Undergraduate students' attitudes toward statistics and conducting research

Lau, Annie Siew Hee. (2009) Undergraduate students' attitudes toward statistics and conducting research. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This study aimed to investigate undergraduate students' attitudes toward statistics and conducting research. It also focused on determining the relationship between students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics. The sample of this study consisted of 100 undergraduate students majoring in Bachelor of Education in Mathematics, Bachelor of Education in Computer Science and Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as Second Language (TESL) from the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). These students were enrolled in an introductory statistics course in their previous semester. The Attitudes Toward Research (ATR) and the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) scales were used as the measures of students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics respectively. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 14.0. Descriptive statistics, such as mean and standard deviation were used to determine students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics. The independent sample t-tests were carried out to examine whether there was any significant difference in students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics based on gender. Furthermore, One-Way ANOVAs were performed to determine any significant difference in students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics based on academic programs as well as achievement in a statistics course. The Pearson moment correlation was used to measure the relationship between students' attitudes toward conducting research and their attitudes toward statistics. The results revealed that students had neutral attitudes toward conducting research and slightly positive attitudes toward statistics. In addition, no signific t difference was found in students' attitudes toward conducting research based on demographic variables, such as gender, academic programs and achievement in statistics course. The findings also indicated that there was no significant difference in students' attitudes toward statistics based on gender and achievement in statistics course. However, a significant difference existed in students' attitudes toward statistics based on academic programs. Finally, the findings also revealed that students' attitudes toward conducting research were positively correlated with their attitudes toward statistics. The findings of this study indicated that lecturers of research method and statistics courses should consider students' attitudes toward statistics and conducting research in designing course materials and in carrying out instructions in the classes.

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