Statistical Assessment of Traditional and Nontraditional Students - Essay Example

Running head: STATISTICS ANXIETY AND ATTITUDE TO STATISTICS Do traditional and nontraditional students differ in their statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics Abstract This report is aimed at finding out whether traditional and nontraditional students differ in their statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics. The study was conducted using a sample of 205 students from a psychology. It is expected that the non-traditional students will have higher levels of statistics anxiety as well as negative attitude towards statistics. The study will also establish whether there is a relationship between anxiety and attitudes towards statistics. Through the literature review conducted, the study will also establish whether there is a relationship between anxiety and attitude towards statistics and the performance of students in statistics. Finally, the report will give recommendations that can be used to improve or reduce anxiety levels and create a positive attitude towards statistics among the students. Introduction In the early 90’s almost 40% of all college students were 25 years of age or older. According to Howard & Henney (1998), in 1998 that number had risen to almost 40%. Another study found conducted revealed that nontraditional students compose about a half of the entire undergraduate students (Kinsella, 1998). Perhaps it is important and necessary to define the terms traditional student and non-traditional students at this point in order to appreciate the significance of the study. A traditional student is a student who is about 18 years of age, single and proceeded directly to college after high school (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). This type of student has no physical or mental problem and hails from a family of college graduates. A non-traditional student in contrast did not directly join a college after graduating from high school, is a veteran and possibly has some physical or mental disability, is married and perhaps a parent. The non-traditional student is thus likely to experience a variety of challenges and special needs in the course of attending college (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). A major problem that these types of students are likely to face is financial problems. This is a serious problem for the non-traditional students because they will need to balance between their parental or job duties with class work. In a study conducted in 1991, Zeidner observed that a rising number of students were taking basic statistics course as a requirement in their curriculum. Zeidner also observed statistics could be one of the most challenging and rigorous course required by the school curriculum in the universities and thus evokes cognitive and emotional reactions which in fact influence their performance. Statistics anxiety is defined as the feelings of anxiety encountered when taking a statistics course or computing statistics work. Students have also shown that nontraditional students face different challenges in class in the course of their studies. Some of the challenges that these students face include unrealistic goals, social-familiar problems, poor self-image and at times extreme practical orientation. These together with poor time management, lack of proper preparation and need for extra teaching make the difference in performance and in anxiety and attitude towards statistics between nontraditional and traditional students. This study aims at finding out whether traditional and nontraditional students differ in their statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics. The main questions that the study attempts to answer are, do nontraditional students suffer or experience more statistics anxiety than the traditional ones and do their attitudes differ? One study conducted by Zanakis and Valenzi in 1997 indicated that statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics may impact on the general performance of the student in school in several fields including psychology, business, and education (Zanzkis & Valenzi, 1997). This justifies the study of the issues of statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics amongst students. Another research by Bradley and Wygant in 1998 made a comparison between anxiety levels of various types of learners and the effect that it has towards their performance. The research revealed that there is a relationship between anxiety levels and the performance. It further showed that the anxiety levels between different types of learners differ. The anxiety levels are different for instance in males than they are for the females. In addition to these studies, a study by Mills attempted to find out the student attitudes towards statistics. The research indicated that student attitudes towards statistics courses were negative (Mills, 2004). In another research, Mills (2004), attempted to bring out a positive perspective of students attitudes toward statistics in a study from the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics. The study showed that the application of technology in teaching statistics courses in addition to the reform movement in teaching the same created a positive attitude among the students towards mathematics. This is because the new teaching methods made the course more activity oriented as opposed to theory work alone. Another important observation to this research is the study by Finney and Schraw which indicated that there is a negative statistical difference between anxiety and attitude towards statistics (Finney & Schraw, 2003). This makes it necessary to examine the differences in both statistics anxiety and attitude to statistics in both nontraditional and traditional students. Although several studies have been carried out in relation to statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics, scarce literature is available on the issue of the differences between the two nontraditional and traditional students. This research was thus purposely conducted to find out whether a significant difference exists between traditional and nontraditional students in statistics anxiety and attitude towards students among these two groups of learners. A study on 301 nontraditional learners at Texas A&M International University showed that in addition to attending class full-time, 64% were on full time employment or part-time employment to meet the needs of their family members through a salary of less than thirty thousand dollars (Finney & Schraw, 2003). The study also revealed that 29% of the participants had school-aged children although 79% did not comfortably cater for their daily requirements. Most of the researches indicated that nontraditional students experience greater statistics anxiety compared to the traditional students (Finney & Schraw, 2003). This is due to the various challenges that the nontraditional students face as opposed to the traditional students. Similarly, the nontraditional students will have greater negative attitude towards statistics compared to the traditional students (Finney & Schraw, 2003). This is because possibly as a result of greater statistic anxiety cause by the challenges that the nontraditional students face, they will not perform well statistics. This will make them develop a negative attitude towards statistics. The research by Finney and Schraw indicated that there is a negative statistical difference between anxiety and attitude towards statistics. These have prompted the following hypotheses for the study: Nontraditional students will score higher than traditional students on the Statistics Anxiety scale. Nontraditional students will score higher than traditional students on the Attitude to Statistics scale. There will be a negative relationship between scores on the Statistics Anxiety and Attitude to Statistics scales. This research attempts to fill the gap left by many studies in the issues of statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics by narrowing down to the differences in the same between non-traditional students and traditional students. Method Participants A sample of 205 undergraduate psychology students enrolled in a statistics course at the University participated. Of the 205 students, 161 were traditional students while 44 were non-traditional students. Of the traditional students 34 were male and 127 were female, while of the 44 non-traditional students 13 were males while 31 were females. For the traditional students, the age range was between 18 and 24 years (Median=19), while for the non-traditional students their ages ranged from 25 to 64 years (Median=32). The median for the sample was 20. The students were required to complete the 2010 IRM Online Survey in order for their responses to be used in the study. Refer to table 1 for the analysis of the variables. Table 1 Statistical differences between the two variables Traditional and non-traditional students Traditional NonTraditional Total Sex Males Females n=34 n=127 n=13 n=31 n=47 n=158 Previous Maths Experience Less than Year 12 Year 12 Tertiary n=58 n=93 n=10 n=22 n=17 n=5 n=80 n=110 n=15 Age Median=19 Min= 18 Max=24 n=161 Median=32 Min=25 Max=64 n=44 Median=20 Min= 18 Max=64 n=205 Design This study utilised a quasi-experimental design in order to assess the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variables. The independent variable was kind of student (traditional students and non-traditional students). The dependent variables were statistics anxiety and attitude towards learning statistics. Materials The data was obtained from utilising an online questionnaire via Tellus2, which is a survey tool used by the University. The online questionnaire began by asking the participant to indicate what they believed studying statistics would involve. The remainder of the questionnaire involved the use of two scales, ‘Statistical Anxiety’ and ‘Attitude toward Learning Statistics’ derived from Tremblay et al. (2000). These scales consisted of five positively and five negatively worded responses, which were measured on a seven-point Likert scale, varying from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Concerning the two scales, the possible minimum score is 10 and the possible maximum score is 70. A high score in statistics anxiety demonstrates high anxiety, and a high score in attitude toward learning statistics demonstrates a positive attitude. An example of a question asked in relation to statistics anxiety is, ‘Even when I am sure of the answer to a question, I am still too nervous to put it down in my exam paper. An example of a question asked in relation to attitude toward learning statistics is, ‘Every student should take a statistics class regardless of the course he/she is taking in the university’. In addition the questionnaire asked three demographic questions, which were age, sex and previous mathematical experience. The final question was whether the student allowed their responses to be used for research work. Procedure At the start of the research period, the statistics tutor asked the students to respond to the online questionnaire through the course homepage on the internet before the end of a definite period (Week Three). The lecturer informed the students that the responses would be confidential and would be used to complete their research report which is a requirement of their course. The students were advised on how to respond to the questions in the questionnaire. Results The questionnaire responses were collected and analysed using an SPSS Version 17 file. In order to establish the total scores for statistics anxiety (SA) and attitude towards learning statistics (ATSS), five negatively worded items were reversed coded and then added to the scores to constitute the ten items. The possible minimum score was 10 and the possible maximum score was 70. A high score for SA indicates high anxiety and a high score for ATSS indicates a positive attitude. Age, SA and ATSS, which were the continuous variables, were tested for normality. It was shown that SA had a normal distribution. ATSS had a normal distribution after two outliers were omitted, and age had a positive skewness. An independent samples t-test (shown in table 2) indicated that the level of statistics anxiety among the non-traditional students (46.5122, SD=11.65359) were greater than the traditional students (M = 42.5866, SD = 10.84466), t(189) = -2.189, p= .013 (one-tailed). Cohen’s d = -0.382. Furthermore, it was showed that the non-traditional students (M = 50.7381, SD = 9.96594) indicated a greater score in their attitude towards studying statistics than the traditional students (M = 48.4052, SD = 8.59960), t(183) = .114, p= .0445 (one-tailed). Cohen’s d = 0.021. Table 2: Group differences between the two dependent variables Traditional NonTraditional Total Statistics Anxiety Mean=42.5866 SD=10.84466 n=158 Mean=46.5122 SD=11.65359 n=41 Mean=43.3970 SD=11.100497 N=199 Attitude To Statistics Mean=48.4052 SD=8.59960 n=153 Mean=50.7381 SD=9.96594 n=42 Mean=48.9077 SD=8.93630 N=195 A Pearson correlation showed a very weak negative relationship between statistics anxiety and attitude towards studying statistics, r (181) = -.295, p = .001 (two-tailed). Therefore the variance between the variables is 8.2%. (These are shown in the Appendix A for correlation table and scattergram). Discussion Non-traditional students scored higher as shown by the sample t-test (t (189) = -2.189) indicating more anxiety when compared to the traditional students. Similarly, the non-traditional students also scored higher than the traditional students on the attitude scale (t (183) = .114) showing that they had less positive attitude towards statistics compared to the traditional students. The Pearson correlation indicated a weak negative relationship between statistics anxiety towards studying statistics. This thus makes the three hypotheses stated earlier hold. The three hypotheses are: Nontraditional students will score higher than traditional students on the Statistics Anxiety scale. Nontraditional students will score higher than traditional students on the Attitude to Statistics scale. There will be a negative relationship between scores on the Statistics Anxiety and Attitude to Statistics scales. The study has shown that non-traditional students had a higher statistics anxiety as well as higher negative towards statistics than the traditional students. This is because the non-traditional students experience several problems and challenges as a result of having many responsibilities. One of the major challenges that make the non-traditional students score high in both anxiety and attitude tests towards statistics is financial aid (Baloglu, 2003). Many colleges are reluctant to make financial adjustments for the non0traditional students in consideration of married student housing, parenting, and general family responsibilities. This a major issue to the non-traditional students have to undergo and does not affect the traditional students. The traditional students will possibly stay in the halls of residence or at home with parents or relatives. Some couples move to the extremes of rotating between house work and school work in such a way that one of them stays at home while the other attends class. Another challenging facing the non-traditional students is that they are under pressure to perform and score high grades particularly where they are fully or partially sponsored. They are under pressure not to mess up and score poorly in class work lest they lose the scholarships. The traditional students who are probably sponsored by their parents are under no pressure to perform because they will always have an opportunity to enroll back for the failed courses in case they fail. This definitely increases the statistics anxiety among the non-traditional students and worsens their attitude towards statistics (Anderson & Kent, 2000). Another issue that could have cause high levels of statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics among the non-traditional students is the presence of veterans in the group. Most of these could have served for at least four years or even more in the armed forces. All these work closely with the Department of Veteran Affairs to take care of individuals injured while in service and ensure that they lead appropriate lives after services. Due to the demanding nature of their jobs, such people might find it difficult to concentrate totally in class. This could be a source of anxiety and attitude towards statistics among these students. Other students with such demanding jobs might also be affected. Recommendations Although there are several problems that affect non-traditional students which make them score have greater statistics anxiety and poor attitude towards statistics compared to the traditional students, there are three major issues that should be addressed in order to improve the situation. This is because too much anxiety and negative attitude leads to poor performance in class. One of the issues that should be addressed is the facilitating their physical attendance of classes. This involves transport of the students to and from their residences. The colleges should introduce affordable and convenient transport facilities for order people among the non-traditional students. After arriving in the colleges, the schools administrations should ensure the students are able to access the learning facilities. This should include considering aspects such buildings fitted with elevators when scheduling elderly students and the proximity of washrooms (McLaren, 2004). Through this, the students will be comfortable and will not have anxiety towards any subject including statistics. Another issue that should be considered is technology gap between non-traditional students and traditional students. Use of technology in teaching statistics has been shown to have a positive impact towards the learners’ attitude towards statistics. This is because technology makes the statistics courses more interactive and interesting (Hsu et al, 2009). Non-traditional students should be briefed on various aspects of the computers that they are not familiar with. Some of them could be lacking computer knowledge because they were possibly not introduced to them while they in college. Classes should be divided into small groups to ensure that the tutors succeed in teaching such students. After getting used to technology in learning statistics, the students will find the statistics units interesting and this would reduce their anxiety towards statistics as well as attitude towards statistics (McLaren, 2004). The last major issue that should be addressed is financing. Some of the non-traditional students fail to concentrate in class because they strive to finance their studies. Due to rising cost of commodities such as books, drugs, healthcare expenses and other supplies required at home, some non-traditional students are placed at very compromising positions. Some non-traditional students who are sponsored by their employers are under great pressure to perform and score high grades rest they risk losing the funding. These financial issues make the non-traditional students uncomfortable in class and as a consequence will have higher statistics anxiety compared to the traditional students. Colleges should thus device mechanisms with which non-traditional students facing financial constraints can be assisted (McLaren, 2004). The study has shown that there exists a difference between statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics, future research should be carried out to find the specific and precise causes of the higher levels among the non-traditional students. Further, the future research should address some of the limitations experienced in this study which include use of a similar sample and use of a small number of the non-traditional students. Another area that is potential for future research is to identify whether there is a relationship between anxiety and attitude towards statistics and other variables such as motivation and student performance in class. This research will be useful in finding out how much anxiety and attitude towards statistics impacts the general performance of the students in these areas (Senter, M. S. & Senter, R. Jr. 1998). This study will be as a basis of laying out strategies to decrease the levels of statistics anxiety and attitude towards statistics for the non-traditional students. This is because it has been found that a positive attitude towards statistics is related to high achievement in statistics class. Although other factors such as motivation and interest contribute towards students’ performance in class, management of anxiety levels will definitely have an impact towards the performance of the student (Bell 2003). Through the recommendations stated in this section, the colleges can establish measures to ensure that non-traditional students are assisted or facilitated in their class attendance as one of the measures to reduce anxiety levels in their statistics courses. References Ashar, H., & Skenes, R. (2003). Can Tinto's student departure model be applied to non- traditional students? Adult Education Quarterly 43 (2), 90 - 97. Anderson, L.P & Kent. C.A. (2000). Student Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness, with Recommendations. College Teaching, 50(2), 67-74 Baloglu, M. (2004). Statistics anxiety and mathematics anxiety: Some interesting differences. Educational Research Quarterly, 27 (3), 38-45 Baloglu, M. (2003). Individual differences in Statistics Anxiety Among College Students,” Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 855-870 Bell, J.A.( 2003). Statistics Anxiety; The Nontraditional Student,” Education, 124, 157-162 Bell, J. A. (1999). Statistics anxiety and POM: the international experience. Global Business Readings, (Ypsilanti, MI: Academy of Business Administration), 431-434. Bradley, D.R. & Wygant, C. R. (1998). Male and Female Difference in Anxiety About Statistics are not Reflected in Performance, Psychological Reports, 82, 245-246 Finney, S. J. & Schraw, G. (2003),” Self-efficacy Beliefs in College Statistics Courses.” Contemporary Educational Psychology, 28, 161-186. Hsu, M.K, Wang, S. W. & Chiu, K. K. (2009). Computer Attitude, Statistics Anxiety and Self- Efficacy on Statistical Software Adoption Behavior: An Empirical Study of Online MBA Learners, “ Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 412-408 McLaren, C.H. (2004). A comparison of student persistent and performance in online and classroom business statistics experiences. Decision sciences Journal of innovative education, 2 (1), 1-10 Mills, J. D. (2004). Students’ attitudes toward statistics: Implication for the future. College student Journal, 38 (3). Nolan, D., & Speed, T.P. (1999). Teaching statistics theory through applications. The American Statistician, 53, 370-375. Onwuegbuzie, A.J. et al. (2000). Factors Associated with Achievement in Education Research Courses,” Research in the Schools, 7, 53-65 Onwuegbuzie, A.J. (2004). Academic Procrastination and statistics Anxiety, Assessment and evaluation in Higher Education, 29, 3-19 Rodarte-Luna, B. & Sherry, A.( 2008). Sex differences in the Relation Between Statistics Anxiety and Cognitive /Learning Strategies, Contemporary Education Psychology, 33, 327-344 Salkind, N.J. (2007), Statistics for people who think they hate Statistics (3rd ed.), Assessment and evaluation in Higher Education, 29, 3-19 Senter, M. S. &Senter, R. Jr. (1998). A comparative study of traditional and non-traditional students' identities and needs. NASPA Journal, 35 (4), 270-28 Tremblay, P. F., Gardner, R. C., and Heipel, G. (2000), "A model of the relationships among measures of affect, aptitude, and performance in introductory statistics," Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 32(1), pp. 40-48. Zanakis, S. H. & Valenzi, E.R. (1997). “Students Anxiety and Attitudes in Business Statistics,” Journal of Education for Business, &73, 10-16 Zeidner, M. (1991). Statistics and Mathematics Anxiety In Social Science Students: Some Interesting Parallels,” British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 319-328. Appendix A Scattergram Correlation between statistic anxiety and attitude Correlations Anxiety Attitude Anxiety Pearson Correlation 1 -.171* Sig. (2-tailed) .018 N 194 186 Attitude Pearson Correlation -.171* 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .018 N 192 197 *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Read More