Assessing Effective Teaching of Statistics Using the History of Analytics

Abstract

There are many methods math and statistics teachers have used to make the teaching of statistics more interesting with the aim of improving student success. One of these methods is to relate the application to something interesting. However, an often overlooked method of making statistics more interesting is to go back into the history of why these techniques were created in the first place. This rich history can often give a more logical orientation to students and increase their learning and overall engagement in the classroom. The objectives of this study were to find ways to improve the teaching of statistics in the classroom by incorporating the history of statistics into the instruction. This paper explores some of the historical aspects of statistics and discusses how including this information in the learning plan can potentially help students attempting to learn the subject.