The Attitudes and Beliefs of Exemplary Statistics Teachers
Abstract
This poster reports results from a study in which exemplary secondary school statistics teachers responded to surveys. The three surveys used in this study were the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36) (Schau, 2003), the Epistemic Belief Inventory (Schraw, Bendixen, & Dunkle, 2002), and the Indiana Mathematics Belief Scales (IMBS) (Kloosterman & Stage, 1992). While the results of the studies are of interest because they contribute to limited research on statistics teachers, they are also interesting for teachers of statistics who wish to use instruments to assess their students’ attitudes about statistics. In particular, the responses of the exemplary statistics teachers to the SATS-36 instrument raise questions about the validity of its expanding use with populations beyond undergraduates in introductory statistics courses (e.g. pre-service teachers in statistics courses or in-service teachers involved in research studies).
