Evolution of undergraduate tourism students’ attitudes towards Statistics: pre and post evaluation

ABSTRACT

Data analysis skills are key competencies which today’s students in higher education must acquire. Among non-cognitive factors hindering the acquisition of these competencies are negative attitudes towards Statistics. This study analyzes attitudes towards Statistics among tourism students enrolled on their first Statistics course, paying special attention to its evolution from the beginning to the end of the course. Positive attitudes are a desirable course result, and its development needs to be assessed. An exploratory factor analysis performed on the SATS-28© items reveals the existence of three main components of students’ attitudes towards Statistics: Anxiety, Affect & Self-confidence, and Value. At the end of the course, only the Anxiety dimension improved its score. Since there is an absolute lack of research on tourism students’ attitudes towards Statistics, it would be advisable to carry out further research, extending the preliminary methodology presented in this research to other courses, universities, and countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes towards Statistics
• non-cognitive factors
• SATS-28©
• undergraduate tourism students

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Mrs Schau for her permission to use the SATS© for this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is part of a more extensive educational innovation project (PID 171816) funded by the Institute for Research and Educational Innovation (IRIE) of the University of the Balearic Islands.