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People forget what they do not use. But attitudes “stick.” Our article emphasizes the importance of students’ attitudes toward statistics. We examine 15 surveys that purport to assess these attitudes and then describe the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics, a commonly used attitude survey. We present our conceptual model of Students’ Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-M), which is congruent with Eccles and colleagues’ Expectancy-Value Theory (Eccles’ EVT), as well as others. The SATS-M includes three broad constructs that impact Statistics Course Outcomes: Student Characteristics, Previous Achievement-Related Experiences, and Statistics Attitudes. We briefly describe Eccles’ EVT and other theories that support our SATS-M. We relate findings from research using the SATS to our model and end with implications for statistics education. First published November 2012 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

We examined the attitudes of about 2200 students enrolled in 101 sections of post-secondary introductory statistics service courses located across the United States. Using the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics-36, we assessed students’ attitudes when they entered and left their courses, as well as changes in attitudes across their courses. Results showed that, on average, students entered these courses with neutral (Affect, Difficulty), positive (Cognitive Competence, Value, Interest), and very positive (Effort) attitudes. Their attitudes either stayed about the same (Affect, Cognitive Competence, Difficulty) or decreased (Value, Interest, Effort). These results help us understand the current impact of introductory statistics instruction in U.S. institutions. First published November 2012 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

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This study examined the relationships among statistics achievement and four components of attitudes toward statistics (Cognitive Competence, Affect, Value, and Difficulty) as assessed by the SATS. Meta-analysis results revealed that the size of relationships differed by the geographical region in which the studies were conducted as well as by the component of statistics attitudes being examined. Medium effect sizes were found between statistics achievement and scores on the Affect and Cognitive Competence components for studies conducted in the United States whereas those conducted in other countries yielded small effect sizes. The Value and Difficulty components exhibited small effect sizes for both regions. In every case, the U.S. effect sizes were about double in size in comparison to those from non-U.S. countries. First published November 2012 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives