How Do We Change Statistical and Critical Thinking Attitudes in Young People?

Abstract

A quasi-experimental design was used to measure the impacts on student attitudes in statistics, mathematics and critical thinking (16-18 years of age) on a group of students who received a 21-week-long contextualised statistics course (called the Pilot Scheme in Social Analytics), in South Wales. This paper will discuss the development and delivery stages of the course as well as the student recruitment strategies employed. This paper will also discuss the changes in attitudes observed after the course had finished. Results suggest the course did lead to changes in the students’ attitudes becoming more positive with respect to statistics, mathematics, and critical thinking in comparison to two control groups. Students in both control groups who didn’t receive the treatment, showed mostly no change or negative changes in their attitudes with respect to statistics, mathematics, and critical thinking.