Journal Selection

The teaching journal I have chosen for this semester is the Journal of Statistics Education.  The journal, first started in 1993, is published by the American Statistical Association (ASA) three times a year.  The editorial board is made up of over 30 academic professionals from a wide range of recognized universities and colleges across the nation.  The journal may be found on-line at http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/.

The mission statement for the JSE states that the journal “disseminates knowledge for the improvement of statistics education…and, in accord with its broad focus, publishes articles that enhance the exchange of…useful information among educators, practitioners, and researchers around the world (http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/jse_mission.htm).”  The JSE is designed for teachers of statistics and researchers of statistical and probabilistic reasoning.

I am interested in teaching statistics at the college level.  I am also interested in using statistical research in higher education.  My professional background has been in government cost estimating where statistics is heavily relied upon.  Currently I receive a quarterly journal titled, “Journal of Cost Analysis and Parametrics.”  However it is focused on actual use of statistics in real cases, and providing insight into how statistical analysis may be best used in different circumstances, or how well certain analysis worked in various real world situations.  But the JSE is one of just a few that looks at how to actually improve and develop the teaching of statistical analysis in the field.

Another key component of the JSE is its access to other scholarly work.  The home page provides links of several other well-recognized journals in the field from around the world, including such places as far as Great Britain and New Zealand.  Other links access statistical journals that are more defined to specific areas such as technology, medicine, business, industry and government.  They also have a complete on-line archive of all there past publications.  As the JSE has a very comprehensive archive of its own published work, it also has very strong ties to other scholarly journals within the field.  If you cannot find what you are looking for in the JSE, you are still more likely to find it through the JSE’s other resources.

In my initial look at the JSE, I have already seen several articles that I am interested in that may help in developing my syllabus for our course assignment.  Some articles address how to approach the teaching of particular statistical techniques; probability, regression, hypothesis testing, etc.  Other articles address the use of specific teaching techniques; case studies, problem solving, interactive simulations, etc.  Still other articles address the use of new tools in the classroom such as the use of DVDs for both residence and on-line statistic courses.

One article discusses the use of computer applications in the classroom.  Statistics is difficult to understand, but there are numerous statistical application models.  How one uses these applications in the classroom will have an impact on the quality of learning a student will receive.  Although the use of a quality application can greatly enhance the learning experience in the classroom, if not used with the learning of the student in mind, it may teach students how to input and generate correct numbers, but have little impact on the deeper learning of analysis, interpretation, and critical questioning of the results.  These types of articles in the JSE from professionals who experience these concerns in the teaching field greatly enhance the value of the journal in helping to improve teaching in the field of quantitative analysis.  These are the primary reasons I chose this journal for my course study.