Assessing Students’ Attitudes and Perception towards Statistics Subject

Abstract

Statistics has always been regarded as one of the most difficult subjects for students to master. There are several factors that cause difficulties in understanding the statistics subject, including attitude, perception, expectation, motivation, as well as students' intellectual capability to do well in this subject. Basically, students will have difficulty in learning the subject effectively if they have a negative attitude or perception towards that subject. On that note, a study on assessing students' conceptual
understanding, attitudes, and perceptions towards statistics subjects among Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students was conducted. Primary data is collected by distributing questionnaires to the respondents. Findings revealed that most of the respondents agreed with all statements regarding attitudes and perceptions towards the subject of statistics. Moreover, attitudes and perceptions have a significant relationship with their conceptual understanding of Statistics. Students who have positive attitudes and perceptions have a moderate level of conceptual understanding of statistical concepts. However, this study found that only the students' perceptions contributed to the conceptual understanding of statistical concepts among UiTM students. As for recommendations, it is suggested that a similar study be done to estimate the students' perceived ability and empirical understanding relating to basic statistics concepts, along with enhancing what is still in the ongoing studies.