The Numbers Tell It All: Students Don't Like Numbers!

Abstract

Undergraduate Students' interest in taking quantitative vs. non quantitative courses has received limited attention even though it has important consequences for higher education. Previous studies have collected course interest ratings at the end of the courses as part of student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings, which may confound prior interest in taking these courses with students' actual experience in taking them. This study is the first to examine undergraduate students' interest in quantitative vs. non quantitative courses in their first year of studies before they have taken any quantitative courses. Three hundred and forty students were presented with descriptions of 44 psychology courses and asked to rate their interest in taking each course. Student interest in taking quantitative vs non quantitative courses was very low; the mean interest in statistics courses was nearly 6 SDs below the mean interest in non quantitative courses. Moreover, women were less interested in taking quantitative courses than men. Our findings have several far-reaching implications. First, evaluating professors teaching quantitative vs. non quantitative courses against the same SET standard may be inappropriate. Second, if the same SET standard is used for the evaluation of faculty teaching quantitative vs. non quantitative courses, faculty are likely to teach to SETs rather than focus on student learning. Third, universities interested primarily in student satisfaction may want to expunge quantitative courses from their curricula. In contrast, universities interested in student learning may want to abandon SETs as a primary measure of faculty teaching effectiveness. Fourth, undergraduate students who are not interested in taking quantitative courses are unlikely to pursue graduate studies in quantitative psychology and unlikely to be able to competently analyze data independently.

Student evaluations of teaching: teaching quantitative courses can be hazardous to one’s career

“…For example, Orpwood & Brown (2015) cite the 2013 OECD survey showing that numeracy among Canadians declined over the last decade and that more than half of Canadians now score below the level required to fully participate in a modern society. We found that students’ interest in taking quantitative courses such as introductory statistics was six standard deviations below their interest in taking non-quantitative courses ( Uttl, White & Morin, 2013 ). Fewer than 10 out of 340 students indicated that they were “very interested” in taking any of the three statistics courses.…”

Prospective memory, retrospective memory, and individual differences in cognitive abilities, personality, and psychopathology

“…The Course Interest Survey [ 37 ] consisted of 44 titles and descriptions of all psychology courses offered in the 2012–2013 Mount Royal University calendar except the two introductory psychology first year courses that participants were registered in. The participants rated their interest in taking each course using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 = Not at all interested to 5 = Very interested .…”

Assessment policies and academic performance within a single course: the role of motivation and self-regulation

“…A first self-regulatory factor, effort regulation, can be defined as persistence and effort when faced with academic challenges (Richardson, Abraham, and Bond 2012). Given that most students will at some point in their academic career encounter subjects that they deem less interesting (Uttl, White, and Morin 2013) or even anxiety-provoking (Onwuegbuzie and Wilson 2003), the ability to sustain attention and effort in the face of distractions or uninteresting tasks seems to be a key factor in achieving academic success (Komarraju and Nadler 2013).…”