[R-sig-ME] Teaching to use lme4

[Philipp Doebler]

Hello everyone,

in around 2 months time I intend to explain to psychology students (master's
degree) the use of lme4. My experience shows, that viewing mixed models as
multilevel models is a good way to motivate the use of random effects (pupils
within classes within schools...). My intention is though not only to teach
"recipes" that are to be copied later, but to enable students to really apply
mixed models, beyond the mutlilevel perspective.

On the other hand translating any mixed model to a formula requires some
effort. Many students, at least initially when we start R with simple things
like lm(), struggle a lot with the syntax. I do not doubt that my students are
clever, but as psychologists they have not been exposed a lot to formal
languages, so I would like to ask for advice on how to teach, say, arriving at
a formula.


Best regards, Philipp