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Can a statistics course improve health sciences students' attitudes towards statistics?

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dc.contributor.authorPimenta, Rui Esteves
dc.contributor.authorBorges, Janete
dc.contributor.authorNascimento, Ana Paula
dc.contributor.authorAlves, Sandra
dc.contributor.authorFaria, Brígida
dc.contributor.authorPereira, Ilídio
dc.contributor.authorMartins, João Paulo
dc.contributor.authorPimenta, Rui
dc.contributor.authorBorges, Janete
dc.contributor.authorNascimento, Ana Paula
dc.contributor.authorAlves, Sandra Maria
dc.contributor.authorFaria, Brigida Monica
dc.contributor.authorOliveira Martins, João Paulo
dc.date.accessioned2026-09-30T13:41:04Z
dc.date.available2026-09-30T13:41:04Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractIn educating future health professionals, it is not only the technical understanding of statistics that matters, but also how students perceive its relevance and grasp its core concepts. When statistics is presented in a way that feels meaningful and accessible, students are more likely to engage with it, and develop a positive attitude toward statistics (ATS). Positive ATS can make a significant difference—not only in how effectively students learn, but also in whether they are prepared to use data thoughtfully in everyday decision-making. Either personal lives or clinical practice, where evidence-based reasoning plays a central role. If one of the goals of statistics education is to enhance more positive ATS, then it becomes essential to assess students’ ATS both before and after instruction. Doing so allows educators to better understand the impact of statistical training. This study aims to assess the changes in attitudes towards statistics among higher education students in a health science institution, following attendance of a statistics course. Students enrolled in a statistics course at a health sciences school were surveyed at the beginning and end of the course using the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-28) instrument. STAS-28 is an item scale (5 points Likert scale, Strongly Disagree (1) Strongly Agree (5)) with 4 domains: Affect, Cognitive, Value and Difficulty. The total and domains scores were obtained using the mean response of the corresponding items, higher values correspond to positive attitudes. To evaluate changes in students’ ATS paired-samples t-tests were conducted across the 4 domains and the overall attitudes score. In addition to statistical significance testing, effect sizes were calculated using Cohen’s d to assess the practical significance of observed changes. A total of 152 completed the assessment in the two periods, with a majority being female (88.2%, n=134) and 11.8% male (n=18). About half of the participants were aged between 18-20 years (n=87, 57.2%). Regarding academic status only 11 (7.2%) were working students. About 26% (n=40) of the students had already failed a course. Statistically significant improvements were found in the Affective domain: beginning (M1 = 2.93, SD = 0.53) versus end of the course (M2= 3.08, SD = 0.59), t(151) = 2.91, p = .004 (Cohen’s d = 0.61), Cognitive domain: (M1 = 3.54, SD = 0.63) versus (M2 = 3.74, SD = 0.64), t(151) = 3.92, p < .001 (Cohen’s d = 0.62), and Difficulty domain (M1 = 2.77, SD = 0.57) to (M2 = 2.89, SD = 0.59), t(151) = 2.61, p = .010 (Cohen’s d = 0.58). In the overall attitudes toward statistics, there was also an improvement (M1 = 3.18, SD = 0.45) versus (M2 = 3.31, SD = 0.49), t(151) = 3.37, p < .001 (Cohen’s d = 0.45) . These changes were associated with small to moderate effect sizes, indicating meaningful improvements during the course. Regarding the Value domain, no statistical significant change was identified (M1 = 3.49, SD = 0.67) (M2 = 3.52, SD = 0.68), t(151) = 0.56, p = .575. While perceived value, remain stable, overall, the results indicate that students developed more positive affective and cognitive ATS and perceived it as less difficult by the end of the course. These improvements, while modest in magnitude, suggest a meaningful improvement in students’ overall ATS and can meaningfully impact students’ learning experience and long-term confidence with statistics.eng
dc.identifier.citationPimenta, R. E., Borges, J., Nascimento, A. P., Alves, S. M., Faria, B. M., Pereira, I., & Martins, J. P. (2025). Can a statistics course improve health sciences students’ attitudes towards statistics? 18th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation - ICERI2025 Proceedings, 8147–8153. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2025.2276
dc.identifier.doi10.21125/iceri.2025.2276
dc.identifier.isbn978-84-09-78706-7
dc.identifier.issn2340-1095
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/32901
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherIATED Digital Library
dc.relation.hasversionhttps://library.iated.org/view/ESTEVESPIMENTA2025CAN
dc.rights.uriN/A
dc.subjectStatistics
dc.subjectAttitudes
dc.subjectSATS 28
dc.subjectHigher education students
dc.subjectHealth sciences
dc.titleCan a statistics course improve health sciences students' attitudes towards statistics?eng
dc.typeconference paper
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.citation.conferenceDate2025-11
oaire.citation.conferencePlaceSeville, Spain
oaire.citation.endPage8153
oaire.citation.startPage8147
oaire.citation.title18th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation - ICERI2025 Proceedings
oaire.versionhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
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person.givenNameAna Paula
person.givenNameSandra Maria
person.givenNameBrigida Monica
person.givenNameJoão Paulo
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person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-0474-1397
person.identifier.ridJUU-6485-2023
person.identifier.ridC-6649-2012
person.identifier.scopus-author-id56340941800
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person.identifier.scopus-author-id55838096100
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