Statistical Literacy of Undergraduate Students Before Taking the Introductory Statistics Course

Abstract

Statistical literacy is an essential knowledge for all citizens in today’s data‐driven society. There are numerous definitions and descriptions for statistical literacy, statistical reasoning and statistical thinking. All of them are based on a common principal that the statistical literacy develops starting in schools and it relates mainly to the processes of evaluating, interpreting and communicating data. If the students do not meet these skills on time, the lack of statistical knowledge may interfere with the process of proper decision making further in their lives. A research for statistical literacy of undergraduate mathematics students at Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje, before taking the Statistics course is conducted. The research questionnaire is based on Gal (2002) and Watson and Callingham (2003) models for statistical literacy. Besides the statistical literacy components, student gave their attitudes towards statistics and its application in everyday life. The results show that the basic statistical literacy skills like reading graphical charts or tables are met, statistical knowledge needed for understanding sampling, randomness and sense of making statistical conclusions as well as mathematical knowledge are on satisfactory level, but contextual understanding and critical reasoning are below average. The results of the research will be used to improve teaching statistics at university level.