The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Attitudes toward Statistics

Abstract

This study describes the development and validation of a new instrument entitled Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) to be used in the measurement of attitude change in introductory statistics students. Two ATS subscales are identified: Attitude Toward Course and Attitude Toward the Field, respectively. These subscales were demonstrated to have both high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It is further shown that each ATS subscale provides distinctly different information about the attitudes of introductory statistics students.