Anxiety around learning R in first year undergraduate students : mathematics vs biomedical sciences students

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Miller, Ainsley and Pyper, Kate (2024) Anxiety around learning R in first year undergraduate students : mathematics vs biomedical sciences students. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 32 (1). pp. 47-53. ISSN 2693-9169 (https://doi.org/10.1080/26939169.2023.2190010)

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Abstract

R is becoming the standard for teaching statistics due to its flexibility, and open-source nature, replacing software programs like Minitab and SPSS. The main driver for reform within Scottish statistical undergraduate programs is the creation of the Scottish Qualification Authority’s Higher Applications of Mathematics course which has statistics as a core topic. The course saw R introduced into the Scottish high school curriculum for the first time from August 2021. This facilitates the need for R to be introduced into Higher Education courses at an earlier stage. In academic year 2021/22 we introduced RStudio into our first year introductory statistics class. This class is taken by students studying Mathematics, and those studying Biomedical Sciences. Both cohorts were surveyed in order to assess their anxiety and enjoyment of learning how to use R, with a goal of assessing any differences between the groups. We found that there was no association in software anxiety at the start of the class. However as the class progressed the Mathematics students reported lower levels of anxiety compared to the Biomedical Sciences students. The Mathematics students seemed to enjoy the class more than the Biomedical Sciences students, thus needing further investigation into enjoyment vs anxiety

ORCID iDs

Miller, Ainsley ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5295-4848 and Pyper, Kate ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7782-1048;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:84755
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    1 January 2024
    Published
    21 April 2023
    Published Online
    10 March 2023
    Accepted
    14 July 2022
    Submitted
    Subjects:Science > Mathematics
    Department:Faculty of Science > Mathematics and Statistics
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:17 Mar 2023 09:49
    Last modified:17 Dec 2024 01:26
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/84755
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