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Professor Andy Field

National Teaching Fellow 2010 Statistics underpins the curriculum of many subjects at all levels of education. It is vital to equip students with the ability to evaluate scientific evidence but increasingly students suffer from 'statistics anxiety'. Andy has spent his career trying to empower students to learn statistics both in the classroom, through his 'statistics hell' website and through his hit textbook 'Discovering statistics using SPSS: and sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll'. Andy believes that if you engage students they will want to learn.
Year
2010
Institution
University of Sussex
Job Title
Professor of Child Psychopathology
National Teaching Fellow 2010 Statistics underpins the curriculum of many subjects at all levels of education. It is vital to equip students with the ability to evaluate scientific evidence but increasingly students suffer from 'statistics anxiety'. Andy has spent his career trying to empower students to learn statistics both in the classroom, through his 'statistics hell' website and through his hit textbook 'Discovering statistics using SPSS: and sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll'. Andy believes that if you engage students they will want to learn. It seems to work: "It's like seeing all the stats I've been supposedly studying for such a long time through a clean pair of glasses." "I shall succeed because your text has inspired me and instilled a sense of hope!" "(I) came to the point of the story of the poor man and the even poorer eel and now I'm lying on the floor and laughing. It's so great to have a book like this." "I never thought I was going to like Statistics, but you make me like it." What do the drug Viagra, Japanese quail sperm, speed dating and cosmetic surgery have in common? It's that they feature in Andy's statistical worlds. He'll help you find the answers to such life-enhancing questions as do people smell horrible after three days at a rock festival? Why can't the England football team take penalty kicks? Does Viagra increase libido? Are horoscopes accurate? If you go to Andy's lectures you might catch his rendition of The Normality Song (to the tune of Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time): 'My distribution is killing me, why can't it be shaped normally (normally), my K-S test is significant, it is a sign: to transform my data one more time'. Students whom Andy has never taught set up two Facebook groups: Andy Field Appreciation Society and Andy Field is our HERO with over 620 members. He has been voted best lecturer in the last two years' graduation yearbooks. Andy holds a University of Sussex Teaching Award and two British Psychological Society Awards for his teaching and his book.

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