I've joined this one at the fag end. I'm with Dennis Roberts. The way I
would put it is this: the PRINCIPLE of a sampling distribution is actually
incredibly simple: keep repeating the study and this is the sort of spread
you get for the statistic you're interested in. What makes it incredibly
simple is that I keep well away from test statistics when I teach stats to
biomedical researchers. I deal only with effect (outcome) statistics. I
even forbid my students and colleagues from putting the values of test
statistics in their papers. Test statistics are clutter.
The actual mathematical form of any given sampling distribution is
incredibly complex, but only the really gifted students who want to make
careers out of statistical research need to come to terms with that. The
rest of us just plug numbers into a stats package or spreadsheet. I'm not
sure what would be a good sequence for teaching the mathematical
forms. Binomial --> normal --> t is probably as good as any.
Will
=================================================================
Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about
the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
=================================================================
