TPC-Journal-V1-Issue2

100 The Professional Counselor \ Volume 1, Issue 2 this phenomenon. Self-efficacy to learn statistics is an individual’s confidence in his or her ability to successfully learn statistical skills necessary in a statistics course. A large amount of information is available on self-efficacy related to academic performance (Lent, Brown, & Larkin, 1984, 1986; Pajares, 1996; Pajares & Miller, 1995; Zimmerman, 2000; Zimmerman, Bandura, & Martin-Pons, 1992). However, little is known specifically about self-efficacy to learn statistics. Finney and Schraw (2003) investigated whether self-efficacy to learn statistics is related to performance in a statistics course and whether self-efficacy to learn statistics increased during a 12-week introductory statistics course. One hundred and three undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university participated in the survey. Finney and Schraw reported a positive relationship between statistics self-efficacy and academic performance as well as an increase in self-efficacy to learn statistics over the duration of the course. Onwuegbuzie (2000) also reported students with the lowest levels of perceived competence had the highest levels of statistics anxiety. Additionally, Pajares and Miller (1995) documented an inverse relationship between self-efficacy and math anxiety. Statistics Anxiety Statistics anxiety is one of the three independent variables in this study. Researchers have documented a large amount of information on statistics anxiety over the years. For instance, there are multiple definitions of statistics anxiety available in the literature. Onwuegbuzie, DaRos, and Ryan (1997) defined statistics anxiety as “a state-anxiety reaction to any situation in which a student is confronted with statistics in any form and at any time” (p. 28). Cruise, Cash, and Bolton (1985) defined statistics anxiety as “the feelings of anxiety encountered when taking a statistics course or doing statistical analyses: that is, gathering, processing, and interpret[ing]” (p. 92). The latter is the definition utilized for this study. We know that instructors of research and statistics courses often encounter students with high levels of statistics anxiety upon their arrival to class (Perney & Ravid, 1991). According to Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Paterson, Watson, and Schwartz (2000), 75% to 80% of graduate students in the social sciences appeared to experience high levels of statistics anxiety. Statistics anxiety was found to be higher among female and minority graduate students in comparison to their male and Caucasian counterparts (Onwuegbuzie, 1999; Zeidner, 1991). Researchers identified three categories of variables—situational, dispositional, and environmental—that are related to statistics anxiety (Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, 2003). Situational antecedents are factors that surround the student, including previous statistics experiences (Sutarso, 1992). Researchers found a negative connection between the number of completed mathematics courses and statistics anxiety (Auzmendi, 1991; Robert & Saxe, 1982; Zeidner, 1991). Forte (1995) found minimal previous math experience, late introduction to quantitative analysis, anti-quantitative bias, lack of appropriation for the significance of analytical models, and lack of mental imagery were factors contributing to statistics anxiety among social work students. Dispositional antecedents are intrapersonal factors students bring to the classroom (Onwuegbuzie & Daly, 1999), which includes issues such as perfectionism and perception of abilities at developmental stages in life (Pan & Tang, 2004). Walsh and Ugumba-Agwunobi (2002) found evaluation concern, fear of failure, and perfectionism provoked statistics anxiety. Environmental antecedents are interpersonal factors related to the classroom experience (Onwuegbuzie & Daly, 1999), which can include the student’s experiences with the professor. Tomazie and Katz (1988) reported previous experiences in statistics courses have influenced learning in a current course. Moreover, the environmental antecedent has the least research available in the literature. Attitude Toward Statistics Attitude toward statistics is the second independent variable in this study. Attitude towards statistics is defined in this study as a combination of a students’ attitude toward the use of statistics in their field of study and the students’ attitudes towards the statistics course (Cashin & Elmore, 1997; Wise, 1985). Researchers explored this area; however, there are many gaps left to fulfill. Gal and Gingsburg (1994) reported students often enter statistics courses with negative views or later develop negative feelings regarding the subject matter of statistics. Researchers found no statistically significant differences