CHRISTOPHER HAKALA wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I teach at a small liberal arts college in PA. Every year, we go
> through the debate over what to do with statistics. At our school,
> stats
> is taught in the math department. My preference would be to do the
> course in our department. Does anyone know what the national trends
> are?
> Where do your students take stats: math or psychology department?
>
> Thanks for any info. If you don't think this is of general interest to
> others on the list, but are interested in telling me what you are
> doing,
> please email me personally.
>
We teach it ourselves, in a year long Stats-Methods course. There are
advantages of having a _statistican_ do the course. Currently, in
statistics, there is a push for more exploratory data analysis (EDA) and
use of real data sets. This is a healthy movement - esp. for psychologists
who were trained to get data as quickly as possibly into ANOVA, and cannot
do anything else.
However, do not confuse mathematics with statistics. Sometimes math
departments have real statisticans, and sometimes they have mathematicans
teach it. IF there are no real statisticans in the math department, do it
yourself. If there is a real statistican, have them do it, but with the
understanding they meet with the depatment and listen to your needs. btw,
that's one way to tell a mathematican from a statistican. The former will
claim stats is stats and that there is no need to be be senstitive to the
contextual needs of the different discipines. The latter realizes data is
embedded in a real world context - and will seek to understand that
context.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------
John W. Kulig [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig
Plymouth State College tel: (603) 535-2468
Plymouth NH USA 03264 fax: (603) 535-2412
---------------------------------------------------------------
"The only rational way of educating is to be an example - if
one can't help it, a warning example." A. Einstein, 1934.
