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Attitudes Toward Statistics Scale: Validity and Reliability Study

Year 2014, Volume: 36 Issue: 36, 59 - 75, 01.07.2014

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to develop a Statistics Attitude Scale to determine the statistics attitudes

of university students in social sciences. The data was collected from the students attending to the various

programs in Pamukkale University, Faculty of Education, including Social Sciences Education, Science

Education, Mathematics Education, Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Psychological

Counseling and Guidance. The participants were a total of 450 randomly selected university students

(296 female and 154 male ). The scale is a 9- point- Likert- type scale with level of agreement varying from

“I definitely do not agree” (1) to “I definitely agree” (9). In order to test validity, exploratory factor analysis

was conducted. The result of the Exploratory factor analysis revealed five dimensions: the Relation of

Statistics and Professional Life (7 items), Statistical Anxiety-Fear (9 items), Enjoying Statistics (6 items), the

Importance of Statistics (6 items), and Statistical Difficulty Perception (4 items). Cronbach Alpha coefficient

was calculated as 0.927 for internal reliability indicating the scale has a high degree of internal reliability. In

summary, the Statistics Attitude Scale has both high levels of validity and internal reliability.

References

  • Aiken, L.R. (1970) Attitudes Towards Mathematics. Review of Educational Research. Spring 1970, vol. 40, No.4
  • Aşkar, P. (1986b) Matematik Dersine Yönelik Tutumu Ölçen Likert-Tipi Bir Ölçeği Geliştirilmesi. Eğitim ve Bilim. Cilt: 11, sayı: 62. (31-36)
  • Auzmendi, E. (1991, April). Factors related to attitudes toward statistics: a study with a Spanish sample. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED333049).
  • Baloğlu, M. (2003). Individual differences in Statistics anxiety among college students. Personality and Individual Differences 34, 855–865
  • Berk, R. A., and Nanda, J.P.(1998).Effects of jocular instructional methods on attitudes, anxiety, and achievement in statistics courses. International Journal of Humor Research, 11, 383–409.
  • Birenbaum, M., and Eylath, S. (1994). Who is afraid of statistics? Correlates of Statistics anxiety among students Of educational sciences. Educational Research, 36, 93–98.
  • Bradley, D. R., and Wygant, C. R. (1998). Male and female differences in anxiety about Statistics are not reflected in performance. Psychological Reports, 80, 245-246.
  • Bradstreet,T.E.(1996) Teaching introductory Statistics courses so that non statisticians experience statistical reasoning. The American Statistician, 50, 69–78.
  • Cashin, S. E., and Elmore, P. B. (1997). Instruments used to assess attitudes toward statistics: A Psychometric evaluation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
  • Çokluk, Ö., Şekercioğlu, G., ve Ş. Büyüköztürk (2012) Sosyal bilimler İçin Çok değişkenli istatistik: SPSS ve LISREL Uygulamaları. 2.Baskı. PEGEM-Akademi. ANKARA
  • Cruise, R. J., Cash, R. W., and Bolton, D. L. (1985). Development andvalidation of an instrument to Measure statistical anxiety. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association Statistics Education Section. LasVegas, Nevada.
  • Doğan,N., Başokçu,T.O. (2010) İstatistik Tutum Ölçeği için Uygulanan Faktör Analizi ve Aşamalı Kümeleme Analizi Sonuçlarının Karşılaştırılması.Eğitimde ve Psikolojide Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Dergisi, Kış 2010, 1 (2), 65-71 Fenster, M. J. (1992a). A Diagnostic Model Predicting Statistics Performance in An Urban Environment. College Student Journal, 26, 300–309.
  • Fenster, M. J. (1992b). Statistics courses and adult learners: assessing potential problems. Journal of Studies in Technical Careers, 14, 11–22.
  • Fitzgerald, S. M. (1997). The relationship between anxiety and Statistics achievement: a meta-analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, the University of Toledo.
  • Fitzgerald, S. M.,Jurs, S. J., and Hudson, L. M. (1996). Model predicting Statistics achievement among graduate students. College Student Journal, 30, 361–366.
  • Gal, I., and Ginsburg, L. (1994). The role of beliefs and attitudes in learning statistics: towards an assessment framework. Journal of Statistics Education, 2, 1–54.
  • Garfield, J., and Ahlgreen, A. (1988). Difficulties in learning basic concepts in probability and statistics: İmplications for research. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 19, 44–63.
  • Green, S. And Carney, J. V. (1997). Statistics: Can we get beyond terminal? Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago IL.
  • Gourgey, A. (1984). The relationship of misconceptions about math and mathematical self-concept to Math anxiety and Statistics performance. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED254417)
  • Harvey, A. L.,Plake, B. S., and Wise, S. L. (1985). The validity of six beliefs about factors related to Statistics achievement. Chicago, IL: Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
  • Mji, A., and Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Evidence of Score Reliability and Validity of the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale Among Technik on Students in South Africa. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 36, 238-251.
  • Onwuegbuzie, A. J., and Wilson, V. A. (2003). Statistics anxiety: Nature, etiologyantecedents, effects, and treatments – a comprehensive review of the literature. Teaching in Higher Education, 8(2), 195-209.
  • Özdamar, K. (1999) Paket Programlar İle İstatistiksel Veri Analizi 1. Kaan Kitabevi, Eskişehir
  • Parker, R. S.,Pettijohn, C. E. and Keillor, B. D. (1999), “The nature and role of statistics in the business school curriculum,”Journal of Education for Business, 751, 51-54.
  • Potter, A. M.(1995)“Statistics for sociologists: Teaching techniques that work,”Teaching Sociology, 233, 259- 63 Rhoads,T.R.,& Hubele, N.F. (2000) Student attitudes towards Statistics before and after a computer-integrated introductory Statistics course. IEEE Transactions in Education, 43,182-187
  • Roberts, D. M., and Saxe, J. E. (1982). Validity of a Statistics attitude survey: A follow-upstudy. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 42, 907-912.
  • Roberts, D. M., and Bilderback, E. W. (1980). Reliability and Validity of Statistics Attitude Survey. Educational And Psychological Measurement, 40, 235-238.
  • Roberts, D. M., and Reese, C. M. (1987). A Comparison of Two Scales Measuring Attitudes Toward Statistics. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 47, 759-764.
  • Sagaria, S. D. (1989, April). Teaching traditionaland non-traditional age individuals: How should methods, expectations, and standards differ? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED308363)
  • Saracaloğlu, A.S.(2000). "Öğretmen Adaylarının Yabancı Dile Yönelik Tutumları İle Akademik Başarıları Arasındaki İlişki". Eğitim ve Bilim, ANKARA
  • Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T. L., and DelVecchio, A. (1995), The development and validation of the survey of attitudes toward statistics. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 55, 868-875.
  • Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T.L., and Del Vecchio, A. (1993, April). Evaluation of two surveys measuring students’ attitudes toward statistics. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA.
  • Schutz, P. A., Drogosz, L. M., White, V. E., and DiStefano, C. (1998). Prior knowledge, attitude, and strategy use in An introduction to Statistics course. Learning and Individual Differences, 10(4), 291-308.
  • Stroup, D. F., and Jordan, E. W. (1982). Statistics: monster in the university. Proceedings of Statistical Education, the American Statistical Association, 135–138.
  • Sutarso, T. (1992, November). Some Variables in Relationto Students’ Anxiety in Learning Statistics. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Knoxville. Tabachnick, B. C., and Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn& Bacon.
  • Tavşancıl, E. (2002) Tutumların Ölçülmesi ve SPSS ile Veri Analizi. Ankara, Nobel Yayınları
  • Tekindal, S. (1988). "Okula İlişkin Tutum ile Akademik Başarı Arasındaki İlişki", Çağdaş Eğitim, ANKARA
  • Tomazic, T. J., and Katz, B. M. (1988, August). Statistics anxiety in introductory applied statistics. Paper presented At the meeting of American Statistical Association, New Orleans, LA.
  • Wise, S. L. (1985). The development and validation of a Scale measuring attitudes toward statistics. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 45, 401-405.
  • Waters, T. A.,Martelli, T. Z., and Popovich, P. M. (1988). Attitudes Toward Statistics: An Evaluation of Multiple Measures. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 48, 513-516.
  • Young, V. E. and Nelson, C. V. (1994). A survey of the impressions of economics departments of the Quantitative courses required of economics majors. Annual Meeting of theMid-Western Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL
  • Ziedner, M. (1991). Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students: Some interesting parallels. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 319-328.

İstatistiğe Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği: Geçerlilik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

Year 2014, Volume: 36 Issue: 36, 59 - 75, 01.07.2014

Abstract

İstatistiğe yönelik tutumları ölçme aracı geliştirmek amacıyla yapılan bu çalışmada, Çalışma evreni olarak
Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim fakültesinde 2011-2012 eğitim-öğretim yılında öğrenim gören, istatistik
dersi veya istatistikle ilgili olarak bir ders alan, öğrenciler oluşturmuştur. Araştırma örneklemi ise söz
konusu evrenden tesadüfi yöntemle belirlenen 296’sı bayan ve 154’ü ise erkek öğrenciden oluşan toplam
450 öğrenci oluşturulmuştur. Ölçek geliştirme aşamasında 58 istatistik tutum maddesi oluşturulmuş, bu
maddelerin madde-toplam korelasyonlarının hesaplanmasından sonra, madde toplam-korelasyon değerleri
düşük olan maddeler ölçekten çıkarıldıktan sonra 33 madde verileri kullanılarak Açımlayıcı Faktör Analizi
(AFA) yapılmıştır. AFA sonuçlarına göre ölçekte yer alan 33 madde beş faktör (İstatistiğin mesleki yaşantı ile
ilişkisi faktör öz değeri 10,019 ve açıkladığı varyans oranı %30,362, İstatistik korkusu-kaygısı öz değeri 3,980
ve açıkladığı varyans %12,061, İstatistikten keyif alma öz değeri 1,970 ve açıkladığı varyans 5,971, İstatistiğin
önemi öz değeri 1,432 açıkladığı varyans ise %4,338 ve Algılanan istatistik güçlük faktörünün ise öz değeri
1,178 ve açıkladığı varyans ise %3,569’dur) altında toplanmıştır. Beş faktör toplam varyansın % 56,301’ini
açıklamaktadır. Beş faktör altında yer alan 33 maddelik ölçeğin tümü için iç tutarlılık anlamında Cronbach
⍺ = 0.927 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Ulaşılan bulgular eldeki istatistiğe yönelik tutum ölçeğinin geçerlilik ve
güvenirlik özelliğine sahip olduğunu destekler mahiyettedir.

References

  • Aiken, L.R. (1970) Attitudes Towards Mathematics. Review of Educational Research. Spring 1970, vol. 40, No.4
  • Aşkar, P. (1986b) Matematik Dersine Yönelik Tutumu Ölçen Likert-Tipi Bir Ölçeği Geliştirilmesi. Eğitim ve Bilim. Cilt: 11, sayı: 62. (31-36)
  • Auzmendi, E. (1991, April). Factors related to attitudes toward statistics: a study with a Spanish sample. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED333049).
  • Baloğlu, M. (2003). Individual differences in Statistics anxiety among college students. Personality and Individual Differences 34, 855–865
  • Berk, R. A., and Nanda, J.P.(1998).Effects of jocular instructional methods on attitudes, anxiety, and achievement in statistics courses. International Journal of Humor Research, 11, 383–409.
  • Birenbaum, M., and Eylath, S. (1994). Who is afraid of statistics? Correlates of Statistics anxiety among students Of educational sciences. Educational Research, 36, 93–98.
  • Bradley, D. R., and Wygant, C. R. (1998). Male and female differences in anxiety about Statistics are not reflected in performance. Psychological Reports, 80, 245-246.
  • Bradstreet,T.E.(1996) Teaching introductory Statistics courses so that non statisticians experience statistical reasoning. The American Statistician, 50, 69–78.
  • Cashin, S. E., and Elmore, P. B. (1997). Instruments used to assess attitudes toward statistics: A Psychometric evaluation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago.
  • Çokluk, Ö., Şekercioğlu, G., ve Ş. Büyüköztürk (2012) Sosyal bilimler İçin Çok değişkenli istatistik: SPSS ve LISREL Uygulamaları. 2.Baskı. PEGEM-Akademi. ANKARA
  • Cruise, R. J., Cash, R. W., and Bolton, D. L. (1985). Development andvalidation of an instrument to Measure statistical anxiety. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Statistical Association Statistics Education Section. LasVegas, Nevada.
  • Doğan,N., Başokçu,T.O. (2010) İstatistik Tutum Ölçeği için Uygulanan Faktör Analizi ve Aşamalı Kümeleme Analizi Sonuçlarının Karşılaştırılması.Eğitimde ve Psikolojide Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Dergisi, Kış 2010, 1 (2), 65-71 Fenster, M. J. (1992a). A Diagnostic Model Predicting Statistics Performance in An Urban Environment. College Student Journal, 26, 300–309.
  • Fenster, M. J. (1992b). Statistics courses and adult learners: assessing potential problems. Journal of Studies in Technical Careers, 14, 11–22.
  • Fitzgerald, S. M. (1997). The relationship between anxiety and Statistics achievement: a meta-analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, the University of Toledo.
  • Fitzgerald, S. M.,Jurs, S. J., and Hudson, L. M. (1996). Model predicting Statistics achievement among graduate students. College Student Journal, 30, 361–366.
  • Gal, I., and Ginsburg, L. (1994). The role of beliefs and attitudes in learning statistics: towards an assessment framework. Journal of Statistics Education, 2, 1–54.
  • Garfield, J., and Ahlgreen, A. (1988). Difficulties in learning basic concepts in probability and statistics: İmplications for research. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 19, 44–63.
  • Green, S. And Carney, J. V. (1997). Statistics: Can we get beyond terminal? Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago IL.
  • Gourgey, A. (1984). The relationship of misconceptions about math and mathematical self-concept to Math anxiety and Statistics performance. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED254417)
  • Harvey, A. L.,Plake, B. S., and Wise, S. L. (1985). The validity of six beliefs about factors related to Statistics achievement. Chicago, IL: Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
  • Mji, A., and Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Evidence of Score Reliability and Validity of the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale Among Technik on Students in South Africa. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 36, 238-251.
  • Onwuegbuzie, A. J., and Wilson, V. A. (2003). Statistics anxiety: Nature, etiologyantecedents, effects, and treatments – a comprehensive review of the literature. Teaching in Higher Education, 8(2), 195-209.
  • Özdamar, K. (1999) Paket Programlar İle İstatistiksel Veri Analizi 1. Kaan Kitabevi, Eskişehir
  • Parker, R. S.,Pettijohn, C. E. and Keillor, B. D. (1999), “The nature and role of statistics in the business school curriculum,”Journal of Education for Business, 751, 51-54.
  • Potter, A. M.(1995)“Statistics for sociologists: Teaching techniques that work,”Teaching Sociology, 233, 259- 63 Rhoads,T.R.,& Hubele, N.F. (2000) Student attitudes towards Statistics before and after a computer-integrated introductory Statistics course. IEEE Transactions in Education, 43,182-187
  • Roberts, D. M., and Saxe, J. E. (1982). Validity of a Statistics attitude survey: A follow-upstudy. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 42, 907-912.
  • Roberts, D. M., and Bilderback, E. W. (1980). Reliability and Validity of Statistics Attitude Survey. Educational And Psychological Measurement, 40, 235-238.
  • Roberts, D. M., and Reese, C. M. (1987). A Comparison of Two Scales Measuring Attitudes Toward Statistics. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 47, 759-764.
  • Sagaria, S. D. (1989, April). Teaching traditionaland non-traditional age individuals: How should methods, expectations, and standards differ? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED308363)
  • Saracaloğlu, A.S.(2000). "Öğretmen Adaylarının Yabancı Dile Yönelik Tutumları İle Akademik Başarıları Arasındaki İlişki". Eğitim ve Bilim, ANKARA
  • Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T. L., and DelVecchio, A. (1995), The development and validation of the survey of attitudes toward statistics. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 55, 868-875.
  • Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T.L., and Del Vecchio, A. (1993, April). Evaluation of two surveys measuring students’ attitudes toward statistics. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Atlanta, GA.
  • Schutz, P. A., Drogosz, L. M., White, V. E., and DiStefano, C. (1998). Prior knowledge, attitude, and strategy use in An introduction to Statistics course. Learning and Individual Differences, 10(4), 291-308.
  • Stroup, D. F., and Jordan, E. W. (1982). Statistics: monster in the university. Proceedings of Statistical Education, the American Statistical Association, 135–138.
  • Sutarso, T. (1992, November). Some Variables in Relationto Students’ Anxiety in Learning Statistics. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Knoxville. Tabachnick, B. C., and Fidell, L. S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn& Bacon.
  • Tavşancıl, E. (2002) Tutumların Ölçülmesi ve SPSS ile Veri Analizi. Ankara, Nobel Yayınları
  • Tekindal, S. (1988). "Okula İlişkin Tutum ile Akademik Başarı Arasındaki İlişki", Çağdaş Eğitim, ANKARA
  • Tomazic, T. J., and Katz, B. M. (1988, August). Statistics anxiety in introductory applied statistics. Paper presented At the meeting of American Statistical Association, New Orleans, LA.
  • Wise, S. L. (1985). The development and validation of a Scale measuring attitudes toward statistics. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 45, 401-405.
  • Waters, T. A.,Martelli, T. Z., and Popovich, P. M. (1988). Attitudes Toward Statistics: An Evaluation of Multiple Measures. Educationaland Psychological Measurement, 48, 513-516.
  • Young, V. E. and Nelson, C. V. (1994). A survey of the impressions of economics departments of the Quantitative courses required of economics majors. Annual Meeting of theMid-Western Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL
  • Ziedner, M. (1991). Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students: Some interesting parallels. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 319-328.
There are 42 citations in total.

Details

Journal Section Articles
Authors

Metin Yaşar This is me

Publication Date July 1, 2014
Submission Date January 4, 2014
Acceptance Date May 14, 2014
Published in Issue Year 2014 Volume: 36 Issue: 36

Cite

APA Yaşar, M. (2014). İstatistiğe Yönelik Tutum Ölçeği: Geçerlilik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 36(36), 59-75.