Lessons from a Discussion-Based Course on the History of Statistics

Abstract

A special-topics undergraduate course about the history of statistics which was taught in Spring 2023 at the University of South Carolina is described. We review other similar courses (past and current) and explain the discussion-based nature of this course. The conception and planning of the course are detailed, and the unique experiences (activities, guest speakers, presentations, etc.) are described. The course emphasized substantial amounts of independent reading outside of class and lively discussions during class. Topics covered in the class include the early development of probability, the normal distribution, and the central limit theorem; the development of modern statistical science by British statisticians; the rise of formal mathematical statistics; and increasing specialization and modern computational and data-analytic advances. An assessment of the course’s effectiveness based on qualitative student survey data is given. Students were highly complimentary of the course, praising the in-class discussion format, the benefits of doing the outside readings, the invited guest speakers, and the in-class activities. There were occasional comments that the amount of required reading was excessive. Based on this, suggestions for future offerings of the course are presented, including developing a more carefully curated set of readings.

Keywords:

• Historical content
• Honors course
• Pedagogy
• Roundtable discussions
• Teaching
• Undergraduate course

Supplementary Materials

The online supplementary materials contain appendices with: URLs of websites mentioned in the article; a detailed outline of topics covered in the class; URLs for YouTube videos used in the class; summaries of the post-class student survey responses; and a list of all student comments about the class. The raw assessment data are also provided in the supplementary materials.

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of the editor, associate editor, and two anonymous referees, which improved the article. I thank the University of South Carolina Honors College and my department chair at the time, Josh Tebbs, for supporting my offering this course. I thank Lauren Young for originally suggesting this course, and I thank all my students in this class for their efforts, enthusiasm, and spirited discussions, which made every class session a joy.

Disclosure Statement

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.