Attitudes Toward Statistics and Their Relationship with Short- and Long-Term Exam Results

Abstract

This study uses the Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) scale (Wise 1985) to investigate the attitudes toward statistics and the relationship of those attitudes with short-and long-term statistics exam results for university students taking statistics courses in a five year Educational Sciences curriculum. Compared to the findings from previous studies, the results indicate that the sample of undergraduate students have relatively negative attitudes toward the use of statistics in their field of study but relatively positive attitudes toward the course of statistics in which they are enrolled. Similar to other studies, we find a relationship between the attitudes toward the course and the results on the first year statistics exam. Additionally, we investigate the relationship between the attitudes and the long-term exam results. A positive relationship is found between students' attitudes toward the use of statistics in their field of study and the dissertation grade. This relationship does not differ systematically from the one between the first year statistics exam results and the dissertation grade in the fifth year. Thus, the affective and cognitive measures at the beginning of the curriculum are equally predictive for long-term exam results. Finally, this study reveals that the relationship between attitudes toward statistics and exam results is content-specific: We do not find a relationship between attitudes and general exam results, only between attitudes and results on statistics exams.

Using the 4MAT Framework to Design a Problem-Based Learning Biostatistics Course

“…Students obtained statistically significant increases of practical importance in both the ATS Field and ATS Course subscales; 2.9 and 3.6 units respectively. Demonstrating high reliability of approximately 0.90, Cronbach's alpha for the two subscales is consistent with other studies (Wise 1985) (Vanhoof, Sotos, Onghena, Verschaffel, Van Dooren, & Van den Noortgate 2006). Six out of twenty-nine statements observed a statistically significant difference.…”

A Comparison of Student Attitudes, Statistical Reasoning, Performance, and Perceptions for Web-Augmented Traditional, Fully Online, and Flipped Sections of a Statistical Literacy Class

“…Unfortunately, statistics courses do not always have a positive reputation among students who are not majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Non-STEM students often have a significant amount of anxiety related to statistics courses, which can negatively affect their performance (Baloglu 2003;Finney and Schraw 2003;Onwuegbuzie and Wilson 2003;Verhoeven 2006;Dempster and McCorry 2009;Vanhoof et al 2011;Tishkovskaya and Lancaster 2012). As statistics educators, we should be interested in the attitudes our students have about statistics as a field, statistics as a class, and their own confidence in their ability to learn statistics.…”

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated a connection between student attitudes and success (e.g., DeVaney 2010; Vanhoof, Kuppens, Castro Sotos, Verschaffel, and Onghena 2011;Griffith et al 2012;Finney and Schraw 2003). Unfortunately, statistics courses do not always have a positive reputation among students who are not majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.…”

Empirical Research in Statistics Education

“…Although these models also imply that the most important factor is the mathematical or statistical knowledge before a course, the research of Vanhoof et al (2006) gave evidence that students' statistics-related affect is a main predictor of students' achievement in the long term.…”

“…Parts of the items from different variables were translated from SATS, finding the attitudes scale and the persistence scale to have a strong impact on the students' achievement. Vanhoof et al (2006) conducted a longitudinal study in which they measured students' statistics-related affect using the ATS (Wise 1985) and results in exams. They found a significant correlation between students' affect and students' achievement for the first year; however, in the second year only part of students' affect correlates significantly to the students' achievement and there was no significant correlation in the following years.…”