The Future of Education

The teaching of Statistics in Economics and Business degrees continues to face the challenge of effectively connecting theoretical content with real-world applications, despite the growing availability of data and increasing demand for analytical skills. Students often perceive Statistics as an abstract subject detached from professional practice, which negatively affects motivation, conceptual understanding, and the ability to apply statistical methods to real problems. To address this gap, the University of Oviedo developed an innovative teaching experience within the institutional initiative Professionals in the Classroom, aimed at bringing professional practice closer to undergraduate students through the participation of external experts. The experience was implemented in the course Introduction to Economic Statistics, taught across several Economics and Business-related degree programmes, and included the involvement of a senior statistician from the Asturian Society of Economic and Industrial Studies (SADEI). The session sought to enhance students’ understanding of the relevance of Statistics in professional contexts and to illustrate recent developments in data use and applied statistical analysis. The design of the activity is grounded in the literature on innovation in Higher Education, which highlights the importance of active and contextualized learning approaches, particularly in quantitative disciplines (Biggs et al., 2022), and identifies lack of real-world context as a key factor behind negative student attitudes towards Statistics (Garfield et al., 2008). The incorporation of external professionals has been shown to promote experiential learning, increase motivation, and strengthen students’ perception of the practical usefulness of statistical methods (Coleman, 2013; Ormrod, 2004), with recent evidence confirming its positive impact when well aligned with course objectives (Kirby and Turner, 2024). The activity combined an introductory lecture on official statistics and their economic and social applications with two practical workshops focused on business and public-sector decision-making using real data. Student feedback, collected through a satisfaction survey, indicates a very positive evaluation, with high overall satisfaction, supporting the effectiveness of professional engagement initiatives in enhancing motivation and meaningful learning in Statistics education.