ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes work by the authors in listening to non-science students using four different approaches to find out why they were unhappy with a ‘service’ statistics course, as a first step towards raising their interest.
The authors have different backgrounds one in statistics, the other in mathematics education. A blend of these skills was particularly valuable in developing a helpful understanding of students’ appreciation of the course.
The approaches used were very effective. Journal keeping inspired the students to think more deeply about the course content, and this led to some changes in the course emphasis.
While a small, often vocal, minority remained negative, most found the course to be at least satisfactory, and failures were usually due to non-academic reasons. Finally, finding that the vocal minority was not representative of the class inspired the lecturer to work for still further improvements.
