Students’ Attitude Towards Statistics
- 1. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 1 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 Students’ Attitude Towards Statistics NONDITA PHUKAN, Research Scholar, Assam Down Town Univresity, Guwahati Dr. MANASH PROTIM KASHYAP, Assistant professor, Assam Down Town University, Guwahati, Assam Dr. MANOJ KUMAR BHOWAL, Associate Professor, J.B. College., Jorhat, Assam Abstract: The study used the Survey Attitudes toward Statistics (SATS) devised by Candace Schau to investigate the attitudes toward statistics and the relationship of those attitudes to the students’ sex, course and performance. Participants’ responses are analyzed through mean, t-test and pearson correlation. Findings revealed that students have positive attitude toward statistics, though some display a negative attitude on statistics .The students have different attitudes when clustered according to their sex, course and performance. A pattern on the students’ performance and attitudes was revealed, the more positive the attitude is, the higher the performance. INTRODUCTION Statistics had been believed to start at around 1749.In the early times statistics was used primarily to gather information about a state but today it is considered as one of the most important tools not only for gathering information but also as an inductive method in research methodology. Statistics had been a part in every college’s curriculum, for it is given in a series of courses. Despite of the students’ familiarity in the subject, there are a number of students who dislike statistics. They believed that it is a complicated field because it is related to mathematics, probability, computers and statistical programs. In a society where statistics is generally respected and highly regarded but relatively rarely understood, knowledge of statistics can make a difference in one’s quality of life. However, there is one more important issue to becoming a statistically able individual than just taking the required statistics course, passing the subject and then forgetting it- and this is identifying those individuals who have negative attitudes to statistics and gain a better understanding of what specifically contributes to their attitudes toward Statistics. Hence, more works are to be accomplished in order to help students turn their negative attitude into a more positive attitude toward
- 2. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 2 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 statistics. Continuing development program is an important strategy to remedy the lack of students’ statistical content and knowledge and therefore it is important to motivate them to participate actively in every activity so they will understand the importance of statistics and how applicable it is in their future careers. OBJECTIVE The objective of this research is to study the attitude of the students toward statistics. The main questions are– 1) What is the students’ attitude toward statistics? 2) Do students differ in their attitudes toward statistics across discipline? 3) What is the students’ performance in Statistics? METHODOLOGY This study was carried out on the undergraduate non majoring statistics students of three subjects viz Commerce, Economics, and Education enrolled in Dibrugarh University. SATS-36 is used to collect information of students in the beginning of their semester (in which the paper exists) and at the end of the respective semester.SATS-36 has a seven-point response scale (1=strongly disagree,4= neither disagree nor agree, 7= strongly agree). The survey is available in pre and post versions to measure attitude toward statistics at the beginning and at the end of the semester. A mean score was employed to conclude the respondents’ feedbacks toward each attitude items given in the survey form. A high score shows a positive attitude. Assessment of interpretation about the student’s attitude toward the statistics is categorized as positive if the mean score is 4.50 to 7.00, neutral for 3.51 to 4.49 and negative for scores 0.00to 3.50. A sample of 345 graduate students of Dibrugarh university participated in the study . This sample included 178 commerce students, 57 Economics students and 109 Education students. The Survey Attitude Toward Statistics (SATS) created by Candace Schau in 1990 is used. The SATS measures six attitude component: Affect, Effort, Cognitive Competence, value, Difficulty and Interest. Data analysis The data are analyzed using the mean, t-test and pearson correlation. Table-1 contains the demographic characteristics of the 345 students who completed the administration of the survey. Table-1.Table for Demographic information Variables Frequen cy Percenta ge (%) Sex Male 191 55.36
- 3. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 3 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 Female 154 44.64 Total 345 100.00 Course Commer ce 178 51.59 Educatio n 109 31.59 Economi cs 57 16.52 Total 345 100.00 Performan ce Very good 20 5.80 Good 153 44.35 Fair 130 37.68 Pass 42 12.17 Total 345 100 Table-2 provides the overall attitude toward statistics by considering the 6 component of the SATS instrument for pre and post version. Table-1 Overall attitude toward Statistics. Component Mean Pre- test post- test Effort Affect Cognitive Competence Difficulty 5.51 4.43 4.56 3.49 4.47 5.55 4.71 4.77 3.53 4.17 Value Interest Overall 5.10 4.50 5.36 4.57 The above table shows that students have positive attitude toward Effort, , Interest component in pre and post test. But students display neutral attitude on value component in both the test. On Affect component students display neutral attitude in pre test but positive attitude in post- test. But again students display negative attitude on difficulty component in pre test and neutral attitude in post test. Table-3 describe the attitudes of the students to statistics when their course, sex and performance are considered. Table-3 Attitude of the students toward statistics by the selected variables. Variables Mean Pre Post Sex Male 4.5848 4.6176
- 4. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 4 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 Female 4.5180 4.5439 Course Commerce 4.6096 4.7978 Economics 4.3756 4.4679 Education 4.3876 4.4391 Performance very good 5.493827 5.22629 Good 4.482107 4.555745 Fair 3.550387 3.622201 Pass 2.732026 2.680538 From the above table, we have found that male and female students have positive attitude to statistics in both the test. Again Commerce students have positive attitude to statistics but Education and Economics students have neutral Attitude toward statistics for pre test and post test. The performance of the students in the subject simply described their attitudes . The students who have high grades have a higher positive attitudes as compared to those who have lower grades. Table-4 Difference in the Attitude of the students toward statistics for pre test. Table-4 shows that there is no significant difference between the attitudes of male and female students toward statistics.(sig value, .059>.05) Table-5 Difference in the Attitudes of the students toward statistics for post test Vari able s t d . f s i g ( 2 - t a i M e a n d i f f varia bles t d. f Sig (2- tail ed) Mea n diff eren ce Sex 1 . 8 9 3 3 4 3 .05 9 .066 82
- 5. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 5 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 l e d ) e r e n c e Sex - 1 . 1 7 34 3 .241 -0.7368 From the above table we see that there is no significant difference between the attitudes of male and female toward statistics in post- test(sig .241>.05). Table-6 Correlation between students’ attitude toward statistic in pre and post survey for different subject. Course Correlation between pre and post Sig (2- tailed) Commerce .480 .000 Education .594 .000 Economics .264 .073 From this table we see that in commerce and Education, correlation is significant.( .000<.05).But in Economics correlation is insignificant.(.073>.05) Table-7 correlation between attitude toward statistics in pre and post survey for male and female. Sex(male) Correlation between pre and post Sig (2-tailed) Effort .512 .000 Affect .204 .011 c.c .399 .000 Difficulty .116 .153 Value .331 .000 Interest .366 .000 Overall .512 .000 Sex (Female) Effort .561 .000 Affect .313 .000 Cognitive competence .417 .000 Difficulty -.084 .249 Value .477 .000 Interest .473 .000 Overall .473 .000 From the above table we see that in all component except Difficulty correlation are significant. In difficulty, correlation is insignificant(.153>.05 and .249>.05). Therefore we may say that there is positive correlation between attitude toward statistics pre and post according to male and female.
- 6. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 6 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 Conclusion: The present study examined the responses of the 345 students with majors from Commerce, Economics, and Education. The first question is to determine the attitudes of the students toward statistics. Overall the attitude of the students toward statistics is positive. When the attitudes components were analyzed, the students displayed a negative attitudes on the difficulty component. Some students find the subject difficult because they simply lack the knowledge needed to understand the subject. Some students spend few hours studying statistics and others do not really appreciate the subject and some simply ignore it. Some students get frustrated over statistics test in class, since statistics is a complicated subject, that it requires a great deal of discipline, highly technical and it is not the subject quickly learned by most people. Male and Female students display positive attitude toward statistics. The attitude of male and female students do not differ significantly. Finally, a difference was seen on the students’ attitudes when grouped by course. The Commerce students have more positive attitude compared to Economics and Education students. The students of Economics and Education have little interest on the subject and they do not see the value of the subject in their career. The students with better performance have more positive attitude toward statistics. Again a significant relationship between the attitude and course and sex of the students was also noted. Knowing the attitude of the students would bring a clear view that sex and course can predict attitude. Undergraduate students usually have a negative attitude toward statistics. Those who believed that they have a little knowledge and skills in statistics have trouble understanding the subject. Those who find the subject complicated and do not spend time learning it, sees statistics difficult. The students who have fun learning the subject, become interested to it. It was observed that student sex and course can predict performance and those having a positive attitude toward the subject perform better than those who have negative attitude on it. Knowing the students’ capability in understanding the lesson is needed, the teachers may use this in developing a teaching technique that will enhance students’ performance in statistics. Reference 1. Schau,C., Stevens,J., Dauphinee,T.L. and Del Vecchio,A.(1995): The development and validation of the survey of attitudes toward statistics. Educational and Psychological Measurement.
- 7. IDL - International Digital Library Of Educational Research Volume 1, Issue 6, June 2017 Available at: www.dbpublications.org International e-Journal For Education And Research-2017 IDL - International Digital Library 7 | P a g e Copyright@IDL-2017 2. Tempelaar,D.T., Van Der Loeff,S.S., Gijselaers,W.H.(2007): A Structural Equation model analyzing the relationship of students’ attitudes toward statistics, prior reasoning abilities and course performance. Statistics Education Research Journal 3. Noraidah Sahari, Hairulliza Mohamad Judi,Hazura Mohamed, Tengku Meriam Tengku Wook.Student’s Attitude toward Statistics Course. 4. Vanhoof,S., Kuppens,S., Sotos,A.E.C., Verschaffel,L. and Onghena,P. : Measuring Statistics Attitudes: Structure of the survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics.Statistics Education Research Journal (2011). 5. Garfield,J. and Ben-Zvi,D.(2007) : How students learn Statistics revisited:A current review of research on teaching and learning statistics. International Statistical Review.