Pertinent Nature in the Present-Day Graduate Students - Research Paper Example

Introduction

Statistics anxiety is experienced by almost 80% of graduate students. It was established that it debilitates students’ performance in courses of statistics and research methodology. It is also said to be partly responsible for the delays in enrollment to a potentially very long time. The procrastination of assignments has also been linked to students having high levels of statistics anxiety. The research of the paper was purposely for the establishment of the level procrastination among graduate students, assessment of the relationship between the six dimensions of statistics and academic procrastination.

Methodology

The research was conducted among 135 participants who were enrolled graduate students in three sections requisite for educational research in an introductory level at USA’s southern region. The findings from the results implied a high percentage of students had reported problems associated with procrastination in their writing of term papers, their studies for examinations as well as in their completion of weekly reading assignments. A correlation analysis revealed that the fear of failure and the assertiveness of tasks acted as sources of procrastination with regard to the worth of statistics; anxiety in interpretation; anxiety with respects to tests and classes, computational self-concept; the fear to seek help; the fear of the instructors of statistics (Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

Purpose of the study

The purpose of the research was to establish the prevalence of statistical anxiety. The research also set out to identify the realms of statistics anxiety, and how their situation specific nature affects different students differently. This was attributed to statistics anxiety being a either one-dimensional or multidimensional as a construct related to the self-concept of mathematics, the number of mathematics courses completed in college, academic majors; academic status; perceptions framed by the previous performances in mathematics, duration since the last mathematics course taken by a student; mathematical ability; individual preparation for mathematics; the use of calculators; the style of learning, ethnicity as well as the grades expected.

Literature

The researchers reviewed a wide range of literature on the topic. These defined statistics anxiety as the apprehension that occurs when individuals face statistics in whatsoever form and/ or level. The realms of statistics anxiety were identified as the negative relationship that exists between the performance in a particular course and statistics anxiety citing the significance of studies in statistics in research methods and statistics. The literature used also identified the association between statistics anxiety and the achievements of a particular course.

The reviews used are organized logically in the research paper. This is evident in the systematic ordering of the views from the definitions, past theories and findings, and the areas in need of further studies, based the researchers’ own research objective.

The literature offers a balanced critical analysis of the topic of discussion by dividing the work into two: They give an insight into the prevalence rate statistics anxiety and its implications on the performance based on various factors such as ethnicity, individual character, lack of adequate preparation, and also low self-confidence. The second reason was to use literature that gave an insight into the relationship between procrastination and statistics anxiety. Paper uses literature aimed encouraging students who might fall in this category through the assertion that the understanding of the conceptual make up of both procrastinators and non-procrastinators with regard to the measures of personality (Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

The questions and hypothesis of the research study was to examine the prevalence of procrastination among graduate students, and the investigation of the relationship between academic procrastination and the six dimensions of statistics anxiety. The study also set to establish if statistics anxiety is influenced by other factors such as interpretation, fear of instructors, worth of the subject and computational self-concepts among other factors

The questions and/ or hypotheses adopted for in for this research are consistent with the literature reviewed since they both acknowledge the situation as prevalent and that it draws its influence from other factors since it could be a multi-dimensional problem.

The methods used to engage the participant was on a voluntary basis. This attracted 135 graduate students from various education disciplines such as early childhood, middle grades, elementary education, middle ages, secondary education, speech language pathology as well as psychology. They were enrolled at a graduate research methodology course level at a small Southern University. Participation was also done on the basis of anonymity, thereby making the process ethical. This factor is evidenced by the lack of declines from the participants identified

Operational definitions

The terms used in research should be clearly defined for better understanding for everyone who might be interested to read about it. This research complied with this expectation through the definition of terms such as the statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) and many others to facilitate understanding of the findings. The same applies to the theories and concepts used.

Methodology

The research design is clearly defined through the provisions of the means of the range of ages of the participants; it’s voluntary and anonymous aspects; classification of the sexes and ethnicities represented; and the statistical test parameters applied, that is the t-test.

Data collection for the research utilized Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) and the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS). These have been described as being instruments that assess statistics anxiety from a broad range of academic situations. STARS method utilizes six subscales: worth of statistics; interpretation anxiety; test and class anxiety, computational self-concept; fear for seeking help; and the fear of the statistics instructor. PASS on the other hand entails two parts, that is six academic tasks that pertain to the writing of a term paper and the general tasks in academic performance where respondents are asked to indicate there frequency of procrastination on the respective tasks. The second part asks the respondents to indicate they last time they procrastinated on the requisite academic tasks and the reasons that influenced their decisions to procrastinate. The instruments are appropriate since they measure the values obtained from the data collection, appropriate them based on frequency and distribution, then compare them a desirable scale that was developed for this kind of analysis. This scale was developed through a pilot study that leads to its development and approval. This entailed of 342 university students as respondents that featured 101 men, 222 women and 19 of unknown gender.

The reliability and validity of the results were tested and discussed. This was achieved through the use of means and standard deviations of the results of from the PASS scale which were then compared to the results of the developers of the scales (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984).

Data Analysis

The various measures of central tendency were used in the measures for procrastination scale, fear of failure and task assertiveness. The same was applied in the measurement of the different dimensions. The findings were significant in the determination of the prevalence of procrastination among graduate students and in the investigation of the relationship between academic procrastination and the six dimensions of statistics anxiety as a first of its king on graduate students.

Discussion

Given the purpose of the study, the finding can be reflected in the literature review owing to the consistencies that were established despite the study being the first documented one to be conducted on graduate students. It was revealed from the studies that an approximated 40-60% of the graduate students confirmed that they almost usually and always procrastinated the completion of term papers, the study for their examinations and/ or being up-to-speed with the weekly reading assignments. An approximated 20-40% reported having problems with the above areas, while a further 65-75% confirmed their desire to be decrease their procrastination tendencies (Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

Consistent with the hypothesis of the study were the high frequency procrastination that was self-reported on the commencement and completion of term papers, studying for examinations and being up-to-date with the weekly reading assignments. These suggest that students deemed these tasks to be more vital than class attendance or meetings (Perepiczka, Chandler & Becerra, 2011). The perception of students that place more importance on the performance of these specific tasks despite course grade depending on all the other associated activities increases the likelihood of the students to procrastinate on the completion of these specific tasks since they deem them as aversive and are also afraid of failure (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984)

The limitations and strengths of the study were also discussed in the research. Its strengths included its representation of graduate students who are mostly considered to be the future upper echelons of academic achievers. The important limitation that was acknowledged in the research was that the respondents were female. Despite there being no gender differences in the study, it has been observed that female students exhibit higher statistics anxiety levels than males, as well as other non-academic anxieties such as general test anxieties (ZEIDNER, 1991). Therefore, this aspect discredits the generalization used in the study, thereby calling for more replicated studies that involve more males as respondents.

Conclusion

A number of practical implications can be derived from the results of this study owing to its pertinent nature in the present day graduate students. Instructors could play a significant role in encouraging students to shun from procrastination. This could be achieved in ways such as segmenting term projects to be submitted for either formal or informal grading at regular intervals. More similar tests should be conducted with more males being involved as respondents in order to avoid generalization of results that may not be fully accurate.

The reviews used are organized logically in the research paper. This is evident in the systematic ordering of the views from the definitions, past theories and findings, and the areas in need of further studies, based the researchers’ own research objective.

The literature offers a balanced critical analysis of the topic of discussion by dividing the work into two: They give an insight into the prevalence rate statistics anxiety and its implications on the performance based on various factors such as ethnicity, individual character, lack of adequate preparation, and also low self-confidence. The second reason was to use literature that gave an insight into the relationship between procrastination and statistics anxiety. Paper uses literature aimed encouraging students who might fall in this category through the assertion that the understanding of the conceptual make up of both procrastinators and non-procrastinators with regard to the measures of personality (Onwuegbuzie, 2004).

The questions and hypothesis of the research study was to examine the prevalence of procrastination among graduate students, and the investigation of the relationship between academic procrastination and the six dimensions of statistics anxiety. The study also set to establish if statistics anxiety is influenced by other factors such as interpretation, fear of instructors, worth of the subject and computational self-concepts among other factors

The questions and/ or hypotheses adopted for in for this research are consistent with the literature reviewed since they both acknowledge the situation as prevalent and that it draws its influence from other factors since it could be a multi-dimensional problem.

The methods used to engage the participant was on a voluntary basis. This attracted 135 graduate students from various education disciplines such as early childhood, middle grades, elementary education, middle ages, secondary education, speech language pathology as well as psychology. They were enrolled at a graduate research methodology course level at a small Southern University. Participation was also done on the basis of anonymity, thereby making the process ethical. This factor is evidenced by the lack of declines from the participants identified

Operational definitions

The terms used in research should be clearly defined for better understanding for everyone who might be interested to read about it. This research complied with this expectation through the definition of terms such as the statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) and many others to facilitate understanding of the findings. The same applies to the theories and concepts used.

Methodology

The research design is clearly defined through the provisions of the means of the range of ages of the participants; it’s voluntary and anonymous aspects; classification of the sexes and ethnicities represented; and the statistical test parameters applied, that is the t-test.

Data collection for the research utilized Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) and the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS). These have been described as being instruments that assess statistics anxiety from a broad range of academic situations. STARS method utilizes six subscales: worth of statistics; interpretation anxiety; test and class anxiety, computational self-concept; fear for seeking help; and the fear of the statistics instructor. PASS on the other hand entails two parts, that is six academic tasks that pertain to the writing of a term paper and the general tasks in academic performance where respondents are asked to indicate there frequency of procrastination on the respective tasks. The second part asks the respondents to indicate they last time they procrastinated on the requisite academic tasks and the reasons that influenced their decisions to procrastinate. The instruments are appropriate since they measure the values obtained from the data collection, appropriate them based on frequency and distribution, then compare them a desirable scale that was developed for this kind of analysis. Read More