From a Vicious Circle of Anxiety to a Virtuous Circle of Learning: Experience of Teaching Statistics to a Heterogeneous Clientele

Abstract

A considerable body of literature suggests that significant psychological barrier and anxiety characterize the teaching and learning process in statistics. This study investigates the incidence of statistics anxiety, the extent to which it can be overcome and the factors that contribute to the process of overcoming it. Self-study and overall teaching quality, amongst others, significantly contributed to this outcome. This study identifies factors contributing to overall teaching quality. The teaching and learning process typified a highly effective communication mechanism based on an appropriate diagnosis of individual needs. This cumulative change resulted from circular causation. It is argued that given appropriate conditions the vicious circle of anxiety can be transformed into a virtuous circle of learning.

Does performance in progressive assessment influence the outcome in final examination? An Australian experience

“…The existing literature finds that between two thirds and three fourths of the students suffer some degree of statistics anxiety (Onwuegbuzie 2003;Alauddin and Butler 2004). Futheremore, there seems to be a causal link between statistics anxiety and course acheivement (Onwuegbuzie and Seaman 1995).…”

“…One important feature of this course is that psychological barriers and anxieties are often associated with learning statistics which, to many students is somewhat akin to learning a 'foreign language' (See for example, Onwuegbuzie 2000; Alauddin and Butler 2004). As Onwuegbuzie 2000, p.323 suggests:…”

Do Instructional Attributes pose Multicollinearity Problems? An Empirical Exploration

“…on the other hand, the student populations in the postgraduate course are predominantly from non-English speaking background (nESB) with schooling outside of Australia and with at least 80 per cent enrolled in non-economics major especially commerce. A characteristic feature of the populations in the postgraduate course is the high incidence of statistics anxiety (Alauddin and Butler 2004;onwuegbuzie 2000). Table 7 presents VIF values for the instructional attributes for the level 2 undergraduate course for seven years and for all years combined.…”

Teaching Economics in a Changing Environment: The Case of Introductory Postgraduate Economic Statistics**This is a thoroughly revised version of the paper presented at the Second Biennial Developments in Business and Economics Education (DEBE) Conference, Edinburgh, UK, 15–16 September 2003. The authors wish to express their gratitude to two anonymous referees for constructive comments and suggestions. Special thanks are also due to Mark Bahr for multivariate analysis, and to Rodney Beard for useful commen

“…On a five-point scale nearly 45 per cent of them suffered from a high level of statistics anxiety (4-5 range) while an equal percentage displayed a moderate anxiety level (a score of 3). For a detailed analysis see Alauddin and Butler (2004a).…”