Re: resampling methods are serious procedure?

On Feb 1, 10:56 pm, Old Mac User <chendrixst...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've used resampling methods to teach the concept of "probability" in
hypothesis testing.

<snip>

Just fyi, I have taught "statistics" and other subjects (such as
fitting data to nonlinear models via differential equations) to many
hundreds of students in industry (engineers, scientists, managers) and
have given lectures for thousands over a period of 45+ years.
Resampling is one of the few concepts I've found that actually "turns
them on".  Most come to my sessions with a bad taste (even bitterness)
about courses they have taken at universities.

<snip>

Let the flaming begin.

Indeed. The reasons students are turned off by statistics (as I was in
high school) is that they are taught classical statistical techniques
that: 1) do not make any sense, intuitively or theoretically, and
that they cannot therefore understand, only repeat; and 2) are wrong,
provably, in theory and example. Of course, these two points are
closely related.

When pressed, people who are heavily emotionally invested in classical
statistics for whatever reason like to make out that the fact that the
procedures go against intuition shows how 'difficult' the whole
subject is, and hence how much need we all have of their expertise.
This is the same kind of argument that the pre-scientific guilds used
to use against the free spread of knowledge, as it happens.

Using re-sampling to teach classical statistical techniques, while it
may 'work', therefore only reinforces the problem, by giving credence
to these techniques in the first place.

As I say, re-sampling is OK in itself: it is the uses to which it is
put that are the problem.

illywhacker;
.

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