Teaching Students Inferential Statistics: A "Tail" of Three Distributions

THERE IS LITTLE question that fundamental concepts of statistics are quintessentially abstract (Watts 1991:290). As a result, the teaching of introductory statistics can be as frustrating as it is satisfying. It is frustrating in the sense that a complete understanding of statistical principles generally exceeds that which can be taught in a single semester. It is satisfying because the instructor is left with the creative task of finding mathematically intelligible ways of teaching students the many concepts associated with quantitative research. Teaching statistics is also challenging because the fundamental concepts that are introduced at the beginning of the course serve as the foundation for understanding inferential tests that occur later in the semester. The fundamental concepts associated with inferential techniques-such as the sampling distribution--are particularly important to students in introductory social statistics because these concepts help them understand how social scientists use a single sample to make generalizations about a larger population. As many of those who teach introductory social statistics would agree,