$50 book + $13.00 shipping:
Canada/Mexico customers
$50 book + $6.00 shipping
US Customers
$50 book + $17.00 shipping
International
UNM students must buy from UNM bookstore
STATISTICAL LITERACY:
This is the text being used as the Statistical Literacy
textbook for Math1300 at the University of New Mexico. This text was
developed as a key part of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project.
In 2005, Capella University began offering Statistical Literacy on-line
using this textbook. Dr. Valerie Perkins, Dean of Capella's School of
Under-graduate Studies, notes, "Schield's approach to statistical
literacy helps Capella students think critically while satisfying Capella's
general education requirement in mathematical and logical reasoning."
Peter Holmes, Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical Education,
said,
"I am convinced that the standard first course in statistics, which
focuses on getting to significance testing and confidence intervals, isn't
an appropriate aim for a lot of students. I think Milo's approach to
statistical literacy is much closer to what is needed by journalists, by
policy makers, by those in business commerce or management and by most
people in everyday life."
Statistical Literacy is closely related to numeracy, quantitative
literacy/reasoning and statistical thinking/reasoning. They all focus
on concepts or techniques involving numbers in context -- typically numbers
presented in the daily news.
But there are differences. Quantitative literacy/reasoning typically
focuses on math topics such as rates and rates of change, percent of, graphs
of change (first and second derivatives), linear and exponential rates of
growth, accumulation (integral), installment loans, savings and weighted
averages, indexes and condensed measures, estimation, plane geometry,
graphical production and representation and probability (single and
conditional). Statistical thinking/reasoning typically focuses on
statistics involving distributions and variation -- specifically random
variation such as that encountered in random selection or random assignment.
Both quantitative reasoning and statistical thinking focus primarily on math
problems, math techniques and math concepts.
Statistical Literacy is quite different. Statistical Literacy studies
statistics used as evidence in everyday arguments. As such this text
may be closer to critical thinking or rhetoric than to mathematics or
statistics. This text uses the admonition, "Take CARE!" as a reminder
that statistics are human constructs. Statistical literacy studies
those factors that influence the size and direction of a statistic.
Each of the four letters in CARE stand for a kind of influence on the size
of a statistic: Context (comparisons, ratios, study design and confounding), Assembly (how statistics are defined
and presented), Randomness (chance, margin of error and statistical
significance) and Error or bias. The bulk of the book is
spent on the first two types of influence.
The goal of the text is to help readers evaluate the strengths and
weaknesses in statistics that are used as evidence in everyday arguments.
These statistics include government-generated statistics: country-wide
statistics (c.f., US Statistical Abstract), education statistics (c.f.,
National Assessment of Educational Progress) and health statistics (c.f., Center for Disease Control).
This text is quite different. Instead of algebra, it uses ordinary
English to describe and compare counts, measures and conditional
probabilities. It focuses on reading and interpreting statistics
presented in tables and graphs. It present a new graphical technique to
show how a factor is "taken in account" or "controlled for."
It requires "hypothetical thinking" for students to imagine how
things might have been defined, measured, compared or presented differently.
It requires hypothetical thinking for students to imagine plausible
confounders for observed associations.
Order Status:
The first editions are
limited distribution editions used primarily for teaching while
developing the associated assignments and quizzes. The 5th edition (2011)
and later are updated to go with the
more than 1,000 Moodle exercises
that are available to teachers that use this book.
Statistical
Literacy at Augsburg College: GST 200
Wrestling with Statistics.
2016 Rashad Kennedy Student comments on Statistical Literacy
applied to wrestling.
Over a Hundred Topics (Over a Thousand Problems):
As Lynn Steen noted, "concept" QL courses tend to be light on
exercises. Over 130 homework topics involving right-wrong exercises have been
identified for this book. More than a hundred of these topics have been implemented in Moodle as multiple choice
quizzes with over a thousand problems. Having right-wrong exercises
online gives students immediate feedback, eliminates the need for instructor grading, minimizes the class time
needed to review these topics, and allows the instructor to see which kinds
of exercises are giving the students the most difficulty. Here is a current
list of the class-room tested,
Moodle-based, right-wrong exercises.
The part-whole reading drill
program has 186
problems. 131 descriptions, 43 common-part comparisons and
12 distinct part comparisons.
The writing drill program currently has 301 problems: 6
chance-related, 266 tables, 14 bar graphs and 15
pie charts.
The most recent upgrade was to
add chance/probability grammar to both programs.
Odysseys2Sense:
a game of lively discourse Odysseys (a unique
web forum) is used to facilitate
critical thinking.
See this under Statistical Literacy tools.
Fall 2012 Challenges
Student survey:
Spring 2013 Fall 2013. Advice to reviewers:
References
Huemer
BACK COVER:
Dr. Milo Schield is Director of the W. M. Keck
Statistical Literacy Project and a professor in Business Administration at Augsburg
College. He received his Ph.D. from Rice University.
In 2001, the W. M. Keck Foundation awarded Augsburg College a grant to
develop statistical literacy "as an interdisciplinary curriculum in the
liberal arts." In 2004, the AACU's Peer Review magazine featured Milo's
essay, "Statistical Literacy and Liberal
education at Augsburg College."
"A small educational movement advocating statistical literacy has
emerged. Professor Milo Schield, Director of the W. M. Keck Statistical
Literacy Project, at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, is the movement's
leading voice." Dr. Joel Best, author of More Damned Lies and
Statistics.
Milo Schield (2005), Director of the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy
Project, argued that instructors have the responsibility to not only teach
basic statistical competence, but to become "evangelists" for statistical
literacy. He argued that we should develop introductory statistics
courses that attract students because students find the material enjoyable
and beneficial. To foster statistical literacy, teachers and students
must discuss and argue everyday, real-world examples of statistics from the
media, news, and journal studies. As a results, the ultimate course
evaluation should consist of measuring students' "appreciation for the value
of statistics in everyday life" (p 4.)
Schield, M (2005). Statistical Literacy: An Evangelical Calling for
Statistical Educators, 2005 ISI. See
www.StatLit.org/pdf/2005SchieldISI.pdf
2018: Milo Schield
selected as a Fellow by the American Statistical Association: At the Joint Statistical
Meeting in Vancouver, Dr. Milo Schield was
selected to be a Fellow by the
American Statistical Association. This high honor is limited to 0.3%
of the membership each year (roughly 60 out of 18,000). The citation
reads as follows: "For leadership in, and service to, the field of
statistics education; for outstanding contribution to increase statistical
literacy among consumers and decision makers in the wider society; and for
tireless efforts in promoting quantitative literacy internationally -- the
American Statistical Association (founded in 1839) awards the Honorary Rank
of Fellow to Milo Schield, Augsburg University." Signed by Paul Gallo,
Committee Chair, July 31, 2018. My overwhelming thanks to Carl
Lee (right) who finally convinced me that I might be a worthy candidate.
And to my supporters (below).
Milo Schield
Certificate
ASA President and Milo
Milo and Carl Lee (Fellow Nominator)
2011: Milo Schield installed as an elected member of the ISI: At the 21st conference of the International Statistical Institute
(ISI), Dr. Milo Schield was elected as one of
56 new
members. At the inaugural reception in Dublin Ireland, Milo is
shown with Ron Wasserstein (ASA Director), with Dr.
A. John Bailar (ISI
Membership Elections Committee chair) and with Cynthia Schield (his wife).
Schield and Colleagues: Danny Kaplan and Schield
(Nov 14, 2018). Schield &
John Knight (2001) President Frame,
Peter Holmes & Schield (2003-03/31)
Schield, Milo (2016):
Excerpts
from "What Should [College] Graduates Know? by Nickolas Lemann, Columbia
Dean Emeritus.
Schield, Milo (2010): Seminar. Part 1: Induction in
Science6up
Part 2: Young-Earth Creationism6up Part 3:
Induction in Philosophy
6up
Schield, Milo (2014): Critical Thinking:
Present, Past & Future. St. Paul Critical Thinking Club.
CTC1 slidesCTC2 slides
