Structural Model of the Effects of Cognitive and Affective Factors on the Achievement of Arabic-Speaking Pre-service Teachers in Introductory Statistics

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which statistics and mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, motivation and mathematical aptitude can explain the achievement of Arabic speaking pre-service teachers in introductory statistics. Complete data were collected from 162 pre-service teachers enrolled in an academic teachertraining program for elementary and middle schools in Israel. The data, except for the two achievement tests, were collected during statistics classes prior to the midterm examination. The majority (96%) of participants were female students with a mean age of 21. As regards variables examined in this study, only the hypothesized effect of mathematical aptitude on achievement in statistics was relatively large. The results also indicated that mathematical aptitude, mathematics anxiety, attitudes toward mathematics and statistics, and motivation, together accounted for 36% of the variance in achievement in introductory statistics for the current sample.

Estudio de las Actitudes hacia la Estadística en Estudiantes de Psicología

“…Otros trabajos analizan la influencia de diversas variables tales como el género ISSN 1980-4415 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590 (ANASTASIADOU, 2005), el rendimiento académico (NASSER, 2004), la experiencia formativa en Matemáticas y Estadística (AUZMENDI, 1992;VASU, 1980VASU, , 1986, el área de estudios (GIL FLORES, 1999).…”

Empirical Research in Statistics Education

“…For example, Hannigan et al (2013) found no significant relation between attitudes and achievement. In contrast, Nasser (2004), in a study with 162 teachers, found a moderate positive correlation and, finally, Zientek et al (2010), in a study with 95 participants, reported a strong impact of prospective teachers' attitudes on their achievement. A possible reason for the contradictory results is the different definition of achievement in the three studies.…”

“…Whereas several researchers claimed that statistics is different from mathematics, empirical studies mostly showed that teachers understood statistics as a part of mathematics (e.g., Begg and Edwards 1999;Chick and Pierce 2011). Further evidence for this belief was given by the strong correlation of scales measuring the teachers' interest in mathematics and statistics (Sturm 2016) and the strong correlation of scales measuring anxiety towards mathematics and statistics (Nasser 2004). A different qualitative study that included 50 teachers showed that teachers understood statistics as an integral part of mathematics and understood statistics as applied mathematics (Eichler and Erens 2015).…”

“…However, research that investigated the relation between statistics teachers' beliefs and these teachers' knowledge gave evidence that the teachers overestimate their statistical competence (Nasser 2004).…”

Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Components That Explain Attitude toward Statistics

“…This phenomenon has been addressed in numerous studies on the attitude and anxiety towards statistics, focusing mainly on university students because this subject is part of many curricula in both careers: exact sciences and the economic-managerial (Dillon, 1982;Cashin & Elmore, 1997& 2000Cashin, 2001;Carmona, 2004;Watson, Kromrey, Ferron, Lang, & Hogarty, 2003;Onwuegbuzie, DaRos, & Ryan, 1997;Onwuegbuzie, 1998Onwuegbuzie, & 2003Onwuegbuzie & Daley, 1999;Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003;Nasser, 2004) among others.…”