Development and Initial Validation of the Encouraging Statistics Professor Scale

The purpose of this study was to develop and gather initial validity evidence for a scale designed to assess teacher knowledge and practice regarding statistics anxiety and negative attitudes toward statistics. A secondary purpose was to assess the levels of encouragement, knowledge of statistics anxiety, and current teaching practices of respondents as baselines to evaluate the need for training in encouragement of students with statistics anxiety. The study was undertaken in the context of the development of EncStat, a multimedia program to address student statistics anxiety. Responses to a developed instrument were received from 42 statistics educators, who completed self-report surveys. Results suggest that the proposed instrument holds promise for providing valid measures of critical aspects related to teaching statistics, although substantial development work remains. Estimates of consistency for the Assessment, Scaffolding, and Supplementary Teaching Materials section were low, suggesting that special attention must be given to expanding items for these areas of teacher practice. (Contains 7 tables and 11 references.) (SLD)