Use of student peers to reduce statistics anxiety in a business statistics course.

1. Reducing statistics anxiety through use of student
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immediacy behaviors and peer instruction
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Keith Starcher
CBFA Conference
June 26, 2012
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Indiana Wesleyan University

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6. Many students fear taking a
statistics course
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• Statistics anxiety has been defined simply
as anxiety that occurs as a result of
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encountering statistics in any form and at
any level.
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• With fear of failing, students delay enrolling
in statistics courses as long as possible
(Onwuegbuzie, 1997).

7. Fear of Statistics as a Subject
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• Statistics is seen by large numbers of
students (including college students) as
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being a very rigorous and anxiety-inducing
subject to study (Sgoutas-Emch & Johnson,
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1998).

8. How to Teach Statistics
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• Many instructors are frustrated in regards to
finding effective methods of teaching this
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subject (Garfield and Ben-Zvi, 2002).
• Garfield and Ben-Zvi (2004) wrote that
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although there is a great deal of statistics
instruction taking place, the research to
support statistics instruction is not well
known.

9. Most students dislike taking a
statistics course
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• Empirical evidence and anecdotal data
suggest that statistics is one of students’
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most disliked subjects (Sciutto, 1995).
• Studies have demonstrated a negative
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relationship between statistics anxiety and
performance (Tremblay et al., 2000).

10. The Purpose of this Research
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• To reduce statistics anxiety through use of
“student” (instructor) immediacy behaviors
and peer instruction (in-class student tutors)
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in a sample of traditional undergraduate
business statistics students in a private
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Midwestern university.
• To extend the literature by offering practical
insights on how course design and
classroom management may reduce
statistics anxiety.

11. Methodology
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• Instrument: Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale
(STARS) – (Cruise et al.1985).
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• STARS is a 51-item, 5-point, Likert-type
instrument composed of two parts. The first
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part includes 23 statements that are related
to statistical anxiety while the second part
includes 28 statements that deal with
attitudes toward statistics.

12. Methodology
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• There are six subscales in STARS:
– Worth of Statistics (16 items)
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– Interpretation Anxiety (11 items)
– Test/Class Anxiety (8 items)
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– Computational Self-concept (7 items)
– Fear of Asking for Help (4 items)
– Fear of Statistics Teachers (5 items)

13. Methodology
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• This study used a pretest/posttest design
with 23 traditional undergraduate students
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completing the Statistical Anxiety Rating
Scale (STARS) instrument at the beginning
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and end of a business statistics course
taught in a traditional classroom
environment.
• Pretest (1st day of class); Posttest (last week
of class)

14. Instructor Immediacy
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• Williams (2010) advised that instructors
increase their use of immediacy behaviors
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in order to reduce statistics anxiety.
• When the instructor practices immediacy,
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she engages in additional positive behaviors
such as praising students’ actions and
comments, encouraging students to share
their points of view, and engaging in
student-initiated discussion (Gorham,1988).

15. Peer Instruction
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• Peer Instruction engages students during
class through activities that require each
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student to apply the core concepts being
presented, and then to explain those
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concepts to their fellow students.
• Peer Instruction has been shown to improve
academic performance (Crouch, 2001).

16. Student Tutor
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• In our class the students were presented
with a problem. They would work on the
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problem individually and then discuss the
solution with their group asking clarifying
questions of their group’s student tutor (1
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tutor in each group of 4 students).
• The instructor roamed the classroom
checking in with each group as they
wrestled with the problem solution.

17. Course Design
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• To increase the perception of the usefulness
of statistics, students were required early in
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the semester to read and write a reflection
paper on Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-
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By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart
(Ayres, 2008).

18. Student Comments regarding Super
Crunchers
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I learned that statistics are used in nearly every
industry and can be seen all around us. The
book really made me think of daily activities in
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a different way and opened my eyes up to how
important statistics are to our society today.
While super crunching helps us be more
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effective, it does not mean we need to eliminate
all human “gut feelings” and simply look at
numbers. Rather, statistics should be a
foundation for our decisions and the human
“expertise” factor should be able to make a
better-educated decision in the end.

19. Course Design
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• The Test/Class Anxiety subscale is assumed
to assess anxiety experienced while taking
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statistics courses and/or exams (higher
scores indicate higher levels of anxiety).
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• This fear was addressed through the use of
open book, open note exams (test anxiety)
and student tutors (class anxiety).

20. Course Design
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• The Fear of Asking for Help subscale is
designed to assess anxiety experienced
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when a person asks for help in statistics-
related problems (higher scores indicate
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higher anxiety).
• This was addressed through student tutors.

21. Course Design
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• The Fear of Statistics Teachers subscale is
supposed to measure students’ perceptions
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of statistics teachers (higher scores indicate
higher anxiety).
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• This was addressed via instructor
immediacy behaviors.

22. Results
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23. Results
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Cronbach’s Alpha
Factor Pre Post
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1 .921 .907
2 .879 .793
3 .864 .913
4 .847 .874
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5 .611 .747
6 .596 .735
All .955 .955

24. Results
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= very much so
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Frequency
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 More
Bin

25. Results – Tutor Responses
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26. Results – Non-Tutor Responses
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27. Tutor Comments
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• Now, near semester’s end, how do you
think and feel about the idea of working as a
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student tutor?
– I feel good about the idea of being a tutor
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because I honestly think that having a
student/peer explain concepts to other students
helps the other students understand those
concepts.

28. Tutor Comments
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– I don’t mind it, but I don’t particularly enjoy it.
– It was a good experience over all; sometimes
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hard to explain everything well.
– It was fine. Our group interacted well with
each other.
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– I feel the same way about the idea of student
tutors because I did get to interact with and lead
other students.
– It was a good experience, but very stressful.

29. Non-tutor Comments
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• Now, near semester’s end, how do you
think and feel about the idea of working
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with student tutor?
– I don’t think it was that big of a deal because it
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just meant that if I didn’t know how to do
something, I knew whom to ask for help and
we’d learn together.
– I liked it. It was more comfortable to ask
questions.

30. Non-tutor Comments
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– It was very helpful and made it easier to learn.
– It helped out a lot by providing quicker answers
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to questions I had.
– I thought the student tutors were very helpful.
They gave me reassurance and someone to lean
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on when I needed help.
– I liked it. Usually I don’t like to talk a lot, so
when I was stuck, the tutor asked me, “Do you
get it?” That helped me.

31. Non-tutor Comments
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– I am glad I had one. She has helped me
understand the material better and has been a
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good leader.
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– I still like it knowing they are easy to contact
with any questions I have.
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– I feel great about it. Our tutor really helped our
group out.
– I think it went well and benefited me. I was
able to get help and work through any problems
I had.

32. Next time…
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• Obtain more individual test performance
• Obtain more individual homework
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performance
• Provide them with a meaningful yet rich
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data set for analysis
• Make the final applied statistics paper an
individual (not a group) project

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34. References
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35. References
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