Listen to the Data: Emphasizing (Statistical) Reasoning in a Flipped Classroom

Abstract

Listening is one of the foundational tenets of Benedictine monasticism and, likewise, of Benedictine education. In a statistics classroom, students learn to listen to data – to focus on the trends and patterns displayed and to interpret them in the context of the data, without imputing one’s desired meaning on the data. This talk explicates the ways that a flipped classroom facilitates teaching statistical reasoning with an emphasis on listening. While likely not the precise kind of listening Saint Benedict had in mind when writing The Rule, practicing listening in a statistics classroom sharpens the attention needed to listen in other aspects of life as well.