Dennis
How many actual times do you meet with the class during the course of one
term? I know that when I taught we had the undergraduate students meet for
1-1/2 hours for from 21 to 30 sessions depending on the department. In
graduate school we met with the students for 2 hours per class for 16 to 24
sessions, again depending on the department. These were beginning courses
for the undergraduates for one term of the year. There were also some
classes taught on a Saturday only basis which met for 3-1/2 hours for from 10
to 12 weeks.
In none of these situations did we spend time teaching any statistical
software but concentrated only on teaching statistical analysis. The
students were required to learn any software on their own time.
I haven't been in the university setting for a few years and I am interested
in knowing how many actual clock hours are spent teaching statistics. I
spoke with one teacher recently and he indicated that half his teaching time
was spent in teaching EXCEL and because of that he felt the students were
missing out. He indicated that when the school began using EXCEL they took a
single term course and turned it into two courses lasting an entire year.
I think that this is a very foolish approach to teaching statistics. Why
should the instructor of a statistics course be forced into teaching
software, be it SAS, SPSS or any other commercial package? Certainly this
would free up time to teach statistics.
Dr. Robert C. Knodt
4949 Samish Way, #31
Bellingham, WA 98226
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand" Chinese proverb
(teaching/learning)
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