Bringing Conceptual Knowledge of Biostatistics into the Zone of Proximal Development via Integrated Computing Exercises

Mathematics Educators believe that mathematical ability is universal. My experience convinces me that computing ability is universal too and every student has an innate inclination to enjoy the beauty of computing. Many Students in public health schools are often relatively weak in mathematics and computing on enrollment because they have never been given much opportunity to develop their mathematical and computing minds. These fundamental ideas have allowed me to innovate biostatistics teaching methods and create refreshing course content. Many current methods of teaching biostatistics at public health schools focus on knowledge in declarative or procedural form. Public health students also need conceptual biostatistical knowledge to enable them to use statistical tools correctly and efficiently, but teaching conceptual knowledge to public health students has been hampered by students’ poor mathematical preparedness. Weaving higher mathematics into biostatistics courses is an ineffective and impractical way to address this issue, because higher mathematics falls far outside the zone of proximal development for most public health students. However, by translating the task of learning conceptual biostatistical knowledge into a process of doing carefully designed computing exercises that involve only basic mathematics and first principles, I have found a practical way to bring conceptual biostatistical knowledge into the zone of proximal development for public health students. This approach allows instructors to achieve a beneficial synergistic effect in teaching biostatistics and computing. In this article, I cite concrete examples to explain the rationale behind the novel approach and give evidence supporting the feasibility of that approach.