Abstract:

Students in secondary education often suffer high levels of anxiety and a reduction of their self-confidence in mathematical related activities, such as activities dealing with statistics. These bad feelings affect their academic performance. In this study, we want to analyse the different dimensions of student’s attitude towards statistics and the connections among them to evaluate the changes needed to improve them. We evaluate the 5 different attitudes towards statistics included in the Multi-factorial Scale of Attitudes Toward Statistics (MSATS) over the entire population of a single high school in their different educational levels. We used descriptive statistics to compare the level of the different attitudes, and the correlation matrix and a network plot between the variables representing these attitudes to evaluate the connections and interrelation between them. The results indicate externally driven attitudes, such as usefulness and enjoyment show lower values than internally driven attitudes. The connections found between the variables, reflecting different attitudes towards statistics, indicate the mutual interdependence between them. We advocate for the improvement of the perception of these dimensions through the use of more active learning methodologies and working on the applicability of the statistical concepts to students’ real situations. Eventually, a better perception of the usefulness and enjoyment of statistics will increase the motivation and self-confidence and reduce anxiety, which probably will improve the students’ performance in the subject.

Keywords:

Attitudes toward statistics, anxiety, self-confidence, motivation, usefulness, enjoyment.