Students’ Attitudes and Conceptions of Statistics at AUS: Implications for Teaching

Presented by Professor Hana Sulieman, Head of the AUS Department of Mathematics and Statistics 

Little is known abouthow students from different majors view their statistics learning experienceand what factors affect their conceptions of statistics. In this work, a surveyof 440 undergraduate students from various majors who took an introductorystatistics course at AUS in Fall 2012 orearlier semesters was conducted. Analysis of the survey data showed that 66 percent ofthe students have positive attitude toward statistics. Engineering majors whoindicated the most negative attitude toward statistics explained thatdifficulty of the topic and teaching method were the primary reasons for theirnegative view of the subject. Social sciences majors reported dislike ofmathematics in general as the most significant contributing factor to theirnegative attitude toward statistics. Students from natural sciences were mostlikely to believe that statistics is an interesting topic and would be used infuture careers.  The implications of the findings for future teaching ofstatistics at AUS are also discussed.

For more information, please contact [email protected].