COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE FACTORS RELATED TO STUDENTS’ STATISTICS ACHIEVEMENT

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate students’ achievement in introductory statistics courses taking into account the relationships between cognitive and non-cognitive factors. It was hypothesised that achievement was related to background in mathematics (a cognitive variable), as well as to attitudes toward statistics and anxiety (non-cognitive variables). Students were presented with measures assessing their attitudes, mathematical competence, and anxiety toward courses and examinations at the beginning and at the end of their statistics course. Achievement was assessed by tasks assigned during the course, as well as by students’ final grades and the number of exam failures. The results reveal the reationships between cognitive and non-cognitive factors, their changes during the course, and how both interact in predicting achievement.

First published May 2010 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives