MEASURING STATISTICS ATTITUDES: STRUCTURE OF THE SURVEY OF ATTITUDES TOWARD STATISTICS (SATS-36)

Authors

  • STIJN VANHOOF Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • SOFIE KUPPENS Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • ANA ELISA CASTRO SOTOS Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • LIEVEN VERSCHAFFEL Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • PATRICK ONGHENA Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v10i1.354

Keywords:

Statistics education research, Attitudes towards statistics, Assessment instrument, Confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract

Although a number of instruments for assessing attitudes toward statistics have been developed, several questions with regard to the structure and item functioning remain unresolved. In this study, the structure of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36), a widely used questionnaire to measure six aspects of students’ attitudes toward statistics, is investigated. This study addresses the previously unexplored issue of individual item functioning. Based on confirmatory factor analysis using individual items, the results suggest that the SATS-36 can be improved by removing some poorly functioning items and that depending on the goals of a specific study either six subscales could be used or three of them (Affect, Cognitive Competence, and Difficulty) can be combined into one subscale without losing much information.

First published May 2011 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

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Published

2011-05-31

Issue

Section

Regular Articles