Teaching
Dr. Berkowitz has been teaching at the university level for over 40 years. In his career to date, he has taught over 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students in credit courses for degree-granting programs. Most (over 14,500) have been taught at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
He began his teaching career, and discovered his great passion for it, during his time as a doctoral student at the University of Toronto where he was given full responsibility to teach introductory statistics to a class of 425 undergraduate students. After graduation, and then one year of teaching at Simon Fraser University’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dr. Berkowitz taught for four years (1985-1988) at UBC’s Department of Statistics.
Undergraduate Teaching in the Sauder School of Business BCOM program:
- He has taught the Application of Statistics in Business course (COMM191 – formerly COMM291) for the past 25 years. Since 2012 he has been the sole instructor of 600 to 800+ students per year.
- For five years (1996-2000) he taught an upper-level business statistics course (COMM411, aka STAT300) for BCOM students.
Graduate Teaching in Sauder’s RHL Graduate School:
- For 20 years, Dr. Berkowitz was the sole teacher of business statistics courses in the Full-Time MBA program (1989, 1991, 1994-2014), the Part-time MBA program (2004-2015), the Executive MBA program (2008-2013), and the International MBA program (2002-2012).
- From 2013 to 2021, he taught business statistics in the Master of Management Classic program and the Master of Management Dual Degree program.
- In the MBA programs his courses covered basic statistical methods, inference and modelling, as well as occasional courses in advanced data analysis. He also taught in various integrated foundations, and preparatory courses for each of the programs. Early in his career he also taught advanced mathematical statistics in the MSc and PhD programs.
- From 2002 to 2020, Dr. Berkowitz taught a course in statistics for management as part of the Master of Health Administration (MHA) program at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health.
- And for three years (2006-2008), he taught statistics in clinical practice, for undergraduates and graduates in the Biomedical Engineering Program at UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science.
Sauder Executive Education
- Dr. Berkowitz has prepared and delivered a one-day course called Puzzling it Out: Problem-Solving and Insight Thinking for Business.
Workshops, Short Courses, Seminars
Under the auspices of Berkowitz & Associates Consulting Inc., Dr. Berkowitz has taught many workshops and short courses in the public and private sector. Here is a partial list of courses and audiences.
- BC Children’s Hospital Neonatology Division – Introductory Statistics
- BC Patient Safety and Quality Council – Risk-Adjusted Modelling / SPC Charts (multiple presentations)
- Pearson Education Canada – Increasing Student Engagement in the Classroom
- Vancouver Island Health Authority – Introduction to Statistics
- Population Data BC – Introduction to Statistics
- BC Rural and Remote Health Research Network – Summer Workshops
- BC Children’s Hospital – Short Course on Statistics for Residents and Fellows
- YVR Strategic Planning – Introduction to Regression Modeling
- Ballard Power Systems/AFCC – Principles & Practice of Statistics, Design of Experiments
- Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies – Research Skills for Health Care Professionals
- Greater Victoria Hospital Society – Principles and Practice of Statistics
- Arthritis Society, BC/Yukon Division – Research Design, Data Analysis, Critical Appraisal
- QLT PhotoTherapeutics – Principles of Applied Statistics
- Price Waterhouse – Statistical Forecasting Techniques
- BC Hydro PowerSmart – Statistical Methods in Program Evaluation
Jonathan’s passion for teaching also extends to younger audiences, with performances at Science World, presentations on fun with mathematics, word games, and puzzles in many school classrooms. He is proud to say that he has taught at least one class at each grade level from kindergarten to PhD.
