Administration student attitudes toward statistics before and after the course

Abstract

Attitudes of Administration students toward statistics were identified by the questionnaire, Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics, before and after an applied statistics course at FEA-RP/USP. The four aspects surveyed were interest, cognitive competence, value, and difficulty. Cluster analysis was applied to form groups of optimists, intermediates and pessimists. No great differences were found in attitudes of female, male, day or night students. A slight decrease in attitudinal scores was found after course completion disclosing less favorable attitudes. Further, those with better attitudes had better grades disclosing the impact of a more positive attitude on learning performance. Moreover, students considered knowledge of statistics relevant although complex and difficult to acquire.