Statistical Competency And Attitude Towards Learning Elementary Statistics: A Case of SMK Bandar Baru Sg Buloh

An exploratory findings showed that in general school pupils were not aware of their statistical competency level and attitude towards learning elementary statistics. The reason being statistics has always been regarded as mathematics at school education level. A descriptive study on 257 pupils from SMK Bandar Baru Sg Buloh was conducted to investigate this phenomenon, namely, the change in pupils’ statistical competency and their attitude towards learning elementary statistic before and after the four weeks of teachingstatistics sessions. The objectives of the study are to measure the change in pupils pre and post attitude scores towards learning statistics, the change in pupils’ pre and post competency scores and to determine the difference in post attitude and post competency scores between the categories of gender, types of classes and race. The study involved three different stages -- the teaching statistics session, administration of pre and post attitude towards learning statistics constructs, and administration of pre- and post competency test items. The study revealed that pupils’ attitudes were more positive at the end of the four weeks of teaching statistics sessions. Measures on pupils’ competency revealed a moderately high scores on the post test compared to pre test; higher post competency scores for non-malay pupils and those from the science class compared to the malays and those from the non-science class. Even though findings from this study may not be generalized to a wider population of secondary schools, however, it has somewhat prompted for a greater emphasis and importance on the teaching and learning of statistics at other schools particularly among the non-science and malay students.