Improving statistical skills through students’ participation in the development of resources

This paper summarizes the evaluation of a project that involved undergraduate mathematics students in the development of teaching and learning resources for statistics modules taught in various departments of a university. This evaluation regards students’ participation in the project and its impact on their learning of statistics, as characterized in terms of statistical reasoning, statistical thinking, and skills for statistical consultancy. The participation of students is evaluated from the viewpoint of communities of practice. The evaluation resulted in a characterization of the benefits of such a project and suggestions for implementations of future projects, and in addition brought to light new theoretical elements both as regards the learning of statistics and as regards communities of practice. In particular, the analysis highlighted contributions of the students involved to resource development practice in the community of university statistics teachers, as well as contributions to students’ learning as a result of participation in this community

Caveats for using statistical significance tests in research assessments

This paper raises concerns about the advantages of using statistical significance tests in research assessments as has recently been suggested in the debate about proper normalization procedures for citation indicators. Statistical significance tests are highly controversial and numerous criticisms have been leveled against their use. Based on examples from articles by proponents of the use statistical significance tests in research assessments, we address some of the numerous problems with such tests. The issues specifically discussed are the ritual practice of such tests, their dichotomous application in decision making, the difference between statistical and substantive significance, the implausibility of most null hypotheses, the crucial assumption of randomness, as well as the utility of standard errors and confidence intervals for inferential purposes. We argue that applying statistical significance tests and mechanically adhering to their results is highly problematic and detrimental to critical thinking. We claim that the use of such tests do not provide any advantages in relation to citation indicators, interpretations of them, or the decision making processes based upon them. On the contrary their use may be harmful. Like many other critics, we generally believe that statistical significance tests are over- and misused in the social sciences including scientometrics and we encourage a reform on these matters.Comment: Accepted version for Journal of Informetric

Comment: Boosting Algorithms: Regularization, Prediction and Model Fitting

The authors are doing the readers of Statistical Science a true service with a well-written and up-to-date overview of boosting that originated with the seminal algorithms of Freund and Schapire. Equally, we are grateful for high-level software that will permit a larger readership to experiment with, or simply apply, boosting-inspired model fitting. The authors show us a world of methodology that illustrates how a fundamental innovation can penetrate every nook and cranny of statistical thinking and practice. They introduce the reader to one particular interpretation of boosting and then give a display of its potential with extensions from classification (where it all started) to least squares, exponential family models, survival analysis, to base-learners other than trees such as smoothing splines, to degrees of freedom and regularization, and to fascinating recent work in model selection. The uninitiated reader will find that the authors did a nice job of presenting a certain coherent and useful interpretation of boosting. The other reader, though, who has watched the business of boosting for a while, may have quibbles with the authors over details of the historic record and, more importantly, over their optimism about the current state of theoretical knowledge. In fact, as much as ``the statistical view'' has proven fruitful, it has also resulted in some ideas about why boosting works that may be misconceived, and in some recommendations that may be misguided. [arXiv:0804.2752]Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-STS242B the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Revealing the Extent of Kindergarten Teachers' practicing of some Activities to Develop

The study aimed at identifying the extent to which kindergarten teachers practiced some of the activities of developing sensory and creative thinking on the kindergarten children in the city of Amman, and knowing the level of practice of teachers in kindergartens of the activities of the development of sensory and creative thinking which was prepared by the researchers according to "the number of years of experience, and the type of qualification and academic degree. For this purpose, the researchers designed a questionnaire consisted of (47) items in which two types of activities were chosen, which develop thinking patterns: sensory (24) activities and creative (23) activities and applied them to (78) kindergarten teachers in the regions of Amman City. The researchers relied on the SPSS statistical program and the Kruskal-Walls test was used to determine the significance of the differences in the sample responses. The study has reached the following conclusions: The practice of kindergarten teachers for some activities of the development of motor sensory thinking among the kindergarten children in the city of Amman was high, the arithmetic mean reached (2.53) for some sensory thinking activities, which was slightly more than the creativity that reached (2.39). The results also showed that there are no differences in the implementation of activities related to the development of sensory thinking and creative thinking in research by kindergarten teachers due to the number of years of experience variable. The views of kindergarten teachers are similar in the application of activities related to the development of sensory thinking and creative thinking, whatever their scientific qualifications. Keywords: activities for the development of sensory thinking, activities for the development of creative thinking, kindergartens

The Impact of High-Fidelity Simulation on Nursing Students’ Flexible and Reflective Thinking in Higher Education

This study evaluated the effect of high-fidelity simulation with both mannequins and live actors on flexible and reflective thinking of nursing students. Students enrolled in an undergraduate nursing program were recruited to participate in this study. Ninety students, all female, completed both pre- and post-surveys. The researchers conducted a paired samples t-test to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in students’ level of flexible thinking before and after they experienced the high-fidelity simulation. Moreover, we conducted multivariate correlational analysis to examine the relationships between flexible thinking and reflective thinking. In general, statistical results in this study provide empirical support for the values of clinical simulation and debriefing on nursing students’ flexible and reflective thinking. High-fidelity simulation can expose students to controlled and dynamic clinical environments, allowing them to attempt the transfer of theory to practice, learn from collaborative and active learning tasks, and be open-minded to multiple perspectives and in diverse situations. We conclude that critical reflection is an important piece of development in flexible thinking and reflective learning. During the time of post-simulation interactions, students are encouraged to reflect objectively on their performance in each scenario. The input from peers and instructors provides students with the opportunity to assess their personal ability to transfer theory to practice and evaluate if the theory design of the course is providing them with the needed information to care for the clients presented in the clinical simulation scenarios

The diagnosis of mental disorders: the problem of reification

A pressing need for interrater reliability in the diagnosis of mental disorders emerged during the mid-twentieth century, prompted in part by the development of diverse new treatments. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), third edition answered this need by introducing operationalized diagnostic criteria that were field-tested for interrater reliability. Unfortunately, the focus on reliability came at a time when the scientific understanding of mental disorders was embryonic and could not yield valid disease definitions. Based on accreting problems with the current DSM-fourth edition (DSM-IV) classification, it is apparent that validity will not be achieved simply by refining criteria for existing disorders or by the addition of new disorders. Yet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria dominate thinking about mental disorders in clinical practice, research, treatment development, and law. As a result, the modernDSMsystem, intended to create a shared language, also creates epistemic blinders that impede progress toward valid diagnoses. Insights that are beginning to emerge from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics suggest possible strategies for moving forward

Was regression to the mean really the solution to Darwin's problem with heredity?

Statistical reasoning is an integral part of modern scientific practice. In The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom Stephen Stigler presents seven core ideas, or pillars, of statistical thinking and the historical developments of each of these pillars, many of which were concurrent with developments in biology. Here we focus on Stigler's fifth pillar, regression, and his discussion of how regression to the mean came to be thought of as a solution to a challenge for the theory of natural selection. Stigler argues that the purely mathematical phenomenon of regression to the mean provides a resolution to a problem for Darwin's evolutionary theory. Thus, he argues that the resolution to the problem for Darwin's theory is purely mathematical, rather than causal. We show why this argument is problematic

Relationship between Transformational Leadership Style and Leadership Thinking of Provincial Administration Leaders

Objectives: The transformational leadership style is accepted as suitable for leading administrative agencies to achieve outstanding results and help organizations cope with challenges. Besides, leadership thinking is also considered to have a very important role in leadership performance in administrative agencies. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to explore the relationship between transformational leadership style and leader thinking to organization's performance. Methods: The article focuses on explaining the views on transformational leadership style, healthy thinking, and the relationship between transformational leadership style and leadership thinking, and at the same time points out the current status of transformational leadership style, transformational leadership, leadership thinking as well as this relationship in practice among the leaders of provincial agencies in Vietnam. Descriptive, inductive, deductive, synthetic, and quantitative statistical methods were applied to interpret the results. Findings: Research results show that transformational leadership style, leadership thinking in the team of leaders of provincial agencies is quite average, there is a strong positive correlation between transformational leadership style. In contrast to leadership thinking, a more transformative leadership style means that it requires an innovative leadership thinking. Novelty:The results achieved when applying a transformational leadership style are quite closely related to the application of leadership thinking to solve leadership challenges. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01307 Full Text: PD