The Relevance of Statistical Knowledge for Teaching to Health Care Professionals: Reflections on a COVID-19 Press Briefing

Abstract

Statistics is an important component of the knowledge base for health care professionals. In this essay, it is argued that statistical knowledge for teaching (SKT) should be considered an important component of their preparation as well. Health care professionals often must help others understand the statistical basis for recommendations they make. A COVID-19 press briefing is used to illustrate the need for SKT when making high-stakes recommendations related to public health. It is conjectured that efforts to educate the public during the press briefing would have been enhanced if the presenters had deeper knowledge of the general public’s common statistical thinking patterns, the typical statistics curriculum experienced by members of their audience, and contemporary tools for teaching statistics. The importance of such knowledge to support smaller-scale individual interactions is also discussed. A call for SKT-centered partnerships between educational researchers and medical researchers is made; such partnerships could be mutually beneficial to the development of both fields and to society at large.

Keywords

• dynamic statistics software
• medical research
• pedagogical content knowledge
• statistical knowledge for teaching
• statistical thinking