The Ohio State University

Department of Statistics

  1. Help
  2. Campus map
  3. Find people
  4. Webmail
Specific Teaching Skills and Methods
Getting Students Involved in a Statistics Course

Students who are engaged in the classroom will learn and comprehend more than students who are not engaged. They will learn more about the process of doing statistics and be able to apply what they have learned in order to solve new problems. Because of this, it is important to engage students in the classroom. In addition, when students see how statistics are used in the real world it gives them incentive to take the class more seriously, rather than view it as “just a GEC.”


Getting Students Involved

Below are some suggestions for getting students involved in class.
  • Rather than just lecturing to the class to teach or review, also pose questions to the class. Ask for their opinions, ask what they think will happen, ask what would be an appropriate next step for solving a problem.
  • Give students an example problem and let them work on it rather than doing it yourself on the board. Then go through it as a class.
  • Use the Think-Pair-Share model after posing a question. First let the students think about the question on their own for a moment, then discuss it with their neighbor, and then have them discuss it as a class with you. This is extremely effective because shyer students will be more likely to participate.
  • Use interesting examples that students will relate to. You can draw examples from sources such as current events, the media, and campus issues. At the beginning of the quarter you can ask students what topics interest them and use those to motivate examples. The Gallup Poll website has a wide range of topics to draw examples from.
  • Use real world examples, not fake hypothetical situations, to illustrate points.
  • Pose questions that do not have just one “right answer”—controversy leads to critical thinking.
  • Incorporate a variety of activities into class, including lecture, review, book problems, worksheets, hands-on activities, computer simulations, and applets.
  • Give students some problems to work on, and then have assigned groups make presentations at the board rather than going over the answers yourself.
  • Some TAs use bonus points or other incentives to reward students for outstanding work or class participation. If done too often, however this can backfire on you because the incentives become an expectation rather than a reward. Intermittent reinforcement is far more effective.
  • Some TAs have developed games for use in the classroom, such as Statistics Jeopardy (similar to the T.V. show Jeopardy aired on weeknights on NBC).
  • Encourage students to solve problems in ways that make sense to them. There are often many ways to get to the correct answer.
  • After giving students some time to work on problems, pass out solutions so they can check their own work. Or, have students switch papers and check each other’s work.
  • Incorporate discussions into class. A good first day discussion can include questions such as: What fields/careers use statistics? Are all statistics correct? Make the point that statistics are everywhere, and this class will teach them how to think critically about what they see. On the last day, you can remind them of the various places we see statistics, talk about current issues in statistics (such as the Census), and talk about what statisticians do and where they work.
  • Some TAs force students to prepare for recitation by giving a short (five minute) and easy quiz at the beginning of class on the material from the previous lecture. Other TAs ask students to complete an outline or answer questions based on lecture before attending class. The quizzes or questions count for points toward the student’s grade.


Resources for Teaching Statistics


General Teaching Resources