Wonderland… attitudes towards statistics of portuguese university students

Resumen

Nowadays it is important to value the students’ attitudes when they begin a new Study Cycle (Bologna University Cycle) for two sets of reasons: the formative results and its own influence in the teaching learning process. This study emerged in line with some of ours previous works about the Attitudes Towards Statistics research in different contexts. The Escala de Actitudes hacia la Estadística de Estrada (Estrada Attitudes Towards Statistics Scale, EAEE, 2002) was used within Statistics courses in order to plan future actions to the university future teachers and others. The portuguese translation of this scale was validated by a panel of experts. All the items are distributed within a matrix of pedagogical and anthropological components. The analysis was done among 341 students of a northern portuguese university in different degrees. Statistics is a course taught in the third semester in all degrees, except in Economy and Management where it is taught in the fifth semester. Our preliminary analysis describes the students general data. We also present the conclusions and in summary: despite the different degrees studied we were surprised by the results' similarity, between the studied degrees either in the total scores or in the pedagogical and anthropological components. Among these students the slightly positive attitudes are promising and according to the Cheshire cat: And you've picked up a bit of an attitude, still curious and willing to learn, I hope.