Students’ Attitudes Toward Statistics Across the Disciplines: A Mixed-Methods Approach

Abstract

Students’ attitudes toward statistics were investigated using a mixed-methods approach including a discovery-oriented qualitative methodology among 684 undergraduate students across business, criminal justice, and psychology majors where at least one course in statistics was required. Students were asked about their attitudes toward statistics and the reasons for their attitudes. Five categories resulted for those with positive and negative attitudes and were separated on the basis of discipline. Approximately 63% of students indicated a positive attitude toward statistics. Business majors were most positive and were more likely to believe statistics would be used in their future career. Multiple methodological approaches have now provided data on the various domains of attitudes toward statistics and those implications are discussed.
 First published November 2012 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

Undergraduate Stem and Non-Stem Students’ Interpretation of Mean in an Infographic

“…Training in statistics is an integral part of many curricula around the world and that is the reason why students' attitudes towards statistics are of more interest as well (Emmioǧlu & Capa-Aydin, 2012;Hilton et al, 2004;Judi et al, 2011;Nolan et al, 2012). The majority of published studies investigated the students' attitudes toward a certain course in statistics (Donohue & Richards, 2009;Griffith et al, 2012;Mills, 2004;Rhoads & Hubele, 2000). In comparison, in this study, similar to Kaplar (2022), general students' attitudes were measured.…”

Syllabus factors: Perceptions of instructor and course impacted by graphics and skills descriptions.

“…A psychology statistics course syllabus modified from Project Syllabus (Wickline, 2019) was chosen as the stimulus for this study, given this course is a requirement for all students in the psychology major but not one, historically, that most students prefer to take (Griffith et al, 2012). We randomly assigned each participant to read one of eight syllabus versions that varied by length (shorter = 9-12 pages; longer = 20-23 pages); inclusion or absence of nine small, illustrative graphics; and inclusion or absence of a 2½ page skills-based syllabus section (Appleby et al, 2019).…”

PSYCHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS AND TECHNOLOGY SCALE (SASTSc)

“…Attitudes toward statistics have received an abundant amount of research attention (Bond et al, 2012;Griffith et al, 2012;Ramirez et al, 2012;Walker & Brakke, 2017). The majority of this research has focused on how attitudes are related to students' course performance (Dempster & McCorry, 2009;Emmioğlu & Capa-Aydin, 2012;Gal & Ginsburg, 1994;Lavidas et al, 2020) or statistics anxiety (Onwuegbuzie, 2004;Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003).…”