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CHAPTER I
Background of the Study
Research (Shaukat, et.al, 2014) plays a significant role in our daily life, as it
becomes one of the most important intellectual possession (Oguan et.al, 2014) for a
person for him to be able to manage change on his way of life in accordance to the needs
study. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) believes that the contribution towards the understanding
of the phenomenon and delivering it to others is the aim of research as it gives rewarding
learning experiences for students, producing graduates of high personal and professional
vital role in many fields (e.g., medicine, economics, engineering, natural and social
sciences) where statistical techniques are highly valued (Wackerly, Mendenhall, &
Scheaffer, 2007). Acquiring statistical skills and knowledge poses significant challenges
for many students; a statistics course is challenging because it is abstract and requires
logical reasoning, critical thinking, and the skills of interpretation and drawing conclusions
(Peters et al.). Because of these challenges, many students perceive statistics as difficult
and uninteresting (Sotos, VanHoof, Van den Noortgate, & Onghena, 2007).
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It is obvious that society can’t be run effectively on the basis of hunches or trial
and error, and that in business and economics much depends on the correct analysis of
numerical information. Decisions based on data will provide better results than those
based on intuition or gut feelings. What applies to this wider world applies to undertaking
research into the wider world. And learning to use statistics in your studies will have a
wider benefit than helping you towards a qualification. Once you have mastered the
language and some of the techniques in order to make sense of your investigation, you
will have supplied yourself with a knowledge and understanding that will enable you to
cope with the information you will encounter in your everyday life (McGraw-Taylor Harris,
2007). This means that statistics and research goes together. Each one of them holds a
big role on one another in order for our community to strive and develop the qualities of
a developed country. The major purposes of statistics are to help us understand and
describe phenomena in our world and to help us draw reliable conclusions about those
Tengku Meriam, and Tengku Wook on “Student’s Attitude Towards Statistics Course,”
they employed Survey of the Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS), to observe students’
attitude towards a statistics course. There are six factors contributing to the attitude which
are affective factor, cognitive capability, value, difficulty, interest and student’s effort. This
study was conducted on first year students in FTSM according to the mentioned six
factors. This study has also investigated the relationship between the six factors to the
The results show that students have displayed a positive attitude towards some
components studied as listed below. Positive attitude towards statistics was mostly
exhibited for items in the effort component, followed by interest and difficulty. All items in
effort component were given a positive response, which shows that the students really
have worked hard in learning the course. Students were found to show a positive attitude
towards non-cognitive factors related to the course. Although they find that this subject is
difficult, they have put great effort to master the concept of statistics.
Negative attitude regarding statistics was mostly demonstrated in items under the
affective and value components. As the affective component assesses the student’s
feeling towards the subject, the results have shown that the students feel quite
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undergoing course. Value, on the other hand, assesses the significance of learning
statistics course for the students. Students were found to be quite uncertain about the
usage, relevance and advantages of statistics as well as their future professional life.
The results show that the students have given great effort and are prepared to
learn statistics course. However, they feel that this course is not relevant for their field of
study, as well as for their future career, thus demonstrated some negative attitude
towards the subject (Ashaari, N. S., Judi, H. M., Mohamed, H., Tengku and Wook, M.T.,
2011).
In a study conducted by Carita Hommik and Piret Luik in 2017 about “Survey of
Attitudes Towards Statistics” for Estonian secondary school students where SATS-36
was employed, they find out that Estonian secondary school students have rather positive
attitudes towards statistics. The real-life value of statistics is clearer to upper secondary
level students than to lower secondary level students. Gender differences are also more
present on the upper level than the lower level, where male students had higher mean
Nowadays, research (Hussain et.al, 2016) has turned into one of the most
significant rational assets for all human being to transform his way of life. Man’s huge rise
depends upon research which made an important function in itself. In the Philippines, the
demands for research in education was addressed through immersing pioneers of senior
high school programs since school year 2016 until now. The Department of Education
(2013) included two (2) applied subjects for grades 11 and 12. Practical Research 1
the K-12 Curriculum of all the tracks offered. The subjects aim to develop critical thinking
and problem-solving skills through systematics inquiry or research (cited by Gallos, 2017).
The important factors of resisting research in our daily life. The fear of learning,
making change and being criticized are the possible factors that hold us back in doing a
research. The fear of learning posits reflection on the things we don’t want to hear or see,
research reveals everything. The fear of change triggers the resistance for research since
it focus on solving problems and make an abrupt change on it. Research requires action
on what is concluded and recommended. Lastly, the fear of being criticized, the risk of
hearing feedbacks on what is done. Researchers often afraid to hear negative comments
about the results which sometimes lead them to negativity of pursuing another study
As the research demands rises, most students have to come up with a research
article fixing issues or theme related to their concern. However, Papanastasiou (2005)
revealed on her study that undergraduate level tend to view introductory research courses
negatively. Students’ attitude (Miandashti and Rezaei, 2013) directly influences how they
mentally approach research including all the work related to research. Positivism enables
students to solve problems quickly in which negative attitude hampers the efforts in
research. Early (2014), concluded from fifty-one articles he reviewed, indicated students
enrolled in introductory research courses exhibit the following characteristics: Fail to see
the relevance of research to one’s life; Anxious or nervous about the course difficulty;
Uninterested and poorly motivated to learn; Poor attitudes in approaching the course; and
Misconceptions about the course. Early’s study presented the pessimistic side of students
Siemens, Punnen, Wong, & Kanji (2010) conducted a study on the medical
students to explore their attitudes towards the research and found that though the majority
of the students felt that the research would be beneficial in their career, fewer than half of
the students were significantly involved in any research activity during their medical
school. Students who realize the need of spending more time on research activities are
even fewer. About one fourth of the student reported no interest in any such activity.
Sabzwari, Kauserand Khuwaja, (2009) conducted a study on junior faculty in the medical
profession in Pakistan and found that though the majority of them perceive research a
difficult endeavor but they have positive attitude towards the research.
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Butt and Shams (2013) observed negative attitude towards the research among
prospective teachers. However, Butt and Shams (2013) found that students enrolled in
selfsupport evening programs have significantly better attitude towards the research than
those enrolled in morning programs. The reason might be that evening students come to
this field with more enthusiasm. Similarly, the prospective students with premedical
background were found to have significantly better attitude towards the research than
those who have arts and computer science as their previously studied subjects at higher
secondary level. The reason according to Butt and Shams (2013) might be that
experimentation during their previous pre-medical study might have developed a positive
From the literature gathered, it really implies that attitude towards research greatly
affects on how people deal with research. Whether a person undergone a good or bad
experience with research, it indicates when he or she will still engage in research and his
or her attitude towards it will neither be optimistic or pessimistic. The ideas discussed can
research. It could also be possible that the result of this study be a great help to research
teachers, especially in senior high school to consider their students attitude towards
research and be able to address them properly. Likewise, the researcher is looking
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Figure 1 presents the framework of the study. It seeks to find the relationship
between the students’ attitudes towards research (dependent variable) and students’
attitudes towards statistics (independent variable). The data were taken from 4th year
BSED Mathematics Major Students of Leyte Normal University, through employing both
Students’ Attitudes
Towards Research
Students’ Attitudes
Towards Statistics
1. What is the attitude of 4th year BSED Mathematics students towards statistics?
2. What is the attitude of 4th year BSED Mathematics students towards research?
Chapter II
METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the variables, the respondents, the statistical tool and the
Variables
Respondents
The respondents of this study are the 4th year Bachelor of Secondary Education
major in Mathematics students of Leyte Normal University, Tacloban City of the School-
Year 2018-2019. Each respondent answer the two instruments (Students’ Attitude
Statistical Tool
This study used the Correlation Research Design to determine the extent to which
the variables of this study are related, not to the extent to which one variable causes or
changes in another variable. Moreover, this study utilized the Spearman Rank-Order
signified by 𝑟𝑠 ) measures the strength and direction of association between two ranked
variables.
Before the researchers decided to use the Spearman Rank-Order Correlation, the
researchers first test the data if it can satisfy the assumptions in using Pearson product-
moment correlation.
The researchers have tested the gathered data for normality using the
table below.
The researchers also tested the data for linearity but unfortunately, the data has
many outliers and does not conform to a linearly related sample. So the researchers opt
Figure 2. Scatter Plot of Students’ Attitude towards Statistics and Students’ Attitude
towards Research.
Instruments
This study made use of two statistical tools — Students’ Attitude towards Statistics
are standardized; therefore, both are valid and reliable. The Students’ Attitude towards
Statistics Questionnaire and the Students’ Attitude towards Research Questionnaire are
composed of 32 items and 30 items, respectively. Both instruments used 7-point Likert
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Scale to express the degree of agreement and disagreement to each statement in every
item.
1 – Strongly Disagree
2 – Disagree
3 – Slightly Disagree
4 – Neutral
5 – Slightly Agree
6 – Agree
7 – Strongly Agree
16 Statistics is stressful.
17 Statistics is very valuable.
18 Statistics makes me nervous.
19 I use Statistics in my daily life.
The skills I have acquired in Statistics will be helpful
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to me in the future.
21 Statistics is useful to every professional.
22 Knowledge from Statistics is as useful as writing.
23 Statistics is irrelevant to my life.
Statistics should be indispensable in my professional
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training.
25 Statistics is complicated.
26 Statistics thinking does not apply to my personal life.
27 I will employ Statistics approaches in my profession.
28 Statistics is difficult.
I am inclined to study the details of statistics
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procedures carefully.
30 Statistics is pleasant.
Statistics-oriented thinking plays an important role in
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my daily life.
32 Statistics is a complex subject.
Chapter III
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS
In this chapter, the results and findings of the gathered data, and the conclusion
of the researcher are discussed.
Table 2 shows the level of Students’ Attitude both of Statistics and Research. If a
student got 0%-21% of score out of the perfect score, he/she has a Highly Negative
Attitude, 21% - 40% of score indicates that the student has Moderately Negative Attitude,
41% - 60% of score indicates that the student has Neutral Attitude, 61% - 80% of score
indicates that the student has Moderately Positive Attitude, and 81% - 100% of score
has Highly Negative and Moderately Negative Attitudes toward Statistics. Seven (7) or
15.2% have a Neutral Attitude towards Statistics, Thirty-Five (35) or 76.1% have
Moderately Positive Attitude towards Statistics and four (4) or 8.7% have Highly Positive
students has Highly Negative and Moderately Negative Attitudes towards Research,
sixteen (16) or 34.8% have Neutral Attitude towards Research, twenty-nine (29) or 63.0%
have Moderately Positive Attitude towards Research, and only one (1) or 2.2% has a
Correlation
N Sig. (2-tailed)
Coefficient
Students’ Attitude towards
Statistics
46 .503 .000
Students’ Attitude towards
Research
Statistics and Students’ Attitude towards Research. Based on the SPSS output, the
Coefficient is greater than 0 but less than 1 (0< 0.503 < 1). This means that there
2. The associate p-value (2-tailed) is .000, which is less than 𝛼= .025. Moreover, the
Discussion
The overall aim of this study was to determine the attitude of the students towards
statistics, their attitude towards research, and for the researchers to find out if there is a
significant relationship between the students’ attitude towards statistics and attitude
towards research. Aligned to the said aim, firstly, the researchers obtained the students’
highly negative towards statistics and research. Only then can the researchers find if there
is a significant relationship between the students’ attitude towards statistics and attitude
towards research.
The researchers utilized the level of students’ attitude towards statistics and
research to successfully identify whether the students highly positive, moderately positive,
neutral, moderately negative, or highly negative attitude towards statistics and research.
The level of attitude can only be identified if the percentage of the students’ attitude is
obtained. Below is a table of the level of students’ attitude with the corresponding
percentage:
Based on the given tables 3 and 4 above, it is revealed that the 4th year BSED
Mathematics Major Students have neutral, moderately positive, and highly positive
attitudes both towards statistics and research. Although, negative attitudes towards
statistics and research still exist as they go through their research which is in relation to
the appropriate utilization and application of statistics. Given that research requires
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Since some students attained positive attitudes and some attained neutral
attitudes, then no students have attained negative attitude towards statistics and
research. This is evident for Mathematics Major Students because they took up statistics
course and have gained statistical knowledge, and they were also able to conduct few
researches and apply their statistical knowledge. The implication of this is that
Mathematics Major Students are likely to be engrossed with research because of having
scientific thinking. Everything in Mathematics deals with problem solving and research is
CONCLUSION
Since the p-value is equal to .000 which is less than 0.025, this implies that we
must reject the null hypothesis. Based on the findings, the study concluded that there is
attitude towards research. Statistics is a bridge to fill the gap in research, and that there
is a need for students to gain sufficient and deep statistical knowledge in order to produce
an accurate and reliable research. Research must not be a burden but a problem-solving
strategy for Mathematics Major Students which could help them to prepare a more
Mathematics Major Students aids them to appreciate learning of research. In order for
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the knowledge on statistics and research to flourish, teachers and students must
REFERENCES
Bryan M. Gallos (2017). Senior High School Students’ Attitudes towards Research, Holy
Child Catholic School, Inc., 1-5.
GKS. (2015). Fears of knowing – why we resist doing research. Retrieved from http://
www. gksconsulting.com/fear-of-knowing-why-we-resist-doing-research/
Miandshti, N., & Rezaei, M. (2013). The relationship between research self-efficacy,
research anxiety and attitude toward research: A study of agricultural graduate students.
Journal of Educational and Instructional Studies in the World, 3(4), 69-76.
Siemens, D. R., Punnen, S., Wong, J., & Kanji, N. (2010).A survey on the attitudes
towards research in medical school.BMC Medical Education, 10 (4), available at
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/10/4.
Shaukat, S., et.al. (2014). Postgraduate students’ attitude towards research. Bulletin of
Education and Research, 36(1), 111-122.
Taylor, I. (2017). Fears that are holding you back from doing research. Retrieved from
https:// www.questionpro.com/blog/fears-that-are-holding-you-back-from-doing-
research/