Construction of a curriculum on statistical epistemology as part of science education

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H03050
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Science education
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Matsuo Masahiro 北海道大学, 理学研究院, 教授 (60333499)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 島谷 健一郎 統計数理研究所, データ科学研究系, 准教授 (70332129) ; 森元 良太 北海道医療大学, リハビリテーション科学部, 准教授 (70648500) ; 川本 思心 北海道大学, 理学研究院, 准教授 (90593046)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 統計哲学 / 科学哲学 / 統計学教育 / 科学教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

First of all, we planned a special lecture and exercise on the epistemology of Beyesian statistics, and gave it to students of CoSTEP in Hokkaido University, where students of various fields of science learn about science communication. In this special lesson, students learned about the relationship between the background of Bayesianism and its application, Bayesian statistics through a series of lectures and map-making of it by themselves. With this practice, we revealed an applicable framework of epistemology of statistics to education. Second, we organized and conducted a symposium on statistical epistemology in CLMPST, an international conference of philosophy of science, which was held in Prague in 2019. In this symposium, we discussed particularly Bayesian epistemology and explicated a roadmap toward settlement of philosophical conflicts between Beyesianism and frequentism.

Free Research Field

科学哲学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

現在の統計学教育は、主に頻度主義統計（統計テスト）についてトップダウンに手法を教える形が中心だが、この研究により統計学の背景思想について教育に取り入れる道筋を示すことができた。単に座学（知識）として教えるのではなく、講義と学生どうしのディスカッションを通して背景思想のマッピングをさせることが、統計学認識論に眼を向けさせ、見方を定着させる上で非常に効果的なことが分かった。こうした成果は、新しい統計学教育の一つの手がかりになると思われる。