Antecedents of Statistics Anxiety Among Senior High School Students
Antecedents of Statistics Anxiety Among Senior High School Students
for task performance (Macher et al., 2013). The descriptive method attempted to describe the
profile of the respondents in terms of sex, strand,
Hence, statistics anxiety often is considered to be one
learning style, statistics background, statistics
of the most powerful negative factors of influence on
performance and level of statistics anxiety. Meanwhile,
performance in statistics courses (Onwuegbuzie and
comparative and correlation attempted to identify the
Wilson, 2003). Therefore, one may critically ask
difference between level of statistics anxiety and
whether statistics anxiety really influences
profile of the respondents and the relationship between
performance in statistics courses, and what
level of statistics anxiety and statistics
implications this has for attaining statistical literacy.
performance respectively.
The aim of this study is, therefore, to focus on the
situational (statistics background and statistics The study was conducted at Saint Mary’s University
performance), dispositional (learning style and strand), Senior High School, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. A
and environmental (sex) antecedents of statistics private catholic school, which offers different strands
anxiety among senior high school students. namely STEM, ABM, HUMSS, HE, ICT and AD.The
respondents of this study involved 303 grade 11 senior
Research Questions high school students enrolled in statistics and
probability from the different strands offered by the
This study focused on the situational (statistics school. Convenience sampling was applied relying to
background and statistics performance), dispositional the availability of internet connection of the
(learning style and strand), and environmental (sex) respondents in able to answer the google forms as
antecedents of statistics anxiety among senior high questionnaire using messenger.
school students. Specifically, it aimed to answer the
following questions: A Statistics Anxiety Measure survey questionnaire
(see Appendix A) was used to gather data from the
1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of: respondents. It was adopted from a research study
1.1 Sex; entitled Development and validation of the statistics
1.2 Strand; anxiety measure conducted by Earp in the year 2007.
1.3 Learning Style; The questionnaire’s content inquired for the situational
1.4 Statistics Background (Junior high school (statistics background and statistics performance),
statistics lessons); and dispositional (learning style and strand), and
1.5 Statistics Performance (final grade in Statistics environmental (sex) antecedents of statistics anxiety
and Probability)? among senior high school students. The questionnaire
2. What is the respondents’ level of statistics anxiety in was divided into two. Part one included the necessary
terms of: information regarding the profile of the respondents
2.1 Statistics Anxiety as a subject; which includes the sex, strand, learning style, statistics
2.2 Attitude towards statistics class; background, and statistics performance. Part two
2.3 Fearful Behavior; consisted of the Likert scale measuring the level of
2.4 Attitude towards Mathematics; and statistics anxiety of the respondents based on the 5
factors of statistics anxiety measure (SAM) namely
2.5 Perceived Performance in Statistics?
statistics anxiety as a subject, attitude towards statistics
3. Is there a significant difference on the statistics
class, fearful behavior, attitude towards mathematics,
anxiety of the respondents when they are grouped
and perceived performance in statistics. At the same
according to:
time, reliability statistics was established and based on
3.1 Sex;
the result, Cronbach’s alpha is equal to 0.948. Its
3.2 Strand;
internal consistency is equivalent to excellent (α≥0.9).
3.3 Learning Style;
Therefore, the questionnaire is reliable. In order to
3.4 Statistics Background (Junior high school
gather the data needed to answer the research
statistics lessons)? questions in the study, a questionnaire was adopted.
4. Is there a significant relationship between the The researchers then gathered data online by sending
respondents’ statistics anxiety and statistics links of google forms questionnaire through the
performance? messenger account of the respondents. The collected
data were tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted. Lastly,
after the thorough interpretation, the researchers
Methodology
This study used descriptive-comparative-correlational
quantitative approach.
reported the results. Table 1.1 presents the profile of the respondents in
terms of sex, strand, learning style, and statistics
To analyze the gathered data, descriptive and background. In terms of sex, most of the respondents
inferential statistics were used with the help of IBM are female (60.4%). More than half of the respondents
SPSS. Frequency count and percentage distribution are students who are in the STEM (51.8%) strand
were utilized which determined the sex, strand, while only 4% and 2.3% came from the TVL-ICT and
learning style, statistics background, and statistics TVL-HE strand, respectively. Most of the respondents’
performance. Mean and standard deviation were dominant learning style is Auditory (34.3%), followed
applied which determined the statistics anxiety as a by Visual (29.7%), Reading/Writing (19.5%), and
subject, attitude towards statistics class, fearful Kinesthetic (16.5%). When it comes to the
behavior, attitude towards mathematics, and perceived respondents’ statistics background or their prior
performance in statistics. Level of statistics anxiety knowledge of statistics in Junior high school, majority
was measured using mean range 1.00 – 1.49 (very low of the students are with background in statistics
anxiety), 1.50 – 2.49 (low anxiety), 2.50 – 3.49 (high (85.1%) and only few are without any prior knowledge
anxiety) and 3.50 – 4.00 (very high anxiety). One-way (14.9%) about the subject.
MANOVA and one-way ANOVA were applied which
determined comparison of respondents’ statistics Table 1.2. Descriptive Statistics of the Respondents’
anxiety constructs in terms of sex, strand, learning Statistics Performance
style, and statistics background. On the other hand,
Pearson’s r correlation was utilized which determined
correlation of respondents’ statistics anxiety constructs
in terms of statistics performance.
84.68, respectively, are significantly lower than the statistics anxiety. A student’s prior knowledge and
average grades of reading/writing (M = 90.02) and experiences about statistics could affect his or her
kinesthetic (M = 89.56) learners. Conversely, a study attitude towards the subject (Onwuegbuzie and
conducted by Slack and Norwich (2007) reported that Wilson, 2003). Similarly, a study by Chiesi and Primi
visual and auditory learners learn more effectively in a (2010) stated that mathematics knowledge and pre-
classroom setting than kinesthetic and reading/writing course attitudes were directly linked to anxiety that in
learners. With this it could be implied that the current turn affected the post-course attitudes of students. Low
learning modality (blended) that the respondents are competence and negative attitudes were accompanied
exposed to could have an effect in the statistics anxiety by high levels of anxiety that resulted in low academic
and performance of visual and auditory learners. Thus, performance. Moreover, in a study conducted by Chew
further investigation could be made regarding this and Dillon (2014) it was revealed that low levels in
implication. anxiety were manifested by students who had
completed at least one statistics course before while
Table 6. Comparison of Respondents’ Statistics high levels of anxiety were manifested by students
Anxiety in terms of Statistics Background without prior knowledge in statistics. In the same
context, the present study revealed that the lack of
prior knowledge and skills in statistics resulted to
higher levels of anxiety. Specifically, students who are
new to the subject are anxious about their performance
in class and having statistics as their new subject in
senior high school.
statistics performance. The present study did not For future researchers, it could be recommended to:
explore on the impact of statistics anxiety towards (1) Add more respondents from the TVL track. (2)
motivation of learners. Thus, motivation as a variable Consider motivation as a factor for statistics
could be explored by other researchers in the future. anxiety. (3) Compare students who are exposed to a
Another study conducted by Baloğlu, Deniz, and different learning modality in terms of learning styles,
Kesici in 2011 used statistics grades in relation to statistics performance and statistics anxiety.
statistics anxiety. Results of this study shows that
statistics anxiety negatively impacts statistics
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