On Wed, 26 Apr 2000, Ronny Richardson wrote:
> I have been ask to design and present a transition course in the
> summer. The course is one of several for incoming business Masters
> students who do not have the necessary background in management.
< snip, details of the assignment... >
I don't have textbooks &c. to suggest, but a policy to recommend:
When I first started teaching graduate school (at OISE in Toronto in
1967) their Dept. of Educational Planning (which then was distinct from
the Dept. of Ed. Admin.) had as one of the departmental entrance
requirements for any Magistral program that the candidate have at least
one course in statistics. (None of the other nine Depts. had that
requirement, but the founding Chair of Ed. Pl. was herself an able
statistician, knew what skills she wanted graduates of the several
programs to have, and did not suffer incompetence -- nor incompetents
-- gladly.) This requirement did not inhibit the Dept. from admitting
candidates who met the other requirements; but any candidate admitted
who DIDN'T have that background was required to take, and pass, a
suitable course in statistics during his/her enrollment, and without
having done so was not awarded a degree; and that course did NOT count
toward the minimum number of courses required for the program.
If such a policy were in place, or even merely agreed upon, at Southern
Polytechnic, your summer course could afford to treat statistics in much
the way music faculty treat music-appreciation courses. You would
address, as it were, what Statistics is _for_ (and maybe show some
evocative examples of analyses pertinent to management research (or for
that matter to management!) without requiring them to develop useful
copmetencies in the nuts & bolts of _doing_ Statistics -- THAT would be
part of the required statistics course. (The required course, or
equivalent, might be offered in the School of Management, or it might be
a course offered as a service by another School or Department; at OISE
the usual first-encounter course in elementary statistics was offered in
my department (originally Measurement & Evaluation), deliberately
intended to "serve all fields" (meaning all Depts. in the Institute).)
However you end up dealing with it, good luck!
-- Don.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED]
348 Hyde Hall, Plymouth State College, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MSC #29, Plymouth, NH 03264 603-535-2597
184 Nashua Road, Bedford, NH 03110 603-471-7128
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful
people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO
THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no
way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in
termination of the list.
For information about this list, including information about the
problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to
unsubscribe, please see the web page at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================
