Statistics anxiety and statistics self-efficacy in doctoral online statistics: A mixed methods study
Abstract
Using concurrent mixed methodology, this study explored how doctoral students experience high statistics anxiety and low statistics self-efficacy as they worked through an accelerated, online introductory statistics course. Qualitative results indicate that high statistics anxiety and low self-efficacy are negative encounters for most in that they experience frustration, tension, and felt “incompetent” and “inadequate.” Quantitative results showed a significant main effect of time on the combination of statistics anxiety & self-efficacy, as well as a significant interaction of prior experience and time on the combination of statistics anxiety and self-efficacy. Mixed integration results found no significant correlations between total STARS and CSSE scores with four salient qualitative themes: struggling to choose the correct test to answer a research question; wanting more practice to increase confidence; experiencing tension when engaging in statistics coursework, and struggling to use SPSS – using the program and interpreting the relevant output.
Citation
Waples, J. (2020). Statistics anxiety and statistics self-efficacy in doctoral online statistics: A mixed methods study. APA Virtual 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.13976.83207