Self-regulated learning strategies in relation with statistics anxiety

Dealing with students' attitudinal problems related to statistics is an important aspect of statistics instruction. Employing the appropriate learning strategies may have a relationship with anxiety during the process of statistics learning. Thus, the present study investigated multivariate relationships between self-regulated learning strategies and statistical anxiety using canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Three hundred twenty Turkish college students responded to the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale. Of the group, 189 (59.1%) were women and 131 (40.9%) were men. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 33 years with a mean of 21.28 years (SD = 1.53). Bivariate correlation coefficients showed significant relationships between the dimensions of learning strategies and statistical anxiety. CCA showed that students who used more rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, metacognitive regulation, time and study environment management, and effort regulation strategies experienced lower computational anxiety and had more positive attitudes toward statistics. Additionally, a combination of effort regulation and help seeking strategies is associated with test/class anxiety.

Research highlights► The highest anxiety was on test/class anxiety subscale and the lowest anxiety was on fear of statistics instructor subscale. ► The highest self-regulated learning strategy was on critical thinking and the lowest was on peer learning. ► The first canonical correlation was .43 and accounted for approximately 19% overlapping variance. ► The second canonical correlation was .36 and accounted for 13% overlapping variance and the third canonical correlation was .28 and accounted for approximately 8% overlapping variance.