COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE ATTITUDES OF SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE STUDENTS TOWARDS STATISTICS: THE ROLE OF STATISTIC ANXIETY

Abstract

Statistics is an essential part of the curriculum in Nigerias education landscape taught in the science and non-science classrooms. However, there has been a growing concern about the students attitudes towards statistics across every level. The present study aimed to determine whether there would be a difference between science and non-science students attitudes towards statistics and whether statistics anxiety contributes to the variations in students attitudes towards statistics in the tertiary education level in Nigeria. A convenience sample of two hundred and twenty-two first-year students pooled from three public tertiary institutions in the Kogi State of Nigeria participated in the study. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The participants completed a self-report measure of Survey of Attitude toward Statistics (SATS-36),initially developed by Schau (2003), and a modified version of the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (SARS) developed initially by Baloǧlu (2002). An independent t-test performed on the data established a statistically significant difference in the attitudes of the science and non-science students towards statistics at MD = 1.78, t (200) = 13.632, P< = .05. The result of a regression analysis performed on the data revealed that statistics anxiety positively predicted attitudes towards anxiety. It was concluded that the variation between the attitude of science students and non-science students towards the teaching and learning of statistics is moderated by statistics anxiety. The study recommends that robust attitude change strategies be adopted to reshape the attitudes of the non-science students towards statistics.