Students' attitudes toward statistics: implications for the future

College Student Journal, Sept, 2004 by Jamie D. Mills

Finally, students primarily agreed with the statements on the difficulty subscale (mode = 5.5). On the one hand, students agreed that statistics is a complicated subject (mode = 6), that it requires a great deal of discipline (mode = 6), and that statistics is highly technical (mode = 5), but on the other hand, they also agreed that statistics formulas are easy to understand (mode = 5). As far as disagreement for this subscale, students disagreed that statistics is a subject quickly learned by most people (mode = 2), and that it involves massive computations (mode = 3).

Table 3 presents the Spearman correlations between select items from the survey. Results for important variables that have been studied in previous research are considered. In particular, the relationship between items 28 (confidence), 32 (mathematics skill), and 34 (statistics experience) with items 1 (like statistics), 4 (formulas easy), 5 (statistics is worthless), 7 (statistics should be required), 20 (scared by statistics), 22 (can learn statistics), 26 (difficult to understand), and 27 (new way of thinking to do statistics) are discussed. In addition, beta weights, asymptotic standard errors, and odds ratios are reported from the logit model to further describe important variables related to gender in Table 4. The relationship between item 36 (gender) with items 1 (like statistics), 20 (scared by statistics), 22 (can learn statistics), and 28 (confidence) are considered. A discussion of the results linked back to previous research and the conclusion ends the paper.

How confident are you that you can master introductory statistics material?

Students who felt confident about mastering statistics material also agreed that they can learn statistics (r = .52, p < .0001), they like statistics (r = .41, p < .0001), and statistics formulas are easy to understand (r = .34, p < .0001). They disagreed that they are scared by statistics (r = -.52, p < .0001), that it is difficult to understand statistics concepts (r = -.57, p < .0001), that statistics is worthless (r = -.26, p = .0004), and that people have to learn a new way of thinking to do statistics (r = -.22, p = .0018). Although the latter relationship may be considered weak, the other items appear to be moderately correlated.

How good at mathematics are you?

Students who reported that they were good in mathematics also reported to like statistics (r = .32, p < .0001), that they can learn statistics (r = .27, p = .0002), and they also agreed that statistics formulas are easy to understand (r =. 16, p = .0305). There was a moderate and negative association between students who reported being good in mathematics and the statement 'I am scared by statistics' (r = -.39, p < .0001) and the statement 'I find it difficult to understand statistics concepts' (r = -.35, p < .0001).

How much experience with statistics (e.g., courses, research studies) did you have BEFORE taking this course?

Students who reported experience with statistics also reported that they like statistics (r = .27, p = .0002), that statistics formulas are easy to understand (r =. 16, p = .0271), and that they can learn statistics (r =.18, p = .0137). These items appear to be weak to moderately correlated. Also, students with statistics experience also disagreed that they are scared by statistics (r = -.33, p < .0001) and that statistic concepts are difficult to understand (r = -.36, p < .0001).