Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks

Andrew Gelman and Deborah Nolan

Published by Oxford University Press, 2002.
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Reviews

Anyone who cares about teaching statistics should own this book. It is the fruit of years of collecting, inventing, experimenting, and hard thinking by two classroom veterans who are also leading statisticians. Buy it, read it, use it: if your reaction is like mine, you'll find lots of things that you want to try. George Cobb, Mt Holyoke College

Gelman's and Nolan's class demonstrations sound so fun and instructive they make me want to build a stats course around them. Why are students in larger than average families? Why are there fewer baby girls in China? After students secretly put sequences of real and made-up random coin tosses on the board, how can Gelman and Nolan tell which are which? How could students who have worked together on such problems not be fascinated with the explanations? Frank Morgan, Williams College

Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks by Gelman and Nolan could have also been appropriately named "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Teaching Statistics, but were Afraid to Ask"! Much more than just a collection of engaging activities and examples, it also includes informative discussions of pedagogy and practical tips on everything from course organization to effectively integrating activities into the classroom to maintaining interest and motivating students. Both new and experienced teachers of statistics will find this book to be a valuable resource. Roxy Peck, Cal Poly

Gelman and Nolan have constructed a tour de force of clever demonstrations that will permit all who use them to communicate more effectively many of the deepest ideas of statisitical thinking. Howard Wainer, Distinguished Research Scientist, National Board of Medical Examiners

More information

View the table of contents ( PDF file),
and the index (PDF file).

Errata


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