Research

  • A multifactorial scale of attitudes toward statistics was developed, and factors related to attitudes toward statistics (objective and subjective mathematics background, anxiety, spatial ability, expectations, motivation, attitutdes toward computers, teacher and course evaluation, sex and sex-role stereotypes, and major) were investigated for college students in Spain. Regression analyses determined predictors of attitudes toward statistics. Predictive factors before the course included expectations of success and failure; attitudes toward computers; objective and subjective background; motivation; and state anxiety. Predictive factors at the end of the course included: expectations of success and failure; subjective and objective background; level of the subject; and teacher and course evaluation.

  • The purpose of this study was to extend the evaluation of Wise's Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) scale by examining responses in relation to (a) its factor structure and (b) the correlation of ATS subscale scores with students' grades in statistics courses at several levels of graduate study, students' sex (which was found to be a useful predictor by Woehlke & Leitner, 1980), and scores on measures of basic mathematics and comprehension of statistical terminology.

  • The purposes of this study were to develop an instrument to measure students' attitudes toward statistics (STATS), and to define the underlying dimensions that comprise the STATS. Six factors seem applicable: students' interest and future applicability, relationship and impact of the instructor, attitude toward statistical tools, self-confidence, parental influence, and initiative and extra effort in learning statistics.

  • This study illuminates some interesting parallels between statistics anxiety and mathematics anxiety in social science students. Parallel to what is confirmed for mathematics anxiety, two factors were observed to underly statistics anxiety scores, namely, statistics test anxiety and content anxiety. The study revealed modest though significant correlations between student attributes and the two confirmed dimensions of statistics anxiety. Furthermore, parallel to the inverse correlation reported for mathematics anxiety and math course performance, statistics anxiety correlated negatively with high school matriculation scores in math as well as self perceptions of math abilities. These data lend support to the hypothesis that aversive prior experiences with mathematics, prior poor achievement in math, and a low sense of math self-efficacy are meaningful antecedent correlates of statistics anxiety and thus lend some credence to the "deficit" interpretation of statistics anxiety.

  • The two subscales of the Attitude Toward Statistics scale (Wise, 1985), Attitude Toward the Field and Attitude Toward Course, were administered on the first and last day of class, and the Statistics Attitude Survey (Roberst and Bilderback, 1980) on the last day of class to 302 students in ten sections of an undergraduate introductory statistics course. The scales were reliable measures of students' attitudes toward statistics, were essentially unrelated to sex of respondent and year in college, and on last class administration correlated with course grade. The two subscales of the Attitude Toward Statistics scale were highly correlated with the Statistics Attitude Survey.

  • The purpose of the present short report is to investigate the correlates of statistics anxiety. The sample consisted of 151 first- and second-year-level female students in the department of educational sciences enrolled in statistics-related courses. The findings indicated that a priori anxiety of statistics was not reduced by acquaintance with the subject, nor was students' willingness to further study of statistics affected by this experience. Furthermore, grades in statistics were neither related to statistics anxiety nor to willingness to pursue further study of statistics. Inductive reasoning ability was significantly related to statistics anxiety but not to mathematics anxiety.

  • The present investigation compared two statistics attitude scales, the Statistics Attitude Survey (SAS) by Roberts and Bilderback (1980) and the Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) by Wise (1985). It was concluded that the ATS was essentially an alternate form of the previously developed SAS.

  • A 34 item scale entitled Statistics Attitude Survey (SAS) was developed and administered to three samples of students taking a beginning statistics course. Analyses showed that the scale was highly homogenous and that total scale scores had moderate correlations with statistics grades.

  • This study describes the development and validation of a new instrument entitled Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) to be used in the measurement of attitude change in introductory statistics students.

  • The Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) was designed for use in both research and instruction. A panel of instructors and introductory statistics students identified by consensus four facets of attitudes toward statistics: (a) Affect--positive and negative feelings concerning statistics; (b) Cognitive Competence--attitudes about intellectual knowledge and skills when applied to statistics; (c) Value--attitudes about the usefulness, relevance, and worth of statistics; and (d) Difficulty--attitudes about the difficulty of statistics as a subject. This structure was validated for a sample of undergraduate students using confirmatory factor analysis. Additional validity evidence was obtained through the correlation of SATS with Wise's Attitudes Toward Statistics scale, which showed significant, positive relationships between the two instruments.

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