Page 31 - Ideas

conducting a research study. “When you talk about statistical power better. The analogy also led the students
sample size being important, the appreciation isn’t really to realise that statistical power did not guarantee that
there for them,” William explained. He recalled vividly researchers could find an effect. This analogy was to
the struggle when teaching the concepts for the first become the inspiration for the two innovative teaching
time. “It was hard! Maybe only 2% of the class was tools that William developed subsequently to teach these

following along while the other 98% were lost… it just concepts.
felt like a struggle because I just could not communicate
to the students in a concrete way.” William came to
realise the limitations of PowerPoint slides and how some
things were better learnt through experience. “It does
not have to be real-life experience, so games can be
really helpful,” he said. “Games can provide a simulated
experience and it is important for students to go through
it themselves.”

Innovative tools that provide concrete experience

William had a eureka moment when he next taught the
same module. A student asked him a question about
statistical power and he came up with an analogy to

make the abstract concept a little more concrete. He
gave the example of using a metal detector to look for a
buried treasure. “(Statistical) power is like when you have
a really strong metal detector that is able to find all kinds
of pieces of metal, so even when a buried treasure is
deep under the ground, the metal detector has a high
chance of finding it,” he explained. After giving this
example, he realised that it helped the students
understand and appreciate the underlying idea of