Nano-Project Qualifying Exam Process: An Intensified Dialogue between Students and Faculty
Show simple item record
| dc.contributor.author |
Blitzstein, Joseph Kalmon
|
|
| dc.contributor.author |
Meng, Xiao-Li
|
|
| dc.date.accessioned |
2011-09-22T19:18:54Z |
|
| dc.date.issued |
2010 |
|
| dc.identifier.citation |
Blitzstein, Joseph, and Xiao-Li Meng. 2010. Nano-project qualifying exam process: an intensified dialogue between students and faculty. The American Statistician 64(4): 282-290. |
en_US |
| dc.identifier.issn |
0003-1305 |
en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri |
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:5139086 |
|
| dc.description.abstract |
An effectively designed examination process goes far beyond revealing students’ knowledge or skills. It also serves as a great teaching and learning tool, incentivizing the students to think more deeply and to connect the dots at a higher level. This extends throughout the entire process: pre-exam preparation, the exam itself, and the post-exam period (the aftermath or, more appropriately, afterstat of the exam). As in the publication process, the first submission is essential but still just one piece in the dialogue. Viewing the entire exam process as an extended dialogue between students and faculty, we discuss ideas for making this dialogue induce more inspiration than perspiration, and thereby making it a memorable deep-learning triumph rather than a wish-to-forget test-taking trauma. We illustrate such a dialogue through a recently introduced course in the Harvard Statistics Department, Stat 399: Problem Solving in Statistics, and two recent Ph.D. qualifying examination problems (with annotated solutions). The problems are examples of “nano-projects”: big picture questions split into bite-sized pieces, fueling contemplation and conversation throughout the entire dialogue. |
en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship |
Statistics |
en_US |
| dc.language.iso |
en_US |
en_US |
| dc.publisher |
American Statistical Association |
en_US |
| dc.relation.isversionof |
doi:10.1198/tast.2010.10027 |
en_US |
| dash.license |
OAP |
|
| dc.subject |
Ph.D. qualifying examination |
en_US |
| dc.subject |
preparation of and for exams |
en_US |
| dc.subject |
confidence intervals with restricted parameter space |
en_US |
| dc.subject |
bias-variance trade-off |
en_US |
| dc.subject |
mean-squared error |
en_US |
| dc.subject |
statistical education |
en_US |
| dc.title |
Nano-Project Qualifying Exam Process: An Intensified Dialogue between Students and Faculty |
en_US |
| dc.type |
Journal Article |
en_US |
| dc.description.version |
Author's Original |
en_US |
| dc.relation.journal |
The American Statistician |
en_US |
| dash.depositing.author |
Blitzstein, Joseph Kalmon
|
|
| dc.date.available |
2011-09-22T19:18:54Z |
|
Files in this item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
-
FAS Scholarly Articles [5133]
Peer reviewed scholarly articles from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
Show simple item record
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)
