Statistical Literacy of Education Policy Makers: A PLS SEM Approach

Autor/inn/en	Jalal, Azlin Abd; Hamid, Harris Shah Abd; Zulnaidi, Hutkemri
Titel	Statistical Literacy of Education Policy Makers: A PLS SEM Approach
Quelle	In: Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 11 (2023) 2, S.1-12 (12 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Schlagwörter	Statistics; Literacy; Educational Policy; Mathematics Anxiety; Student Attitudes; Preservice Teachers; Statistics Education; Foreign Countries; Least Squares Statistics; Structural Equation Models; Malaysia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Statistik; Alphabetisierung; Schreib- und Lesefähigkeit; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Schülerverhalten; Ausland
Abstract	In this new era drenched with data, statistical literacy becomes more essential for individuals to be able to read, communicate, and make informed decisions. Moreover, statistical literacy is highly essential for education policy makers who are highly accountable for all policy outcomes including school improvement, resource allocation, curriculum planning and intervention. Hence, there is a need to understand their perceptions and beliefs. The aim of this study is to explore whether attitude towards statistics and statistical anxiety are related to the education policy makers' statistical literacy. Considering that statistics coursework is the basis and major contributor to a statistically literate society, real problems with statistics are likely due to non-cognitive factors, which include attitudes or beliefs towards statistics. There is a global increase in literature exploring beliefs and attitudes of teachers towards statistics, indicating that studies on attitudes towards statistics do not stop at the students' level but should also be extended to education personnel who uses statistics in their workplace. While pre-service teachers in college claimed that statistics anxiety is the main obstacle to get their teaching degree. This is alarming as they are the future teachers and education policy makers with anxiety may develop avoidance to read educational diagnoses containing statistical information. Participants self-reported their statistical literacy with 20 multiple choice items tailor made to the work of education policy makers. Data were drawn from a survey elicited using a cross-sectional method on 328 education personnel working at different levels in Ministry of Education. The findings show that attitude towards statistics is not significantly related to statistical literacy while statistics anxiety has a significant negative relationship with statistical literacy. Statistical anxiety also has a negative significant relationship with attitudes towards statistics. These findings help strengthen Model of Statistical Literacy, where dispositional element including beliefs and attitude was addressed while confirming Anxiety Expectation Model. Future studies to explore other potential predictors of statistical literacy and suggested to investigate possible difference in attitude towards statistics between adult workers and students. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	University of Malaya Faculty of Education. Kuala Lumpur 50603 Malaysia. Web site: https://mojes.um.edu.my/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01