Teaching Cases and Teaching Projects Compilation of Statistics

Author: Jia Junping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Preface This book is a supplementary textbook designed to accompany the textbook "Statistics" (21st Century Statistics Series, Renmin University of China Press). The book consists of two main parts: Part 1 is Teaching Cases, and Part 2 is Teaching Projects. The Case Section collects 15 teaching cases, which are accumulated by the author through years of teaching practice and research. Most of these cases are processed and organized from research projects, while some are collected from practical teaching in actual departments. The order of the cases is generally based on the content of the textbook and the teaching process. Each case generally includes the following sections: (1) Background Introduction, which provides the background of the case and the process of collecting relevant data; (2) Learning Objectives, which outlines the problems students are expected to complete and the basic requirements for the case; (3) Data Files, which specifies the format of the data files and their names on the attached CD; (4) Further Discussion Questions, which encourages students to discuss potential issues in the data collection and related research of the case; (5) Case Appendices, which provides the survey questionnaires used in the case for reference. The Project Section includes 9 teaching projects, which are completed by students under the guidance of instructors during actual teaching. The 9 projects collected in this book cover various aspects of students' school life and studies, mostly on topics of interest to students. A project is a complete statistical solution to an actual problem. It involves instructors posing a real-world problem based on the content taught, or students proposing a problem with instructor approval. Students then collect data related to this problem, select appropriate methods for analysis, and draw conclusions to write an analytical report. Instructors organize discussions and evaluations of the projects. Projects and cases share similarities but also have differences. The similarities are that both address real-world problems. The differences are that cases usually provide relevant data for students to conduct statistical analysis and draw their own conclusions, while projects merely present a real-world problem for students to collect data themselves before analysis. Clearly, projects enable students to systematically understand the entire process of solving a real-world problem using statistical methods, including designing data collection plans, sampling and data collection, data processing, selecting analytical methods, and writing analytical reports. The 9 projects collected in this book are all completed by students, and each project generally includes the following sections: (1) Survey Plan and Questionnaire Design, which introduces the process of designing the survey plan and the adopted questionnaire; (2) Data Analysis, which involves analyzing the collected data and writing a survey report; (3) Appendix of Original Survey Data. The original data in the cases and projects are stored on the attached CD, with each case and project corresponding to a data file, all provided in Excel format. The data file names for cases are case01, case02, …, and for projects are project01, project02, … Students can directly open the corresponding data files for analysis in Excel or use statistical software such as SAS, SPSS, or STATISTICA. This book was written by Jia Junping, Jin Yongjin, and Yi Danhui from the School of Statistics at Renmin University of China. Renmin University of China Press has provided strong support for the publication of this book. Currently, there are few books available on statistical teaching cases. Although the cases and projects collected in this book are not yet highly refined and have many areas for improvement, we still hope this book can serve as a stepping stone for further development. Editors February 2004, School of Statistics, Renmin University of China