Chapter 26: Teaching Statistics Through Team-Based Learning

Teaching introductory statistics is one of the most challenging courses, pedagogically speaking. The reason is that there is such a wide range of student ability, preparation, and motivation in each class. Some undergraduates simply take statistics to satisfy an easy core requirement, whereas others similarly take it as a core requirement—but fear that the math will be too difficult. Several graduate students in educational psychology also enter the course with fear, as their introductory statistics course represents a major hurdle that will (supposedly) determine whether they are cut out for graduate coursework.

Because statistics can serve an important weeding-out function, similar to introductory chemistry, physics, and calculus courses, some educational psychology departments appear to be at ease with the high drop/withdrawal/failure rates associated with the course. For those of us who embrace the pedagogical challenge, however, we constantly search for ways to allow more students to successfully clear this infamous hurdle. We have been using team-based learning (TBL) for the past eight years in our introductory statistics courses. We firmly believe that TBL has allowed many students to “get” statistics that they otherwise would not had they been exposed to it via traditional instruction.