Statistical Thinking, 3rd Edition

Preface

This book utilizes a state-of-the-art approach to teaching introductory business statistics, which has been tested for more than eight years in the classroom. We believe it fills an important void, one that many have been concerned about for some time. This preface describes the philosophy and content of this book, and explains the uniqueness of the third edition.

It is generally accepted that in the latter half of the twentieth century, introductory statistics was often poorly taught, being reduced to a collection of formulas divorced from real data, and especially from real problems. Fortunately, a number of forward-thinking statisticians, scientists, and engineers saw the limitations in this approach, and set out to do better. A number of enhancements have been gradually introduced since then and continue to this day. For example, consider the Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Statistical Science (https://www.amstat.org/asa/files/pdfs/EDU-guidelines2014-11-15.pdf), or the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education Report (https://www.amstat.org/asa/education/Guidelines-for-Assessment-and-Instruction-in-Statistics-Education-Reports.aspx).

These more modern approaches provided important enhancements to the formulaic approach, including:

• More utilization of real data
• Balance between theory and practice
• A mix of instructional media, beyond traditional lectures
• Broad use of technology in the classroom, including statistical software ...