The Influence of Statistical Anxiety on Statistic Reasoning of Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

Abstract The large number of statistical data present in everyday life makes statistical reasoning an absolute ability possessed by students. Meanwhile, the statistical reasoning is influenced by various cognitive and non-cognitive factors. This study emphasizes the influence of non-cognitive factors, which are the statistical anxiety. The purpose of this study is to describe the statistical anxiety of pre-service mathematics teacher and the influence of statistical anxiety on statistical reasoning. This research method is a mixed-method with sample of 33 pre-service teachers who are taking basic statistics courses. The instrument used in this study is a statistical anxiety questionnaire developed by Earp (2007)and a statistical reasoning test developed by Chan et al (2016). The result showed that the statistical anxiety of pre-service mathematics teachers was in the moderate level on the aspects of taking the courses, studying and practicing; and was in the higher level on the aspect of the examination. Statistical anxiety levels on every aspect are equally good for both men and women. Statistical anxiety does not directly affect the ability of statistical reasoning and it can only impair 0.1% of the statistical reasoning ability. On reasoning indicators and statistical anxiety indicators, there are relevant results between the statistical anxiety experienced by the pre-service teachers on the indicator for developing conclusions based on mathematical solutions, explaining statistical findings, and interpreting statistics with indicators on statistical reasoning; they areanalyzing and interpreting data.