
• Bayesian paradigm
• classical statistics
• statistical debates