Dr Nic’s blog
2 April 2012
I love mathematical subjects. I love statistics and teaching statistics, and I love Operations Research and teaching Operations Research. But I do not represent the majority of people in the world and I definitely do not represent the majority of my students who come into my courses. People take my courses because they are required to. They don’t really want to do statistics and quantitative methods. However, by the end of the course, many have discovered, to their joy, that they CAN do maths, and actually enjoy it. It is empowering for them and wonderful for me. Emotional students have […]
30 March 2012
As they say on Twitter: That silence after you tell someone you teach Operations Research (or Statistics). Those in the OR and Statistics communities know what conversation stoppers our disciplines are. When asked what subject I teach I take a punt and respond with “Operations Research”, “Management Science” or “Statistics”. “Operations Research” is met with incomprehension, “Management Science” with miscomprehension, and “Statistics” with thinly disguised antipathy. Apart from being undervalued, what the disciplines have in common is that we do practical stuff with numbers. The pedagogies of these disciplines have much in common. Operations Research and Management Science (which for […]
27 March 2012
I received a phone call from the company that leases us our equipment. I got quite excited when the salesman told me they would waive the purchase price of a new iPad. Then I decided it was time to clarify things. “Ok,” I said, “You are using the term ‘purchase price’. To me that means the amount you pay for something when you buy it. You are telling me that if I get a new iPad on the same lease as the old iPad you will waive the purchase price. This sounds great to me, but I can’t imagine I’ve […]
20 March 2012
Our central city is being “deconstructed”. That’s the modern word for demolition. We live in Christchurch, New Zealand where many of our buildings were badly damaged by a string of serious earthquakes over the last 18 months, beginning on 4 September 2010. Over a thousand buildings in the central city are being demolished, because they are no longer safe. The larger ones will take up to a year to bring down, and experts have come from other parts of the world to assist in the process. It is pretty sad, really as we love our buildings. But we need to […]
15 March 2012
Causation is a seductive notion. We want to make meaning out of our world. I love playing “the beeping nose” with little children. I press their nose and it beeps. I press my nose and it whirrs. It fascinates them. They have discovered cause and effect. They can make cool sounds by pressing noses. You can keep them amused for quite some time. Cause and effect implies control. If we know what causes things we are better able to control them. Scientific endeavor is largely a search for causes. History is littered with examples of misplaced cause and effect theories. […]
8 March 2012
“Every year I teach them this and every year they get it wrong!”. This is a phrase I’ve heard from colleagues and from my own mouth. Then it dawned on me – if the students keep getting it wrong, maybe I’m teaching it wrong! Example of Linear regression analysis Here’s an example. In linear regression I found that students often had trouble interpreting the slope. They would get it the wrong way around, or just not get it. Every year it was the same and I repeatedly groaned at incorrect interpretations in their work. Then it struck me that maybe […]
1 March 2012
I don’t believe in learning styles. The idea of visual, audio, tactile and kinaesthetic learners has been popular in the last decade, but has done a great disservice to many learners labelled “kinaesthetic” and left to play with the blocks in the corner. So when a person tells me they are a visual learner, in the same defining tone they would use to state their height or eye color, I wince inside. What I do believe is that effective learners use many different ways to learn, and for most of us a well-thought-out diagram will help in understanding and retaining […]
23 February 2012
Drill and rote-learning are derogatory terms in many education settings. They have the musty taint of “old-fashioned” ways of teaching. They evoke images of wooden classrooms and tight-lipped spinsters dressed in grey looming over trembling pupils as they recite their times-tables. Drill and rote-learning imply mindless repetition, devoid of understanding. Much more attractive educational terms are “discovery”, “exploration”, “engagement”. Constructivism requires that learners engage with their materials and create learning by building on existing knowledge and experiences. But (and I’m sure you could see this coming) I think there is a place for something not far from drill or rote-learning […]
21 February 2012
The lecture is the mainstay of higher education, but is it really a good way for people to learn? Here is a guest blog about my statistics course. In No more lectures I explain how my course, “Quantitative Methods for Business” uses Moodle to deliver self-paced learning materials in a blended course. This became especially useful after the Christchurch earthquake, which occurred a year ago today. Another interesting discussion about doing away with lectures can be found here: How to replace the lecture And here is another interesting description of four things a lecture is good for. Just like textbooks, the lecture needs […]
15 February 2012
Dirty data is real data as it is collected before someone gets hold of it and takes out the tricky bits. You won’t find dirty data in textbooks. Dirty data is what real researchers have to deal with. And even amateur researchers and students doing real-life projects will have to deal with dirty data. Yet not much is said about dirty data, and what to do with it. Elements of dirty data Mistakes – people put down the current year for their date of birth, give their weight in the wrong unit, put an extra decimal point. Missing data – […]