Perspectives on Contemporary Statistics (M A A NOTES)

This book is a must for anyone who teaches statistics, particularly those who teach beginning statistics-mathematicians, social scientists, engineers- as well as graduate students and others new to the field. the authors focus on topics central to the teaching of statistics for beginners, and offer expositions that are guided by the current state of statistical research and practice.

Statistical practice has changed radically during the past generation under the impact of ever cheaper and more accessible computing power. Beginning instruction has lagged behind the evolution of the field. Software now enables students t shortcut unplesant calculations, but this is only the most obvious consequence of changing statistical practice, the content and emphases of statistics instruction still needs much rethinking.

This volume assembles nine new essays on important topics in present-day statistics, that will influence the teaching of statistics at the college level and elsewhere. Students approach statistics with various levels of mathematics preparation, and from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Accordingly the chapters present modern perspectives on central aspects of statistics and emphasize the conceptual content that should sccompany all varieties of beginning instruction.

The book opens with a contemporary overview of statistics as the science of data-a view much broader that the "inference from data" emphasized by much traditional teaching. The next two chapters discuss the philosophy and some of the tools used in data analysis and describe the impact of computing on data analysis and inference and its implications for teaching. Other chapters examine the science of survey sampling, essential concepts of statistical design of experimentation, contemporary ideas of probability and the reasoning of formal inference. The book concludes with introductions to diagnostics and to the alternative approach embodied in resistant and robust procedures.