Perspectives on contemporary statistics
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 other 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 to shortcut unpleasant calculations, but this is only the most obvious consequences 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 at the college 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 accompany all varieties of beginning instruction. The books opens with a contemporary overview of statistics as the science of data - a view much broader than 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 implication for teaching. The book conlucdes with introductions to diagnostics and to the alternative approach embodied in resistent and robut procedures. -- from back cover.
