Abstract:

At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, the teaching of Statistics in the non-university education system in Portugal was reinforced and extended.

These curricular guidelines and investigations are a consequence of the importance that statistics has achieved in society. Statistics is an essential tool for every citizen, both in their reading of the surrounding reality and in their day-to-day decisions, and in their critical capacity and civic intervention in society.
In order to achieve the desired success in statistical education, it is also necessary to know the teachers' attitudes towards statistics and in this process identify negative or less positive attitudes, as well as the factors that influence them, so that this knowledge can contribute to be able to outline and plan actions at the level of education and statistical training in an appropriate way. That is taking in consideration also the statistical and didactic knowledge of Statistics, affective aspects of the teacher in relation to Statistics.

Another reason for interest in this area for this investigation was the existence of a growing interest in research in the area of affectivity in relation to Statistics, and in particular also in attitudes, but which appears essentially centered on students, with few specific studies with teachers. In addition, this interest is reinforced on the one hand because there is no previous study in Portugal on this topic and, on the other hand, by the existence of the study by Estrada (2002) carried out in Spain with characteristics very close to those intended for this investigation.

This study focuses on the measurement and characterization of attitudes towards Statistics of teachers of the 1st (6 to 10 years) and 2nd cycle (11 to 12 years) of Portuguese basic education using a scale already tested in sociological and educational conditions not very different and with good psychometric characteristics, which are also intended check if they remained in this investigation. In this context, we intended to analyze the factors that determine or influence the attitudes towards statistics of these teachers. To contribute positively to the change or improvement of teachers' attitudes towards Statistics and, indirectly, to the success in teaching it.

In order to better understand the predisposition and commitment of the teachers to the process of teaching-learning of statistics, as well as their training, it is also necessary, in the affective domain, to know their attitudes about Statistics. Based on the 1098 teachers of 1st and 2nd cycle of basic Portuguese education answers, this study focuses on the measurement of their statistical behavior as well as the factors that determine their statistical behavior using the Scale of Physical Attitudes. The attitudes scale of Estrada (EAEE) has good psychometric characteristics. It was concluded that, in general, the behavior of Statistics by the analyzed teachers was positive.

Keywords:

Teacher attitudes, Statistics education, Teacher training, Mathematics teaching, Affective domain.