Students seeking college degrees in sociology and psychology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha are required to take a class in mathematical statistics.Statistics is a kind of math that studies numbers that represent pieces of information.Many of the students say they feel anxious about the statistics class.In other words, the class causes them worry and concern.Two University of Nebraska professors sought to understand their students’ anxieties, or fears.They hoped to be able to help educators improve their teaching of statistics and lessen students’ worries.Kelly MacArthur teaches statistics in the department of sociology and Jonathan Santo teaches the class in the department of psychology.They spoke with VOA Learning English about their study and its surprising results.The two researchers explored several areas of the relationship between statistics anxiety and classroom results.They looked at how anxiety levels changed from the start of the class to the end.
