Pathways for teaching statistics in the health area

Abstract

The teaching of statistics has been gaining prominence and affirming itself as an area of study, especially due to the need to qualify the training of professionals. In this paper, we aim to discuss the history of statistics teaching based on two existing reviews of literature written in 1995 and 2007, respectively. Therefore, we conducted our own review, focusing on higher education in the health area. In regards to the studies that have been published since 2007, it is evident an increase in the use of the Internet, the search for methods for teaching specific contents and the effort to promote literacy as well as the distribution of statistical results. We believe that the usage of methodologies based on learning theories and developed through research studies on real data supported by virtual and face-to-face technologies is appropriate with the evolution that the teaching of statistics demands. This link may improve the training of health professionals.