Because statistics courses in general have the reputation of being dull, math-heavy, and difficult, students often approach biostatistics with trepidation. To dispel this mind-set, John Wilson, Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health, has explored ways to make this subject more interesting and less onerous for students.
Wilson believes that the process (i.e., formulating and understanding a strategy to solve a problem) is just as important as the solution itself. By using real-world examples and anecdotal evidence of his own experiences in the field, Wilson helps students to understand that biostatistics is not just about sitting at a computer and looking at numbers; rather, it’s about problem solving and answering questions that have an impact on the world around them.
Although Wilson tends to use lecture as his primary teaching method in his classes, which often have more than 100 students enrolled, he encourages students to ask questions and interrupt so that he can gauge their levels of understanding and detect any misconceptions. He also strongly encourages students to work in groups outside of class for homework assignments, which consist mostly of word problems. In addition, he identifies relevant problems in the textbook’s study guide . Students can either complete the problems themselves and check the solutions, or they can decide how they would solve them and compare their strategies to those used in the study guide. “Either way, the collaborative approach usually helps students to gain a better understanding of the material,” notes Wilson.
In addition to amusing anecdotes and real-life examples of applied biostatistical methods to help students visualize the problem at hand, Wilson uses drawings and pictures to literally illustrate how a formula works. He sometimes draws upon the biographies of statisticians to illustrate the context in which a method for solving a problem was derived. For example, to illustrate problems associated with inference based on small samples, he shares a test developed by William Gossett, a statistician for the Guinness Brewery, to assess the quality of beer. He explains to students that the brewery, fearing he might inadvertently divulge trade secrets, forbade him from publishing under his own name. As a result, he used the non de plume “Student”—hence, Student’s t test. As Wilson points out, “Real world examples such as this help students recognize the relevance of statistical applications outside the classroom—applications that may carry over into their own research.”
Despite the large class sizes, he tries to learn the names of as many of his students as possible, interact with individual students, and call on these students by name in class so that students get to know one another as well. “I can’t learn all their names, but getting to know some of them on an individual basis helps them stay engaged,” Wilson says. His enthusiasm for the subject, combined with his efforts to personalize the classroom experience, helps to make students feel more at ease and, therefore, more willing to learn.
By Michelle Lane, CIDDE
Michelle Lane is the Faculty Development Coordinator for CIDDE and has worked as a staff writer for the Teaching Times since 2005. When she isn’t multitasking as a full-time employee of Pitt and caring for her 18-month-old son, she enjoys writing articles, narrative nonfiction, and short stories in her limited spare time.
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