Fear of Statistics among TEFL Postgraduate Students

Statistics anxiety describes the apprehension that occurs when an individual is exposed to statistics content or problems and instructional situations, or evaluative contexts that deal with statistics. As statistics-anxious individuals always experience anxiety when doing statistics, statistics anxiety describes an enduring, habitual type of anxiety (Onwuegbuzie and Wilson, 2003; Macher et al., 2011). A large proportion of students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their curriculum (Zeidner, 1991). Especially in subjects such as psychology, education, or sociology, statistics anxiety is widely spread among students (Onwuegbuzie and Wilson, 2003; Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Ruggeri et al., 2008). These subjects are often chosen by students with less interest and more critical self-assessments in mathematics and science. Additionally, students often underestimate the extent of statistics in these subjects (Ruggeri et al., 2008). As a consequence, statistics anxiety is supposed to lead to manifold problems over the course of students' statistics education. Students who experience higher levels of statistics anxiety are assumed to be more likely to procrastinate learning, e.g., to postpone writing term papers, to study for examinations, or to keep up with the weekly readings (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Also, statistics anxiety is assumed to be related to less time spent on learning and to less efficient learning and study strategies (Macher et al., 2011, 2013). In the examination itself, statistics anxiety is related to worry and rumination and consumes processing capacity that would be needed for task performance (Papousek et al., 2012; Macher et al., 2013). Consequently, statistics anxiety often is regarded to be one of the most powerful negative factors of influence on performance in statistics courses (Onwuegbuzie and Wilson, 2003). However, is this really so clear-cut? The studies in which statistics anxiety as well as performance in the examination was measured show ambiguous results concerning the relationship between statistics anxiety and performance; correlations were at best moderate, more often weak and even zero-correlations were found. Therefore, one may critically ask whether statistics anxiety really influences performance in statistics courses, and what implications this has for attaining statistical literacy. The present article takes up this question, scoping evidence from studies where statistics anxiety and performance were measured, then looking at the contribution of various indicators of performance, concluding with arguments on relevant mechanisms and implications.

Commonly described by psychologists; anxiety is a psychological construct, as a state of apprehension, a vague fear that is only indirectly associated with an object (Scovel, 1991). A small amount of anxiety is believed to be needed for learners since it improves performance which is known as facilitating anxiety. Statistics anxiety is a feeling of anxiety when taking a statistics course or doing statistical analysis (Cruise, Cash, & Bolton, 1985). In general, statistics anxiety is a debilitating anxiety which negatively affect students’ performance. Statistics is one of the compulsory courses in most graduate programs. Students entering to these graduate programs especially in social sciences such as education, usually do not have any math and statistical background which creates a negative perception towards statistics related courses. These negative feelings and perceptions are thought to be affect their level of success. The aim of this study is, therefore, to determine the anxiety related views of graduate students towards statistics course. Qualitative content analysis with purposeful sampling is used in the study. To this end, the research data were obtained with the help of 26 graduate students studying in Department of Educational Sciences at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in the academic years of 2017-2018. A semi-structured interview form was used for data collection which aims to determine the anxiety related views of graduate students. Analysis of the results revealed five themes of statistics anxiety; (1) importance of the course, (2) math skills, (3) computer skills, (4) exam stress, and (5) foreign language skills. It can be concluded that defining and understanding the source of anxiety related behaviors will help to conduct more effective and efficient statistics courses.

Most postgraduate programmes, that have research components, require students to take at least one course of research statistics. Not all postgraduate programmes are science based, there are a significant number of postgraduate students who are from the social sciences that will be taking statistics courses, as they try to complete their postgraduate studies. As postgraduate students come from varied backgrounds, from those who have left school for more than a decade, to those who just completed their undergraduate studies, postgraduate statistics course may be one of the toughest to teach. These students come into the course with preconceived thoughts and attitude, which would either increase their anxiety towards statistics, or decrease their anxiety. Previous studies have shown that students reported high level of statistics anxiety during a statistics course. Unfortunately, there are limited studies on statistics anxiety in the Malaysian postgraduate population. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of anxiety towards statistics among postgraduate student. This study also aims to explore factors that are associated with statistics anxiety among postgraduate students at the Faculty of Education, UKM. As a secondary outcome, this study explores the type of evaluation preferred by postgraduate students in relation to a statistics course. All postgraduate students who registered for the Research Statistics course at the Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia, during the study period were invited to participate in the study. A total of 141 students completed the questionnaire and was included in this paper. This study found that a significant (21.7%) of the students surveyed have anxiety in at least one of the statistics anxiety domain, either in anxiety towards class activities, attitude towards class, attitude towards Mathematics or self-perception of ability to perform in statistics. This study found that ethnicity was associated with higher anxiety towards class activities, with the Malays being more anxious compared to the non-Malays. Both ethnicity and bachelor’s degree were associated with attitude towards class and attitude towards Mathematics. For these two domains, the male students and students from non-science based bachelor’s degree, showed more anxiety compared to female students. Self-perception of ability to perform in statistics was not associated with any socio-demographic factors included in this study. Students in this study overwhelmingly preferred individual assignment as an evaluation method, followed by mid-semester examination, and the final semester examination. Least preferred were online participation and presentation.

Research frequently uses quantitative approach to explore undergraduates’ statistics anxiety conditions. However, few studies of adults’ statistics anxiety use qualitative method or focus solely on graduate students. Moreover, even less studies focus on comparing adults’ anxiety levels before and after the introductory statistics course. This line of study is important to pursue since the introductory statistics course should play the very important roles of both preparing students’ the foundation knowledge of higher level statistics course, and inspiring students’ interests for higher level course. In addition, graduate students tend to have different backgrounds, learning motivations, and learning habits compared to their undergraduate counterparts. Overall, limited mixed research method is available on social sciences graduate students’ (1) statistics anxiety before and after the introductory statistics course and (2) actions taken to decrease the anxiety. This study seeks to fill this gap by incorporating a mixed research method to explore social sciences graduate students’ statistics learning processes. Findings suggest that the social sciences graduate students’ anxiety levels diminished after the introductory statistics course, even though they also experienced severe statistics anxiety at the very beginning. These findings became essential for institutions, higher education instructors, and social sciences statistics learners to consider.

Statistics anxiety is recognised as a major challenge facing students at all academic levels. It particularly affects their performance in statistics and research methods courses. This study investigates changes in students’ statistics anxiety based on the perceived utility of learning resources and class attendance within an introductory statistics course. Through the application of social cognition theory, we also examine the role of previous performance in mathematics, perceived competence in mathematics, and statistical self-efficacy as contributors to statistics anxiety. A quasi-experimental approach was used with undergraduate students completing a survey at the start and end of an introductory statistics course. Paired sample t-tests indicated a significant reduction in statistics anxiety. Additionally, Pearson correlation points to negative correlations between posttest statistics anxiety scores, perceived competence in mathematics, and statistical self-efficacy. Using hierarchical regression, class attendance was found to predict posttest statistics anxiety, with the smaller classes having a greater impact on statistics anxiety. These findings highlight the need for further interrogation of the role of class size and classroom activities with explorations of how these may reduce students’ statistics anxieties.

Self-compassion mindsets can predict statistics course performance via intelligence mindsets and statistics anxiety

Students often harbour negative attitudes towards research methods and statistics courses, and such attitudes may be associated with harmful cognitive and behavioural responses. Research on these effects has been restricted to the investigation of direct links between attitudes towards statistics, statistics anxiety, academic procrastination, and course performance. This study sought to examine the interconnected impact of attitudes towards statistics, statistics anxiety, and procrastination, on course performance in a cohesive model. It was predicted that attitudes towards statistics would indirectly affect statistical performance via statistics anxiety and procrastination in a sequential manner. The sample comprised 171 undergraduate psychology students from Australian universities. An online questionnaire collected information on participant demographics, attitudes towards statistics, statistics anxiety, procrastinatory behaviours, and performance in participants most recently completed statistics course. Data were collected cross-sectionally. All responses were anonymous. A sequential mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect of statistics anxiety and procrastination, controlling for age and gender. The results showed that more negative attitudes towards statistics are associated with greater statistics anxiety, which is in turn associated with greater procrastination, and finally with lower statistical performance. It was concluded that students who view their statistics courses as a threatening experience may fail to see value in their statistical education, which is associated with heightened statistics anxiety, increased avoidance of course-related activities, and in turn poorer course performance. Practical implications of the findings are also discussed.

This research investigates the role of reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) in statistics education among two distinct samples of undergraduate psychology students. In Study 1, 318 students in a third-year statistics course completed self-report measures of RST, anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy concerning the study of statistics. In Study 2, 577 students from first-, second-, and third-year statistics courses participated. Controlling for age and gender, both studies found students who were high in goal-drive persistence reported lower statistics anxiety, higher statistics self-efficacy and more favourable attitudes toward learning statistics, while students who were high in the tendency to avoid threat reported higher statistics anxiety. Those with a more sensitive behavioural inhibition system reported greater statistics anxiety and less favourable attitudes, in Study 2 but not Study 1. Results indicate that RST dimensions account for as much as 23% of additional variance in statistics anxiety, 18% in statistics self-efficacy, and 11% in attitudes, after controlling for age and gender. These studies highlight the utility of RST dimensions, notably goal-drive persistence, threat sensitivity, and behavioural inhibition, in providing critical information as to personality differences among students that need to be considered when developing programs targeting statistics anxiety, attitudes, and self-efficacy.

PurposeMany university students will experience statistical anxiety. Consequentially, the relationship between such anxiety and learning performance has been of concern to various educational researchers. To date, however, there has been no consistent resolution to this problem. Because previous studies have mainly used the perspective of variant-centered analysis rather than taking into account individual differences, this study argues that the different classes of statistical anxiety among university students may be an important influencing factor.Participants and MethodsIn this study, 1607 Chinese university students who had just completed a statistics course were assessed using the Statistical Anxiety Scale, Statistics Learning Self-Efficacy Scale, and Learning Engagement Scale, and an exploratory study was conducted to determine whether university students’ statistical anxiety could be divided into different classes. Latent profile and network psychometrics analyses were then used to analyze the data.Results(1) The latent profile analysis found that university students’ statistical anxiety could be divided into three different latent classes: mild test anxiety, moderate text anxiety, and severe statistical anxiety. (2) The correlation analysis showed that the relationships among the three latent classes of statistical anxiety and learning performance were not entirely consistent, indicating that there was heterogeneity in the statistical anxiety of these university students. (3) Further network psychometrics analysis showed that the statistical anxiety network structure of the three latent classes has different core nodes that reflected the most important symptoms of statistical anxiety.ConclusionThere is heterogeneity in university students’ statistical anxiety that can be divided into three latent classes. These core nodes in the statistical anxiety networks of the three latent classes were different, helping statistics instructors to better understand the nature of these latent classes, take different intervention measures for different latent classes of university students.

Background and purpose: In the present study, the relationship between achievement goals and students' anxiety in statistics course was investigated with regard to the mediating role of conflict. The present research is of the type of relational design, and more precisely, the correlation design is of the structural equation modeling type. Method: Among the first, second, third, and fourth year students, the second and fourth year students were randomly selected, and the number 324 students completed the questionnaires of this research. Finally, after removing incomplete questionnaires, 312 questionnaires were analyzed. In this research, in order to collect data, Middleton and Migli (1997) achievement goals scale, Pintrich and DeGroot (1994) academic engagement scale, and Kravis et al.'s (1985) statistics anxiety scale were used as research tools. In the present study, SPSS19 software was used for data recording and preliminary analysis, and AMOS software was used for data analysis, and a significance level of p < 0.05 was considered for all hypotheses. Findings: The fitted model shows the prediction of statistical anxiety. The numbers on the lines are standardized parameters. All paths are significant at the 0.001 level. Among the exogenous variables (mastery goals, performance goals and avoidance goals), mastery goals variable has the most direct effect on statistics anxiety. Conclusion: The findings of this research indicated that progress goals have a significant direct effect on statistics anxiety, that the effect of mastery goals and performance goals on statistics anxiety was negative and the effect of avoidance goals on statistics anxiety was positive.

The influence of perfectionism and statistics anxiety on academic performance (AP) in statistics courses was investigated using a multidimensional perfectionism scale and a statistics anxiety rating scale. For perfectionism, the factor of personal standards (PS) had a significant direct positive effect on AP, while the factor of parental expectations (PE) was significantly negatively correlated with AP. Other factors (concern over mistakes, organization, and doubts about actions) did not significantly influence AP. For statistics anxiety, the two factors (test and class anxiety and computation self-concept) significantly impaired AP. These results indicated a need for innovation in classroom instruction and the reform of statistics course content and presentation to reduce statistics anxiety and improve PS. There is also a need to ensure that students better internalize PE and to revise instructional design techniques to enhance students’ independent learning ability.

Doctoral students in education-related fields are required to take graduate level statistics courses and often face anxiety and negative attitudes about taking these courses. Using a mixed methods survey research design (N = 95), this study explored students’ experiences with statistics anxiety and how course instructors can support them to mitigate statistics anxiety and improve attitudes. Analyses of quantitative survey data found that students who had never taken a statistics course before beginning their doctoral program, and students that had completed less doctoral coursework had higher negative attitudes towards learning statistics; and older students had higher statistics anxiety. Plans to use research in the future predicted more positive attitudes and lower statistics anxiety. Analysis of qualitative survey data found that students: (1) expressed that their attitude towards learning statistics was very important and played a big role in how they approached their coursework; (2) considered their plans to use research skills in the future as motivation to learn statistics; and (3) believed that their instructors’ attitudes and instructional practices supported learning and decreased statistics anxiety. This study has implications for how statistics and research methods courses are taught in higher education, and how the experiences of graduate students in education may have lasting implications for research use in Prek-12 education settings.

The large number of statistical data present in everyday life makes statistical reasoning an absolute ability possessed by students. Meanwhile, the statistical reasoning is influenced by various cognitive and non-cognitive factors. This study emphasizes the influence of non-cognitive factors, which are the statistical anxiety. The purpose of this study is to describe the statistical anxiety of pre-service mathematics teacher and the influence of statistical anxiety on statistical reasoning. This research method is a mixed-method with sample of 33 pre-service teachers who are taking basic statistics courses. The instrument used in this study is a statistical anxiety questionnaire developed by Earp (2007)and a statistical reasoning test developed by Chan et al (2016). The result showed that the statistical anxiety of pre-service mathematics teachers was in the moderate level on the aspects of taking the courses, studying and practicing; and was in the higher level on the aspect of the examination. Statistical anxiety levels on every aspect are equally good for both men and women. Statistical anxiety does not directly affect the ability of statistical reasoning and it can only impair 0.1% of the statistical reasoning ability. On reasoning indicators and statistical anxiety indicators, there are relevant results between the statistical anxiety experienced by the pre-service teachers on the indicator for developing conclusions based on mathematical solutions, explaining statistical findings, and interpreting statistics with indicators on statistical reasoning; they areanalyzing and interpreting data.

The primary goal of this article is to provide detailed instructions as to how to run a mindset intervention in a psychology statistics course. A secondary goal is to provide preliminary data on such an intervention’s relationship to students’ statistics anxiety and course grades. Large randomized studies have demonstrated that using a one-time mindset intervention can have positive benefits for students’ course outcomes. We adapted this approach to design an intervention that includes a 75-minute presentation on what mindsets are, how are they are related to learning, and strategies for students to learn statistics with a growth mindset and, thereby, reduce their anxiety. Data from N = 75 students split into an experimental and comparison group suggested that receiving the intervention resulted in students’ mindsets becoming more growth oriented and that this was related to a decrease in anxiety and an increase in course grade.

The primary purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of using simulations as an instructional tool in an introductory doctoral level statistics course. The study focuses on the impacts of simulations on students’ attitudes and understanding of statistical concepts, as well as how the simulations could inspire students’ positive attitudes and improve statistics performance or would fail to help. In addition, since the statistics anxiety has been a primary obstacle to students’ statistics education, and “statistics anxiety” is experienced by as many as 80% of graduate students (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The researcher is interested to explore the details of the statistics anxiety related attitudes of this group of students, including examining their anxiety levels before and after taking the introductory statistics course. If the anxiety levels were not the same, what factors led to the release or acceleration of the statistics anxiety related attitudes after students complete the introductory statistics course. Moreover, the course has a hybrid online or flipped structure, and the target population for this study is social sciences adult learners, with limited background in statistics or mathematics. Given the prevalence of the online course, especially considering the constraints and background of this target population, the researcher is interested to determine the preferred statistics learning style of the social sciences adult learners, whether in-class or online, as well as the factors leading to the particular preference. The mixed method research approach is used in this study, combing both quantitative and qualitative research methods. A total of twenty-two social sciences adult learners is involved in this study, five of which are from the Spring semester, while seventeen of the remaining are from the Fall semester. The quantitative method of Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test, together with the qualitative method of thematical analysis, produce some impressive findings. The use of simulations could inspire social sciences adult learners’ positive attitudes toward statistics, develop a high self-efficacy, and improve the understanding of the statistical concept of Central Limit Theorem (CLT), even though not significant. In addition, the social sciences adult students’ anxiety levels diminish after they complete the introductory statistics course. Moreover, the online learning style is presently inappropriate for the introductory statistics course for adult learners from social sciences.