Examining the Attitudes of Students Before and After a Course in Introductory Statistics

This study investigates the attitudes of undergraduate health science students towards statistics before and after completing an introductory statistics course. Given the critical role that attitudes play in students’ academic performance, understanding how these attitudes evolve during the course is essential for improving teaching strategies and curriculum design. The study employed the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36), a well-validated instrument that measures six subscales of attitude: Affect, Cognitive Competence, Value, Difficulty, Interest, and Effort. Data were collected from 119 students at the University of Minnesota Rochester, with both pre-course and post-course assessments. The results indicated statistically significant changes in several attitude dimensions, suggesting that the course had a measurable impact on students’ perceptions of statistics. These findings have important implications for educators in designing courses that not only improve statistical competence but also positively influence students' attitudes towards the subject.