Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics: Factor Structure Invariance by Gender and by Administration Time

In addition to student learning, positive student attitudes have become an important course outcome for many introductory statistics instructors. To adequately assess changes in mean attitudes across introductory statistics courses, the attitude instruments used should be invariant by administration time. Attitudes toward statistics from 4,910 students enrolled in an introductory statistics course were measured using the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) both at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Confirmatory factor analysis on the covariance structure was used to determine the gender and time invariance properties of the SATS. Results indicate that the SATS is gender, time, and Gender x Time invariant with respect to factor loadings and factor correlations. Gender was invariant with respect to 3 of the 4 factor variances; variances from these same 3 factors were larger at the end than at the beginning of the course. Having established that the SATS is factorially invariant with respect to gender, time, and Gender x Time, its component scores can be used appropriately to examine mean attitude differences for these 2 variables and their interaction.

[1]  B. Weiner,et al.  A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. , 1979, Journal of educational psychology.

[2]  D. Roberts,et al.  Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey: A Follow-Up Study , 1982 .

[3]  C. Schau,et al.  Impact of Engineering Students' Attitudes on Achievement in Statistics: A Structural Model , 2002 .

[4]  S. N. Davis,et al.  Coming Into Her Own: Educational Success in Girls and Women , 1999 .

[5]  J. W. Atkinson.  Motivational determinants of risk-taking behavior. , 1957, Psychological review.

[6]  Ruth Ravid,et al.  The Relationship between Attitudes toward Statistics, Math Self-Concept, Test Anxiety and Graduate Students' Achievement in an Introductory Statistics Course. , 1990 .

[7]  Norma Faris Hubele,et al.  Student attitudes toward statistics before and after a computer-integrated introductory statistics course , 2000, IEEE Trans. Educ..

[8]  Ann E. Watkins,et al.  Statistics Teaching in Colleges and Universities: Courses, Instructors, and Degrees in Fall 1995 , 1998 .

[9]  Gordon W. Cheung,et al.  Testing Measurement Models for Factorial Invariance: A Systematic Approach , 1998 .

[10]  R. Berk,et al.  Effects of jocular instructional methods on attitudes, anxiety, and achievement in statistics courses , 1998 .

[11]  Ernest A. Rakow,et al.  The Relationship of Instructional Methods with Student Responses to the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics. , 1995 .

[12]  D. Roberts,et al.  Reliability and Validity of a Statistics Attitude Survey , 1980 .

[13]  D. Bandalos.  The Effects of Item Parceling on Goodness-of-Fit and Parameter Estimate Bias in Structural Equation Modeling , 2002 .

[14]  Iddo Gal,et al.  4. Monitoring Attitudes and Beliefs in Statistics Education , 2003 .

[15]  T. Little,et al.  To Parcel or Not to Parcel: Exploring the Question, Weighing the Merits , 2002 .

[16]  Barry C. Gribbons,et al.  Levels of Aggregation in Higher Level Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Application for Academic Self-Concept. , 1998 .

[17]  Joseph J. Stevens,et al.  Survey of attitudes toward statistics: Factor structure and factorial invariance for women and men , 1997 .

[18]  Robert Cudeck,et al.  Analysis of correlation matrices using covariance structure models. , 1989 .

[19]  Stelios H. Zanakis,et al.  Student Anxiety and Attitudes in Business Statistics , 1997 .

[20]  Paul A. Schutz,et al.  Prior knowledge, attitude, and strategy use in an introduction to statistics course , 1998 .

[21]  Steven L. Wise,et al.  The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Attitudes toward Statistics , 1985 .

[22]  T Raykov,et al.  Scale Reliability, Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha, and Violations of Essential Tau-Equivalence with Fixed Congeneric Components. , 1997, Multivariate behavioral research.

[23]  J. Eccles,et al.  In the Mind of the Actor: The Structure of Adolescents' Achievement Task Values and Expectancy-Related Beliefs , 1995 .

[24]  M. Zeidner,et al.  Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students: some interesting parallels. , 1991, The British journal of educational psychology.

[25]  Joan Garfield,et al.  The Assessment Challenge in Statistics Education , 1997 .

[26]  J. H. Steiger,et al.  The comparison of interdependent correlations between optimal linear composites , 1984 .

[27]  H. Marsh,et al.  Confirmatory factor analyses of Chinese students' evaluations of university teaching , 1998 .

[28]  L. Harlow,et al.  Evaluating Attitudes, Skill, and Performance in a Learning-Enhanced Quantitative Methods Course: A Structural Modeling Approach , 2002 .

[29]  Joseph J. Stevens,et al.  The Development and Validation of the Survey of Antitudes toward Statistics , 1995 .

[30]  Kenneth S. Shultz,et al.  Evidence of Reliability and Validity for Wise's Attitude toward Statistics Scale , 1998 .

[31]  Paula M. Popovich,et al.  Attitudes toward Statistics: An Evaluation of Multiple Measures , 1988 .