By Matthew Dunham, Alana Unfried (California State University, Monterey Bay); Douglas Whitaker (Mount Saint Vincent University)
Information
Student attitudes towards statistics are connected with numerous important educational outcomes in statistics. Previously developed surveys on student attitudes towards statistics have exhibited poor psychometric properties, were not developed under educational theory, or are simply outdated. The Student Survey of Motivational Attitudes toward Statistics (S-SOMAS) (developed under NSF DUE-2013392) was developed under the Expectancy-Value Theorem (EVT) Framework and aims to measure undergraduate student attitudes towards statistics. The S-SOMAS has undergone numerous rounds of pilot administrations and revisions, leading to a second pilot instrument with 88 items measuring 8 theoretical constructs. The revised S-SOMAS was administered to 3,114 undergraduate students at 41 Universities across the United States in Fall 2021, collecting both demographic and attitudinal information. This poster will give an overview of the S-SOMAS instrument and describe its psychometric properties. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory were used to determine which items to retain in the survey. Results show strong reliability and validity with a clear factor structure based on educational theory. Come learn about the current development of the S-SOMAS and how instructors can get involved in the Fall 2022 national data collection.