I think this new class will be a nice departure from the classes to this point in the program. In my opinion, the very nature of statistics involves black and white data. It is when humans get their hands on the data that the process goes haywire, mainly because objectivity is nearly impossible to uphold. Why do we gather data? We gather data to make determinations that will influence decisions in the future. Too many people will be affected by these decisions so conflict can often arise. Unscrupulous individuals can "cook the books" and often make spurious claims concerning what the data tells us. But the data itself has no agenda, and the pursuit of data is an important feature of an evolving society.
My background in statistics is sketchy at best. I vaguely remember doing some work with statistics in various math classes, but I have never had a class that focused solely on statistics. After our first class, I felt as though many of the terms used were vaguely familiar, which is good, but my comfort level will certainly be challenged when I am put to task with using statistical data.
Since I work in a data hungry district, I think the experiences in this class will give me the tools to use data effectively in shaping classroom instruction. I have found that the initial assignments have taken me far more time to complete than had been anticipated, but that could be a result of my nature rather than the nature of the assignments. Either way, I look forward to learning how to collect, analyze, and apply data to decisions made in my classroom, language arts department, and my school.
My principal is also data hungry and it's interesting that he often gives us raw data or descriptive graphs and lets us entertain our own discussions and draw our own conclusions. I agree that the use of data to manipulate (or cook the books as you say) is one of the major obstacles to overcome when teaching. I have a feeling looking around at people's blogs that a "statistics" class is about as painful as high school biology!
ReplyDeleteRyan and Ann,
ReplyDeleteI think for many that a stats course is even more painful than a high school biology course! Ryan, I loved your comment about even though some may "cook the books" in order to support an agenda, the data itself has no agenda. Statistics is more open to cooking than any other mathematical science.