Questions tagged [teaching]
For questions about the teaching of probability and statistics, at any level.
153
questions
1
vote
1answer
116 views
“t-tests are too fundamental for academia” [closed]
I just heard a PhD student claim:
The $t$-test is really fundamental and nobody in academy is gonna do it.
He added that these tests serve more as a beginning exercise in order to get an idea of ...
0
votes
1answer
65 views
How do you calculate an exact two-tailed P-value using binomial distribution? [closed]
First, I will preface this question with my ulterior motive: I would like more evidence that the use of 19th and 20th century approximations play little to no pedagogic advantage in modern intro stats ...
0
votes
1answer
48 views
Explain Root Mean Square Error to non-technical audience
My company is in the process of switching equipment from one vendor to another. We measured several metrics from the existing and new equipment and compared the time series. The ideal is to have no ...
1
vote
0answers
38 views
Ideas for research projects: Causality, DAGs etc [closed]
I am looking for ideas for research projects to give my students in a module on causality and DAGs (third-year undergraduate and master level).
I had a couple of ideas. For example, one could, for ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
How do you explain 'explained variance'?
What is the best definition of 'explained variance' from a teaching perspective?
I quite like this one:
"Explained variance (also called explained variation) is used to measure the discrepancy ...
2
votes
1answer
46 views
Accounting Student taking Master in Stat, need your help regarding taking subjects
I had a Bachelor in Accounting and now I'm doing a Masters in Statistics.
This is my first semester and I have to Choose at least 3 out of 6 offered subjects for this semester. These subjects Are:
...
11
votes
2answers
532 views
Are there any “esoteric” statistic tests with very low power?
Background
In computer science, mathematics, and sometimes in other fields, “esoteric” examples cannot only be entertaining, but helpful to illustrate certain concepts, for example:
Bogosort and ...
2
votes
2answers
108 views
How can we best explain causality for the uninitiated?
How can we best explain causality in layman's terms?
There seem to be two main types of causality. One is probabilistic causation, the other is called determinism in philosophic circles or just ...
4
votes
3answers
102 views
Teaching a new, large topic: present in class or assign as homework first?
In spring 2019, I will be teaching a master's level course in applied statistics for students in economics and management. The main topics are linear regression, explanatory and confirmatory factor ...
2
votes
0answers
28 views
Master's-level Quantitative Methods / Statistics textbook for Management, Marketing, Economics students
What are some good textbooks for a master's (or upper undergraduate) level course in Quantitative methods / Statistics for students in Management, Marketing or Economics?
7
votes
1answer
135 views
Why start with measures of central tendency?
In teaching descriptive statistics, measures of central tendency come up early on, e.g. before measures of spread. For me it is natural enough to learn about central tendency, or location, of the data ...
1
vote
1answer
16 views
Parameter errors in linear least squares
I would like to help my (Chemistry) students understand the math behind linear regression.(1) The generally accepted approach for my discipline is to omit any use of calculus and introduce matrix ...
1
vote
0answers
33 views
What are the seminal pictures for introductory statistics? [closed]
This question is in reference to introductory statistics or research methods classes where students are asked to learn the basics of statistical inference. Early when I started teaching statistics, I ...
4
votes
2answers
76 views
Teaching (very elementary) statistical modelling
I've been asked to contribute some lectures (or parts of lectures) to a course on "Mathematical Modelling", from a statistical perspective. This is to a rather mixed group of Mathematics ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
How would you explain the relative importance of exploratory correlations for multiple regression models?
I am asking this from a pedagogic perspective: ¿How do others explain (to their students or clients) the need to examine correlations between subsets of variables in multiple regression (MR) ...
2
votes
0answers
33 views
Teaching models from a distribution-centric perspective
I often read blogs from professors of statistics talking about how they prefer to teach models from a "distribution-centric" perspective rather than otherwise. However, I've never really been able to ...
1
vote
1answer
58 views
Teaching question: Good textbook for basic online statistics course
I will teach an online course on Intro Stats at an Economics Department of a non-flagship public university in the US. I want to cover descriptive stats, basic probability (with common discrete and ...
2
votes
1answer
69 views
Teaching econometrics to a layman
I help a friend of mine to understand material in an econometrics course. This is also a good exercise for me since soon I will start as a TA. The challenge is that she does not have sufficient ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
How Can I teach someone “sampling from a given distribution” is hard?
For many people I know, they do not think sampling from a given distribution is a hard problem in general. For example, many software provide functions do to sample from normal distribution or uniform ...
0
votes
2answers
65 views
What's wrong with this approach to computing power?
I've just been given an old set of lecture notes to look at.
One of them contains the following question: if we are undertaking a paired $t$-test with a mean of differences $d=1$ and standard ...
0
votes
2answers
93 views
Is Bayes-Ball algorithm enough to argue that correlation can imply causality?
You always hear that correlation does not imply causation. But taking a Bayesian perspective, can one counterargue this statement? I was reading the paper linked below (Bayes-Ball argument), and it ...
10
votes
6answers
3k views
Simple real world examples for teaching Bayesian statistics?
I would like to find some "real world examples" for teaching Bayesian statistics. Bayesian statistics allows one to formally incorporate prior knowledge into an analysis. I would like to give ...
1
vote
1answer
344 views
When (incorrectly) explaining p-values, is the word “chance” inherently the problem?
So I understand that saying that a p-value is the probability of a particular result coming about by chance is incorrect as per community consensus, the American Statistical Association, etc.
My ...
1
vote
0answers
26 views
Order in which to teach confidence intervals
It seems much more logical to me to teach confidence intervals for large samples first, when the CLT (just taught) implies that that the sample means are normally distributed, no matter the ...
1
vote
1answer
32 views
What is the best syllabus for an under-grad class in Statistics for engineer students?
I teach statistics to under-grad engineer students who major in Information Technology (IT). My students first learn a (prerequisite) course on probability where they learn combinatorics, different ...
12
votes
5answers
2k views
Is linear regression obsolete? [closed]
I am currently in a linear regression class, but I can't shake the feeling that what I am learning is no longer relevant in either modern statistics or machine learning. Why is so much time spent on ...
6
votes
1answer
327 views
Generate simulated data with predefined partial correlation structure
I teach statistics (undergraduate level). It's an introduction course to statistics and very basic. Something that I find very time-consuming is to create training data for the students.
I use the ...
13
votes
1answer
907 views
An intuitive explanation why the Benjamini-Hochberg FDR procedure works?
Is there a simple way of explaining why does Benjamini and Hochberg's (1995) procedure actually control the false discovery rate (FDR)? This procedure is so elegant and compact and yet the proof of ...
10
votes
4answers
2k views
Which of the following statistics courses are the most applicable and useful in finance/tech industry? [closed]
I'm in the process of selecting 3 statistics classes to take for my Applied Math course cluster (doing my concentration in actuarial science or statistical analysis). Which 3 classes out of the ...
1
vote
0answers
579 views
Demonstrating Overfitting in a Simple Model
I have been working with a finance team to help forecast revenue for some product data. Particularly when the series are short and difficult to forecast, their first response is to add a bunch of "...
32
votes
8answers
3k views
Should I teach Bayesian or frequentist statistics first?
I am helping my boys, currently in high school, understanding statistics, and I am considering beginning with some simple examples without disregarding some glimpses to theory.
My goal would be to ...
4
votes
1answer
742 views
Famous historical example(s) of Type II error
It's very easy to find famous examples of Type I errors in the histories of various fields. However, I'm struggling to find even one clear example of a Type II error. For my purposes, I'm ...
2
votes
1answer
257 views
How can I create a Gaussian process?
I'm writing a short summary of GPR for my coworkers. I want to give them an intuition into what a Gaussian process is without mentioning distributions over functions. Can you suggest how I can ...
2
votes
0answers
26 views
A verifiable and teachable Gibbs example
I am attempting to construct a teachable example of Gibbs sampling that I can also relate to how it might be used on an actual dataset and yet could also be verified analytically by students with ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
How do I explain the “line of best fit” in this diagram?
I teach an intro statistics class at my university (as a graduate student) and I was scouring the internet for interesting graphs on the history of linear regression when I came upon this picture, ...
1
vote
1answer
44 views
presenting a simple introduction to variation Bayes
I am planning to present a simple introduction to variational Bayesian inference during a lab research meet (45 mins). My audience is mainly from a psychometrics, psychology, educational sciences ...
3
votes
1answer
88 views
Probability for 3rd grade
My 3rd grader studied probabilities at school. At home I decided to demonstrate how it works in practice.
So we throw a quarter 50 times. 39 was head, 11 was tail, and I miserably failed to demo half/...
3
votes
2answers
101 views
Defining the normal distribution
I am preparing some materials for an introduction to sample size calculation for life sciences graduate students with no or very limited previous statistical experience. Right at the start I will be ...
3
votes
1answer
64 views
Video Lectures on Regression Modeling and Analysis
I am hoping to build a collection of free video lectures that teach how to:
Model regression problems.
Interpret regression coefficients and the overall fit.
Happy to make this CW if helpful. ...
19
votes
3answers
4k views
What should be taught first: Probability or Statistics?
I have newly joined as a faculty member in a math dept. of a reputed institution. I will be teaching the course Probability and Statistics at the undergraduate level. The institution already has a ...
3
votes
1answer
322 views
Understanding normal probability plots
I am a teacher that will be teaching about Normal Probability Plots.
This topic is new to me and I would be grateful for any help.
Essentially the specification for the course expects students to ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
Why are regression coefficients in a factor analysis model called “loadings”?
In this thread @ttnphns writes that
Because it is regression coefficients [...] I insist that it is better
to say "factor loads variable" than "variable loads factor".
I learned from here that a ...
2
votes
0answers
43 views
Pedagogical example of feature selection for model building
I am looking for a good pedagogical example use of feature selection for model building. The purpose is to expose students to some very basic methods for feature selection, in the context of boolean ...
1
vote
0answers
149 views
Prevalence of the “vote counting” method in literature reviews
In my youth I can remember reading some papers (in psychology most likely) which as part of their literature review included a table of past results with no details provided other than whether the p-...
3
votes
0answers
94 views
Instructive figure to explain Maximum Likelihood confidence bands / standard errors
I am trying to better understand and explain maximum likelihood estimation. To explain the intuition of many ML aspects I find it easiest to explain them graphically, like for example the ML-based ...
8
votes
1answer
117 views
Bayesian model comparison in high school
I teach physics to high-school students, and I would like my students to conduct a rudimentary Bayesian model comparison for data from their experiments. I figured out a way for them to do so (see ...
14
votes
4answers
22k views
Why do we say the outcome variable “is regressed on” the predictor(s)?
Is there some intuitive explanation for this terminology? Why is it this way, and not the predictor(s) being regressed on the outcome?
Ideally I'm hoping that a proper explanation of why this ...
3
votes
1answer
129 views
Is there a standard, easy to understand example of application of statistics in the accounting profession?
A course that is offered in most business undergraduate programs is an introductory statistics course that is often titled 'Business Statistics'. The examples used in these courses to motivate the ...
1
vote
1answer
929 views
Categorical or Quantitative?
A colleague and I had a conversation about whether the following variables are categorical or quantitative.
1) Social security numbers
2) Phone numbers
3) Postal zip codes
We agreed that all three ...
5
votes
1answer
268 views
Help explaining (offering intuition/examples of) the score function and fisher's information to students
Next week I will teach my students the score function and its variance (i.e.: fisher information).
I am looking for way(s) to illustrate these concepts so to help my students understand them (and not ...
