Non-mathematics majors doing statistics at university level in Cyprus: Factors behind their performance
Nowadays, statistics education is ubiquitous at all education levels and across various disciplines (Scheaffer, 2002; Ben-Zvi and Garfield; 2010). Statistics courses have been incorporated into the curriculum programs in higher education institutions from the beginning of the 20th century (Verhoeven, 2009; Emmioğlu, 2011). A large proportion of university students are required to undertake at least one introductory statistics or statistics-related course as a component of their undergraduate degree programs. This is a fact not only for mathematics majors, but also for students specializing in other disciplines. These fields include, among …show more content…
However, non-cognitive factors, the “other” outcomes of statistics education (Schau, 2003), are also prominent because they may greatly impact statistics education experience and performance in statistics. Such factors can be favourable or adverse in the learning journey to master the subject matter and develop statistical skills. They may also affect the students’ choice to pursue more advanced statistics courses in the future and may play a key role in the subsequent use of statistics in their professional career and in real-world applications outside the …show more content…
In order to go a step further, this research study aims to investigate simultaneously a broader set of variables that are presumed to be interrelated and subsequently related to performance in a specific subject area (statistics education). The factors under investigation include: prior mathematics or/and statistics background and performance (such as number and type of mathematics or statistics courses completed at high school and university level and grades earned in these courses); attitudes, anxiety feelings and self-efficacy regarding mathematics; students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding statistics as a discipline and regarding the particular statistics course that they are enrolled in; types and levels of anxiety related to statistics; students’ perceived self-efficacy regarding statistics; motivational orientations, achievement goals, outcome expectations, interest in statistics, students’ engagement with statistics (such as effort, persistence, learning strategies and study habits); resilient behavior characteristics when learning and studying statistics. A particular attention will be placed on the concept of resilience (and especially in resilience in the context of statistics education). To the best of my knowledge, there are no research studies that have
Nowadays, statistics education is ubiquitous at all education levels and across various disciplines (Scheaffer, 2002; Ben-Zvi and Garfield; 2010). Statistics courses have been incorporated into the curriculum programs in higher education institutions from the beginning of the 20th century (Verhoeven, 2009; Emmioğlu, 2011). A large proportion of university students are required to undertake at least one introductory statistics or statistics-related course as a component of their undergraduate degree programs. This is a fact not only for mathematics majors, but also for students specializing in other disciplines. These fields include, among …show more content…
However, non-cognitive factors, the “other” outcomes of statistics education (Schau, 2003), are also prominent because they may greatly impact statistics education experience and performance in statistics. Such factors can be favourable or adverse in the learning journey to master the subject matter and develop statistical skills. They may also affect the students’ choice to pursue more advanced statistics courses in the future and may play a key role in the subsequent use of statistics in their professional career and in real-world applications outside the …show more content…
In order to go a step further, this research study aims to investigate simultaneously a broader set of variables that are presumed to be interrelated and subsequently related to performance in a specific subject area (statistics education). The factors under investigation include: prior mathematics or/and statistics background and performance (such as number and type of mathematics or statistics courses completed at high school and university level and grades earned in these courses); attitudes, anxiety feelings and self-efficacy regarding mathematics; students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding statistics as a discipline and regarding the particular statistics course that they are enrolled in; types and levels of anxiety related to statistics; students’ perceived self-efficacy regarding statistics; motivational orientations, achievement goals, outcome expectations, interest in statistics, students’ engagement with statistics (such as effort, persistence, learning strategies and study habits); resilient behavior characteristics when learning and studying statistics. A particular attention will be placed on the concept of resilience (and especially in resilience in the context of statistics education). To the best of my knowledge, there are no research studies that have