Math 445—Guidelines for Class Discussion

When reading the articles (or specific textbook sections) for class discussion, I expect you to dig in, take notes (which you can easily reference in class), ask questions, and think carefully about the information presented. It’s a good idea to read the article twice—once to get the big-picture idea(s) and another time to ensure you understand the details.

Here are some examples of things to think about when doing the reading:

• What big issues are raised?

• What is the practical importance of these issues?

• What questions do you have? (Note—you should think hard, on your own, about how to answer the questions you have. If you’re still left wondering, then your question is a good one to raise in class discussion.)

• What was something surprising or interesting that you learned?

• Can you think of additional applications of these concepts (beyond the examples mentioned)?

When you’re done with the article, besides being prepared to discuss specifics (as mentioned above), you should also be prepared to give a general summary of the article—how would you summarize the main point(s) in just a few sentences? Are you prepared to answer questions asked by other students or by me?

We are a small class, which is conducive to interesting class discussion. I want the discussion to be not simply between each student and me—I want you to discuss things amongst yourselves (and answer each others’ questions). To encourage this, I might look away from you as you talk (not because I’m not interested in what you have to say, but because I want you to look around the circle at everyone as you talk). Furthermore, it’s important to not only think carefully about what you want to say, but to attentively listen to other students.

Some specific guidelines for the data-collection readings

First, read the general guidelines just listed (these should be applied to all reading assignments). Here are some specific examples of things to think about (but our discussion will not be limited to these):

• Why do we care about data collection?
• What are different things that can go wrong? And how can we deal with these problems?
• Data collection is often glossed over as being “easy” (and the statistical analysis is often seen as difficult); how would you convince a novice that he/she must seriously consider data collection methods?
• Do you have any questions, wonderings, or surprises based on the Chapter 3 reading?
• Do you have any questions, wonderings, or surprises based on the Gallup Poll reading?
• How would you answer the question, “how can 1000 people really represent the nation?”
• Can you give examples of wording or ordering of questions that might make a significant impact?
• How do you think cell phones impact phone-survey results?