Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Statistics

Studying Statistics to a number of students might be very difficult to understand due the lack of knowledge of the statistics and low interest of the subject. However, to some students majoring in mathematics might be easy to comprehend and operate the statistics. This study aimed to find out the students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the statistics. The study employed descriptive statistics. The writers collected the data through questionnaire to get the quantitative data. The result of the study showed that in terms of the students’ perception towards statistics most of them have stated that they mostly agreed with all the statements dealing with perceptions. This can be seen from the first three statements that they could identify the distribution, measurement, and procedure of doing the statistics. The only thing they disagreed is on the ability to communicate the result of statistics and their perception regarding the easiness of the statistics. In terms of the students’ attitudes towards statistics, it is clear that the majority of the students showed their high feeling concerning the statistics. In terms of attitude on cognitive competence, most of them also agreed with the way of thinking to do statistics, understanding it, and requiring a great deal of discipline.