Review: The Art of Uncertainty (two reviews in one)

Click the image to see this book on Amazon (affiliate link)

The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck

(David Spiegelhalter, Pelican, £22)

This tome goes far beyond what students actually need to learn about probability at KS3-4, but its strength for secondary teachers is the sheer wealth of easily relatable examples it provides.

It could also find use as a resource for other subject areas outside maths. Your computing department will likely find the section on facial recognition interesting, for instance - Spiegelhalter observes that even if such systems can boast of high accuracy, most of their identifications will still be wrong.

There's also a good chapter on attempts at taking a scientific approach to uncertainty.

It might not be ideal bedtime reading, but the book's prose is easy to follow, with handy bullet-point summaries at the end of each chapter, and it's comprehensive in scope, complete with an excellent index and glossary of terms.

Here’s the review I actually sent in:

This goes far beyond what students need to learn about probability at both Key Stage 3 and 4. However, the strength of this book as far as the curriculum is concerned is the wealth of examples provided, each of which is easy to relate to.

Also, it would be a useful resource in other, perhaps less obvious, subject areas. For example, the Computing department would find the section on facial recognition interesting, because apart from possible ethical concerns, the fact is that even if the system has high accuracy, most of its identifications will be wrong.

For Science teachers, there is a very good chapter about the scientific approach to uncertainty.

While not exactly bedtime reading, the book is, on the whole, readable. Comprehensive too, with an excellent index and glossary of terms. In addition, each chapter ends with a short summary of what’s been covered, in the form of bullet points. Recommended.