Functional Fun in Statistics Teaching: Resources, Research and Recommendations

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of modalities that can be used to make learning statistics fun. Representative examples or points of departure in the literature are provided for no less than 20 modalities. Empirical evidence of effectiveness specific to statistics education is starting to emerge for some of these modalities -namely, humor, song, and cartoons. To reinforce their effectiveness as an intentional teaching tool, the authors offer practical implementation tips.

Using Fun in the Statistics Classroom: An Exploratory Study of College Instructors' Hesitations and Motivations

“…Some recently identified examples of fun may be sufficiently different to justify expanding the Lesser and Pearl (2008) Lesser 2012). Another example is the use of posters, stickers or clothing (buttons, t-shirts, etc.)…”

“…Other motivations from the literature reviewed by Lesser and Pearl (2008) include: building classroom community, reducing anxiety, humanizing the subject/instructor/course, fostering openness in the classroom, increasing students' attention and participation for the entire class period, providing a means of illustrating difficult concepts, and giving students a highly memorable way to recall specific content that will last well beyond the final exam (Friedman, et al 2002;Schacht & Stewart 1990). Also, as mentioned in Section 1, the use of fun is consistent with the GAISE guidelines.…”

“…The table in Lesser and Pearl (2008) listed these 20 modalities along with representative references or examples:…”

“…Recognizing that a paper-and-pencil survey covering all 20 categories in Lesser and Pearl (2008) would discourage participation, the research team chose to focus on what were arguably the modalities most commonly used in the undergraduate classroom: Poems/Songs, Cartoons, Games, and Jokes/Humor. The consensus selection of this subset was supported by the relative prevalence of these modalities in the education literature as well as their prevalence in the field's major collection (CAUSEweb) of fun items.…”

“…The past decade has witnessed the generation of various innovative pedagogies, including those that we call "fun," in teaching statistics. Lesser and Pearl (2008) provide a comprehensive overview of using fun in the statistics classroom, and the paper includes a table listing 20 modalities (with references or points of departure for each), implementation tips and some emerging evidence on potential effectiveness of some modalities. The accumulation of evidence is most established for the modality of humor and experimental studies of the pedagogical impacts of humor have shown significant positive outcomes in student ratings of the lesson, student ratings of the instructor, student anxiety, student attitudes towards statistics, and student recall and retention of information (Berk & Nanda 1998Garner 2006;Neumann, Hood & Neumann 2009).…”