Promoting autonomous learning in statistics among undergraduate medical students

For many educators, the idea of autonomous learning in statistics among undergraduate medical students may seem too much of a utopia to be worth pursuing. This unhappy scenario can place undue pressure on teachers of statistics to assume the rôle of instant service provider. Furthermore, tomorrow’s doctors need to make informed judgments among competing sources of evidence, including statistical findings, in order to gain an accurate perspective on best practice. As teachers of statistics, we therefore have a responsibility to pursue strategies for turning the autonomy dream into a reality. Here, I seek to encourage educators through providing examples of such strategies based on successful teaching practise and findings from recent educational literature. In so doing, I take a multidisciplinary approach to statistics education and recommend ideas for integrating these strategies with teaching activities within existing medical programmes.