Statistics in Action promotes a modern, data-analytic approach to learning statistics that allows students to uncover, display, and explore patterns in data. Most data sets are real-based on up-to-date research, historical case studies, and student-collected data. Students use tools systematically to build a coherent description of data-set patterns and to describe patterns in the language of their applied contexts.

The text relies heavily on technology and it shifts from memorizing formulas to learning concepts first through activities, then through an informal graphical approach, and then via a more formal definition. This method motivates students and increases their knowledge.