The Sociology of Teaching Graduate Statistics: Another Perspective. A Response to 'The Sociology of Teaching Graduate Statistics'

This article presents the author's response to the article "The Sociology of Teaching Graduate Statistics" by Timothy Patrick Moran. Moran takes on the admirable task of trying to improve the teaching graduate statistics. Like many good teachers, he makes controversial and thought-provoking statements designed to promote discussion and debate. First, the author was struck that a paper about teaching graduate statistics makes sweeping statements while offering virtually no statistics to back them up. While noting that "teaching statistics literature concerns itself with undergraduate-level issues," Moran nonetheless feels free to assert that "when teaching statistics, sociological thinking is largely abandoned." The author states that his own suspicion is that there is too much diversity in the teaching of graduate statistics to make such generalizations. He added that certainly, students need to learn how to use statistics appropriately, and it may be a useful pedagogical device for an instructor to review the great debates of the past. But, it is not as though there is a lack of contemporary writing on statistical controversies.