Comments on: Math Education and a Bit of Logic http://henrysthreads.com/2008/05/math-education-and-a-bit-of-logic/ Thoughts on Religion in the World from a passionate, moderate, liberal charismatic Christian Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:11:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: TV http://henrysthreads.com/2008/05/math-education-and-a-bit-of-logic/comment-page-1/#comment-107214 TV Mon, 19 May 2008 16:44:31 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1338#comment-107214 I've found my Economics education is more comprehensive in asking questions. Sometimes it's not just the statistics but the methodology or what's actually being measured that is relevant. Reading the book Freakonomics or How to Think Like an Economist to get an Idea of what I mean. I’ve found my Economics education is more comprehensive in asking questions. Sometimes it’s not just the statistics but the methodology or what’s actually being measured that is relevant.

Reading the book Freakonomics or How to Think Like an Economist to get an Idea of what I mean.

]]> By: Tom Jackson http://henrysthreads.com/2008/05/math-education-and-a-bit-of-logic/comment-page-1/#comment-107043 Tom Jackson Fri, 16 May 2008 18:01:20 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1338#comment-107043 You'll need to be careful, using "How to Lie," that your students use one of the newer printings; telling them to get used copies may be a career-limiting move. The original had some severely non-PC examples -- e.g. you have to take a survey of "Negroes," so you see one who is "clean and decently patched" and one who is "dirty and looks surly," and you choose the first. There are better ways, these days, to illustrate selection bias in polling. You’ll need to be careful, using “How to Lie,” that your students use one of the newer printings; telling them to get used copies may be a career-limiting move.

The original had some severely non-PC examples — e.g. you have to take a survey of “Negroes,” so you see one who is “clean and decently patched” and one who is “dirty and looks surly,” and you choose the first. There are better ways, these days, to illustrate selection bias in polling.

]]> By: Kyle http://henrysthreads.com/2008/05/math-education-and-a-bit-of-logic/comment-page-1/#comment-107036 Kyle Fri, 16 May 2008 15:47:09 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1338#comment-107036 On the supposed conservative bias of Damned Lies and Statistics, I've read bits and pieces of the book, and it basically argues that many of the problems we think are huge are really much more modest, but that it's a media-saturated market that takes isolated statistics any mangles and magnifies them to produce political action. I lean left politically, and it really bugs me when fellow liberals reject arguments based on facts and hard analysis just because it doesn't fit into their preconceived box (or, more probably, doesn't allow for as good of a PR example to get things done). We like to style ourselves as being part of the "reality-based community," yet we as a group are also highly susceptible to mis-interpretation and throwing out facts that we don't like. On the supposed conservative bias of Damned Lies and Statistics, I’ve read bits and pieces of the book, and it basically argues that many of the problems we think are huge are really much more modest, but that it’s a media-saturated market that takes isolated statistics any mangles and magnifies them to produce political action. I lean left politically, and it really bugs me when fellow liberals reject arguments based on facts and hard analysis just because it doesn’t fit into their preconceived box (or, more probably, doesn’t allow for as good of a PR example to get things done). We like to style ourselves as being part of the “reality-based community,” yet we as a group are also highly susceptible to mis-interpretation and throwing out facts that we don’t like.

]]> By: Kyle http://henrysthreads.com/2008/05/math-education-and-a-bit-of-logic/comment-page-1/#comment-107035 Kyle Fri, 16 May 2008 15:39:28 +0000 http://www.energionpubs.com/wordpress/?p=1338#comment-107035 Don't forget how the term "average" is abused, with rarely a mention of whether it is the mean, median, or mode that is being talked about. I teach a freshman college composition course, and I think that innumeracy is so much of a problem that I'm considering doing a week dealing with the issue (perhaps using one of the books you cite) so that students can responsibly use numbers to build arguments (and hopefully so that they'll responsibly use numbers in life). Don’t forget how the term “average” is abused, with rarely a mention of whether it is the mean, median, or mode that is being talked about.

I teach a freshman college composition course, and I think that innumeracy is so much of a problem that I’m considering doing a week dealing with the issue (perhaps using one of the books you cite) so that students can responsibly use numbers to build arguments (and hopefully so that they’ll responsibly use numbers in life).

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