Treffer: Teaching multivariates statistics in psychology: Fluctuations in attitudes and anxiety across a course.

Many students react to the idea of doing a compulsory multivariate statistics course with anxiety and have negative attitudes about statistics. At the 2002 APS Conference we reported the results of a study on the effects of a teaching framework, attitudes anxiety and approaches to learning on academic performance. We found that students differed in their approach to learning with some having a surface approach, a concern for assessment, and others a deep approach. This was related to their final mark in the course: The more they moved beyond a concern for assessment the higher their final mark. The study also found that the teaching framework affected both approaches to learning, anxiety and attitudes. The framework has two principles: (a) The teacher's purposeful use of self achieves a positive learning environment through use of humour, enthusiasm, knowledge and respect for students and (b) a strong conceptual integration of content assists students achieve fluid movement between the conceptual and the practical levels of thinking and doing. Implementing the first principle led to a decrease in surface motives and an increase in positive attitudes. Implementing the second principle led to an increase in deep motives, a decrease in surface motives, an increase in positive attitudes and a decrease in anxiety. We are replicating the study in 2003 and extending it by using focus groups across the course to gather more information on the process of learning. We want to especially investigate the role of fluctuations in anxiety across the course and its relation to the impact of the teaching framework on learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]