Teaching Style and Attitudes: A Comparison of Two Collegiate Introductory Statistics Classes

Figures & data

Fig. 1 Number of students majoring in STEM and non-STEM fields (left) and student genders (right) for each class section.

Table 1 Academic rank by section.

	Lecture	Nonlecture
Freshman	3 (11%)	7 (29%)
Sophomore	9 (33%)	8 (33%)
Junior	12 (44%)	6 (25%)
Senior	3 (11%)	2 (8%)
Graduate	0 (0%)	1 (4%)
Total	27	24

Table 2 SATS-36 attitude component descriptions.

Component	# of items	Designed to measure
Affect	6	Students’ feelings concerning statistics
Cognitive Competence	6	Students’ attitudes about their intellectual knowledge and skills when applied to statistics
Value	9	Students’ attitudes about the usefulness, relevance, and worth of statistics in personal and professional life
Difficulty	7	Students’ attitudes about the difficulty of statistics as a subject
Interest	4	Students’ level of individual interest in statistics
Effort	4	Amount of work the student expends to learn statistics

NOTE: Schau (2003).

Fig. 2 Boxplots of student pretest subscale scores by section and attitude component.

Table 3 Interquartile ranges for pretest and posttest subscale scores.

	Lecture		Nonlecture
	Pretest	Posttest	Pretest	Posttest
Affect	1.750	2.500	1.167	3.167
Cognitive Competence	1.417	1.417	1.333	2.75
Value	1.444	2.000	1.333	1.444
Difficulty	0.679	1.536	1.000	2.000
Interest	2.250	3.250	1.688	1.875
Effort	0.375	0.875	1.000	0.750

Table 4 Results from Mann–Whitney tests comparing the two course sections.

	Sample sizes		p-values
	Lecture	Nonlecture	Pretest	Posttest	Change
Affect	27	23	0.49	0.73	0.95
Cognitive Competence	27	22	0.10	0.82	0.39
Value	25	24	0.54	0.92	0.76
Difficulty	26	23	0.79	0.52	0.36
Interest	27	24	0.97	0.89	0.96
Effort	27	23	0.28	0.03	0.11

Fig. 3 Boxplots of student posttest subscale scores by section and attitude component.

Fig. 4 Boxplots of student change in subscale scores (posttest–pretest) by section and attitude component. The reference line at 0 indicates no change in attitude.

Table 5 Nonparametric inference results for change in attitude.

	Lecture		Nonlecture
	p-value	Interval	p-value	Interval
Affect	0.53	(–1.083, 0.750)	0.66	(–1.083, 0.833)
Cognitive Competence	0.50	(–1.167, 0.500)	0.71	(–0.667, 1.000)
Value	0.09	(–0.778, 0.222)	0.15	(–1.167, 0.444)
Difficulty	0.10	(–1.071, 0.286)	0.92	(–0.857, 0.643)
Interest	0.04	(–1.500, 0.250)	0.11	(–1.875, 0.375)
Effort	0.03	(–1.500, 0.125)	0.001*	(–1.375, –0.125)*

* A significant change in attitude at the 0.0083 significance level.

Table 6 Correlations (Spearman’s rho) between change in attitude and grades.

	Lecture		Nonlecture
	Final exam	Course	Final exam	Course
Affect	0.391	0.558*	0.434	0.605*
Cognitive Competence	0.253	0.397	0.402	0.597*
Value	0.272	0.480*	0.377	0.591*
Difficulty	0.009	0.049	0.421	0.389
Interest	0.047	0.177	0.101	0.261
Effort	0.095	0.147	0.143	0.337

* A significant correlation at the 0.0083 significance level.

Schau, C. (2003), “Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36),” available at http://evaluationandstatistics.com/.

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