CS Consultants, LLC

BACKGROUND


Evolution of the SATS

Teaching Statistics… As a Professor at two universities, I taught introductory and advanced statistics for over 25 years. In the process of teaching statistics (which I loved), I developed an interest in how and why students may or may not learn and use statistics.

Statistics Assessment... Many of us who teach statistics work hard to improve our instruction. Part of that effort needs to be directed toward developing and using good assessments. Theory, research, and the experiences of both teachers and students of statistics indicate that attitudes toward statistics are important in the teaching-learning process.

The Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS)... We developed the SATS to help us understand these attitudes and how they impact teaching and learning. The SATS has two major uses. The first use is to help instructors evaluate students' attitudes toward statistics in their statistics courses. The second is for educational research into students' statistics attitudes.
 
The original version of the SATS (the SATS-28) contains 28 items that use a Likert-type scale to assess four components of students' attitudes toward statistics. The current version of the SATS (SATS-36) contains 36 items that assess six components: the four components from the SATS-28 and two new components. The scoring information on this site briefly describes these components. Because a variety of other factors may be related to instructional outcomes, both versions of the SATS also contain a series of additional questions designed to help us better understand these relationships. You can request either version of the SATS directly from me.

Taking the SATS... Both versions of the SATS are easy to take and usually are completed in about 10 minutes. In fact, I believe (although I do not have evidence) that the process of taking the SATS encourages students to make explicit their attitudes and so helps them evaluate their own feelings. To provide useful information, the SATS must be administered at least twice (as a pretest and as a posttest) but can be administered more frequently.

Contact Me... Both versions of the SATS are copyrighted. If you do not have outside funding, you can use the SATS for free for one year, but you need to contact me for permission. If you do have funding, there is a modest fee. In both cases, you will need to share your results with me. I welcome your comments, ideas, and questions.
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