Abstract:

Statistics courses are included in almost all social science undergraduate programs, given the recognized importance that statistical training has for professionals in this field. However, the majority of students in this field do not have strong mathematical training, and they do not show an inclination for quantitative methods. There is a common belief that their attitudes towards Statistics are mostly negative. Since attitudes are recognised as an integral part of the learning of any educational content, social science students’ negative attitudes could lead to difficulties in acquiring statistical skills and in using Statistics correctly in their professional future. For those students who have more negative attitudes, these difficulties would be greater. If, for instance, women have attitudes towards Statistics that are more negative than men, female students would find that the difficulties mentioned above would be greater. This arouses the interest of analyzing the differences in attitudes by students’ characteristics, such as gender.

The literature on educational gender differences reveals that gender inequalities in education have significantly changed in recent decades. In Western countries, women enrolled in undergraduate university studies outpace men. However, some differences persist. This is the case of preferences for different study subjects. Many research works observe gender differences in beliefs about enjoying studying different fields and differences in preferences. In this sense, the evidence provided by previous studies on the subject shows that women's choice for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects is lower than for men.

Considering these antecedents, this work addresses the analysis of gender differences in attitudes towards Statistics of social science undergraduate students, using a survey administered to students of social science degrees in the University of the Balearic Islands.

The survey instrument included the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS©), widely used and applied in Statistics education studies, along with some questions regarding demographic and academic characteristics of the respondents, such as gender, previous achievement in Mathematics and problems when studying Mathematics and/or Statistics. The SATS© is made up of six components (Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value, Difficulty, Interest and Effort), and consists of a total of 36 items.

Results show that students’ assessments of the attitudinal components are positive, except for Difficulty and Affect. The relationship between the six attitudinal factors and the demographic and academic characteristics of students has also been investigated. Gender differences are identified in four of the six components of the SATS©. Women show lower mean scores in Affect, Value and Difficulty, and higher mean scores in Effort. From the results there emerge recommendations for teaching and learning, as well as for the improvement of attitudes towards Statistics in Social Science degrees, taking into account gender differences. Statistics lecturers should be aware of gender differences to avoid women more negative attitudes towards Statistics to turn into more significant deficiencies in learning and acquiring statistical skills and in a poorer use of Statistics in their future professional life.

Keywords:

Students’ attitudes, Statistics, SATS©, social science studies, gender differences.