This paper is organized in three sections. First, we examine the justification for attending to non-cognitive issues within the larger context of the goals of statistics education Next, we briefly review and critique existing approaches to research on students' beliefs and attitudes towards statistics. Finally, we explore implications for assessment practices in statistics. Finally, we explore implications for assessment practices in statistics education and for further research. (By research we refer both to "academic" research done for increasing general knowledge, as well as to local research that individual teachers or statistics departments can, and in our view should, undertake in order to be informed about where their students stand and to be able to provide a better service to learners.)
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education