Measurement and predictors of a negative attitude towards statistics among LMU students

Abstract

The measurement of the attitude towards statistics and the relationship between the attitude towards statistics and several socio-demographic and educational factors was investigated in a survey on over 600 students of the Ludgwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU). The attitude towards statistics was measured by means of the Affect and Cognitive Competence scales of the Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS, Schau et al. 1995), that proved to be well suited for identifying students with high levels of negative attitude against statistics, even though potential effects of the translation into German were noticeable for the positively worded items. Predictors found relevant for a negative attitude towards statistics were gender, mathematics taken as an intensive course in high school, prior (perceived) mathematics achievement, prior mathematics experience as well as two of the newly included items on students' strategy applied in mathematics courses in high school: Students who named practicing as their strategy were less likely, while students who namedmemorizing as their strategy were more likely to show a negative attitude towards statistics. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.