Do traditional and non-traditional/ low and high previous math experience students differ in statistics anxiety, and if so, how do they differ? or Do traditional and non-traditional/ low and high previous math experience students differ in attitude to statistics, and if so, how do they differ?

Do traditional and non–traditional students differ in statistics

Initial Instructions: Research Report
score reflects a more positive attitude toward learning statistics. Refer to Tremblay, Gardner, and Heipel (2000) for information this scale.

• Read the following articles (both available in the Assessment section of the course homepage)
o Tremblay, Gardner, and Heipel (2000). Look at the scales they have used to measure statistics anxiety and attitude to studying statistics – we have used two of the same scales
o Bell (2003). Think about the argument made for differences between traditional and non–traditional students.

• The overall aim of our study is to explore whether traditional and non–traditional/ male and female/ low previous math experience and high previous math experience students differ in how they feel about studying statistics. We have two measures of how students feel about studying statistics – their attitude towards studying statistics (how positively they feel about it – measured on the ALS scale) their anxiety about statistics (how anxious they feel about statistics – measured on the SA scale). Decide which of these (attitude or anxiety) you wish to focus on.

• Conduct your literature search to explore this issue (you will need to find 10 to 15 peer reviewed articles). Some may be quite general (about study anxiety or attitudes to studying, some will be specific to studying statistics (statistics anxiety, attitude to statistics), some will be about the differences between traditional and non–traditional students / low and high previous math experience, and some will be even more specific (relating to differences in statistics anxiety or attitude to statistics between traditional and non–traditional/ low and high previous math experience).
o Read each article critically and type or write your own notes in a separate document – NEVER NEVER NEVER copy & paste from the articles!
o Keep a record of all references and sources

• Approach your literature search with an open mind asking one of the following questions:
o Do traditional and non–traditional/ low and high previous math experience students differ in statistics anxiety, and if so, how do they differ?
OR
o Do traditional and non–traditional/ low and high previous math experience students differ in attitude to statistics, and if so, how do they differ?