The reform movement in statistics education has led to a revitalization of the undergraduate introductory statistics course. However, many students satisfy their degree requirements by taking statistics courses in “client departments” such as business, the social sciences, and the lab sciences, typically taught by non-statisticians. This talk will present the findings of a metasynthesis of the existing literature on teaching statistics in these client disciplines to learn (a) what is currently being taught and how and (b) the most important challenges for statistics teachers in other departments. Articles were reviewed using qualitative axial coding and quantitative text analysis to identify common research themes and ideas in the literature for each discipline. Research themes, attitudes toward statistics instruction, and pedagogical techniques were found to vary from discipline to discipline. Collaboration with instructors in other disciplines is a needed first step toward improving statistics instruction across the university.
This talk in particular will highlight the need for greater collaboration in education research across disciplines. Statistics is somewhat unique in that many disciplines offer their own “flavor,” but there are implications for DBER in other fields. For example, as data science becomes more integrated into the STEM disciplines, there are lessons that can be shared across fields.
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