Paper Example on Gender Differences in Statistical Anxiety Among South Australian Undergraduate Students

Introduction

Statistical anxiety is defined as the individual emotional experience of anxiety when learning statistics (Macher, Papousek, Ruggeri, & Paechter, 2015). More specifically, it refers to a feeling of nervousness, unease or worry when studying statistics and completing statistical analyses (Cruise, Cash, & Bolton, 1985). Statistical anxiety differs from the typical psychological state of anxiety. It is related to understanding and interpreting data and statistical outcomes, including the feeling of fear about asking for help and the fear of instructors teaching statistics (Williams, 2010).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

There is an extensive body of research in the literature to date that has investigated whether statistical anxiety differs between male and female adult individuals. In most of these studies, females have been reported to be more likely to have higher statistics anxiety than males. For instance, Roderte-Luna and Sherry (2007) examined whether statistical anxiety differed between males and females across a sample of 323 university students through a quantitative, self-report, online questionnaire. The study showed that significant differences existed between men and women on the subscales of both statistical anxieties. Females showed higher statistical anxiety levels than their male counterparts.

Also, in Eduljee and LeBourdais' (2015) research, the female students showed higher statistical anxiety as well as higher negative attitudes towards the learning of statistics compared to their male counterparts. That is, the male students reported that they were more confident in their ability to master statistics, were also not afraid of statistics, and that they were capable of learning statistics compared to their female counterparts.

The authors above used a single point-in-time study, where the tests were completed during class or study for an examination. One could argue that the ecological validity of this study was, therefore, jeopardised. More specifically, the use of non-probability sampling techniques in these studies limited the ability to generalize the findings to other populations or contexts other than the sample used in the current study.

Moreover, the study of DeCesare (2007) assessed the extent and potential causes of statistical anxiety across 196 university students. The research showed that males reported feeling significantly less anxious than females when registering to the course of statistics. 57.1% of males reported feeling "relaxed" about taking statistics compared to 37.3% of females due to their lower statistical anxiety. Furthermore, another self-report questionnaire study conducted by Papanastasiou and Zembylas (2008) across 472 university students demonstrated quite similar empirical patterns. Majority of male participants reported significantly less anxiety than the female participants. Interestingly, this study also found that student's perception of 'easiness/difficultness' of the course itself was associated with anxiety levels. That is, participants who perceived statistics to be easy reported lower statistical anxiety and vice versa. In the present study, the hypothesized gender differences in statistical anxiety may be linked to student's perception of 'easiness/difficultness' of the statistics course.

An exciting aspect when assessing statistical anxiety could be argued to include the mode and delivery of instruction (Malott & Porfilio, 2011). Baharun and Porter (2009) assessed the impact of using video resources in teaching statistics as a means to explore if it could have a positive effect on students' learning outcomes and the reduction of their potential anxiety about the course. The result of this study showed that males had significantly more confidence in statistics and less anxiety than females. Increased confidence in statistics was associated with the fact that video resources positively influence the student understanding of topics and lower students' anxiety.

In another study, Hedges (2017) explored the differences in students' attitudes between online and face-to-face delivery methods on teaching and learning statistics. The study found that female online students had the highest levels of anxiety. Female students also showed higher levels of statistical anxiety than males. Lastly, it is of importance to highlight, however, some of these studies had methodological limitations that should be considered when interpreting their results. For instance, a study of Bui and Alfaro (2011), which concluded that statistical anxiety did not differ significantly between male and female individuals, included an unbalanced number of male and female participants in their sample, something also observed in Baloglu's study (2002) and the study of Hsiao and Chiang (2011).

Despite the presence of an extensive body of research supporting that there are gender differences on statistical anxiety across university students, a series of empirical studies demonstrate the opposite (Alfaro, 2011; Haynes, Mullins & Stein, 2004; Hsiao & Chiang, 2011). Based on the reviewed studies, conflicting results regarding the impact of gender on statistical anxiety still exist.

The purpose of the present study was to identify whether there are differences in statistical anxiety between male and female university students. For the study, a survey design research study was conducted. The sample consisted of undergraduate university students were recruited from the University of South Australia and were asked to complete the Statistical Anxiety (i.e., SA) Scale (Tremblay, 2000). Two hundred and seventy-two students were asked to complete this questionnaire online during the first week of practical. Based on the literature to date, some empirical information to hypothesize that statistical anxiety will be different between male and female students. Even though several studies have demonstrated that female university students reported higher anxiety levels than male students, some have reported the absence of such relationship. As such, it is expected that male university students will show significantly less statistical anxiety than their female counterparts.

Method

Participants

The sample for this study comprised of 276 undergraduate university students from the University of South Australia. Out of the 276 participants, 194 (70.3%) were female while 82 (29.7%) were male. The participants' age ranged from 17 years to 56 years. Most of the participants (72.1%) were below the age of 22 years while the remaining (27.9%) were between the age of 22 and 56 years. Based on their past mathematics' attainment, participants were assigned to two groups (Year 11 and below group and Year 12 and above group). Most of the participants (54%) were placed in Year 12 and above group, while 46% were placed in Year 11 and below group.

Design

The current study employed a survey research design to address the purpose oa f the study. The independent variable was gender (male or female) while the dependent variable was statistical anxiety.

Materials

To assess participants' anxiety level, the researcher using Tremblay, Gardner & Heipel's (2000) Statistics Anxiety Scale which comprised of 10 items. Five of the items on this scale were positively worded while the remaining were negatively worded. All the items measured participants' statistical anxiety level on a 7-point scale. To obtain participants' statistical anxiety level, the participant's score or rating on each of the items was summed. A high total statistical anxiety score reflects greater statistics anxiety.

On the other hand, participants attitudes towards learning of statistics were assessed using Tremblay, Gardner & Heipel's (2000) Attitude to Learning Statistics Scale which had 10 items. Five of the items on this scale were positively worded while the remaining were negatively worded. Scores on the items were added to obtain a participant's' attitude towards learning mathematics. A high score reflected a more positive attitude toward learning statistics.

Procedure

All the respondents completed the online questionnaires on the same day, on 3rd September 2018. The participants were gathered in a large and silent room, where they met the lead researcher. The face-to-face meeting between the participants and the researcher was meant to provide the participants with all the information about the study. First, the researcher explained to the participants that the study aimed to determine students' statistical anxiety and attitude towards mathematics learning. This was a mild deception, since if the students were told that the study was aimed at investigating gender differences in statistical anxiety and attitude towards mathematics learning would have resulted in skewed results.

The researcher further explained that participation in the study was not mandatory and the participants were free to withdraw from the study at any time if they felt to do so. They were also assured that their data would be kept confidential and anonymous and that they were not required to indicate their names or other personal details in the online survey instrument. After that, they were taken through a step-by-step procedure on how to complete the survey instrument online. More specifically, the respondents were told that the questionnaire items in the survey instrument would assess their feelings and attitude towards statistics. Further, they were informed that there are no wrong or right answers to the questionnaire items because every person has a different opinion regarding the issues b...