Soo Yeon Yoon: This is how I teach at SSU
“There is a ton of data and information out there, but that does not mean that it is accurate or valid. So the signature assignment I do requires students to evaluate a newspaper article that makes a claim. One thing many of them learn is that some of the most widely read news articles are the same ones that are notorious for putting out junk journalism.”
Soo Yeon Yoon: This is how I teach at SSU
School: Social Sciences
Position: Assistant Professor of Sociology
What courses do you teach? I teach an upper division General Education course - Statistics and Society. I also teach Sociology of Families, Social Stratification, Population and Society, and senior seminar - Family and Inequality, and Statistics and Society.
Statistics and Society is an Upper Division Area B GE course. What are the general course goals? The goal is to take the basic knowledge they gain in intro to statistics - which I review with them - and then have them directly apply to real life data with a focus on their own disciplinary knowledge and interests.
One of the major challenges the US faces as a country is the spread of disinformation, particularly around data and statistics. What tools do you hope the students learn to combat this challenge?
I love this question! The first thing is that there is a ton of data and information out there, but that does mean that it is accurate or valid. So the signature assignment I do requires students to evaluate a newspaper article that makes a claim. They then have to identify and analyze the research articles behind the claim and evaluate its merit and decide whether or not it is junk journalism versus a valid, evidence-based argument. One thing many of them learn is that some of the most widely read news articles are the same ones that are notorious for putting out junk journalism.
Statistics can feel like an intimidating subject for students, especially if their prior experiences in Math were not positive. How do you help them develop a growth mindset?
This is so true. I remember one time at the outset of the course, a student was so distressed even by the term “statistics” because of her prior experiences, that she was in tears. But she said that she wanted to move past it and would work hard to do so. She met with me in office hours almost every week and we worked together. She received a B+ in the course, which she was so proud of. At the end of the semester she thanked me for helping her work through this phobia of math and to succeed.
What have you learned from the students?
I think they come from a very wide range of backgrounds and degrees of comfort with statistics. Some are math majors, others are from arts and humanities. They all come to fulfill this GE requirement but there is such a range in mindset. So my goal is to figure out what are common interests that resonate across this range of students, so that I can engage them in learning the skills. So I spend lots of time trying to find relevant data for them to use. For example, I found some data on wildfire data in the region over the past ten years. They came away with understanding the patterns and issues over time and gave them a sense of agency and control living with the challenges of the region. I also push them to explain existing data driven findings in terms of their lived experiences to give them a taste of theoretical based thinking.
How did you become interested in Statistics?
I tell the students this story. As a sociology major, statistics was a required course, and I was not initially interested in it. But I took research methods and was able to design my own survey and collect data. This was it. I had an opportunity to work with a professor in the department on his research on college students using large data sets. I subsequently wrote my senior undergraduate thesis using this data set. This experience shaped the course of my entire career.