Attitudes of Undergraduate Teachers Towards the Application of Statistical Package for Social Science When Teaching Statistics in Social Studies

Abstract

Attitude of the students towards teaching and learning of Statistics in Social Studies has always been at low ebb. Students have in most cases continued to struggle in Statistics related courses in Social Studies because of their perception and tagging of Statistics as a difficult course. This study assessed the attitude of pre-service Social Studies teachers on the application of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) in teaching Statistics. The study employed descriptive research design. The population for the study consisted of 200 level Social Studies pre-service teachers in the Faculty of Education of a public tertiary institution in Ogun state. Two hundred and thirty-two (232) students were selected to form the sample for the study using stratified sampling technique. The main instrument used to collect data for the study was a sixteen (16) item questionnaire titled “Attitude of Pre-service Social Studies Teachers. Towards the Application of SPSS Questionnaire” (APSSTASQ) (R=0.80). Data Collected were coded and analysed using descriptive and inferential Statistics. Findings showed a moderate positive attitude of pre-service teachers towards the application of SPSS package in teaching Statistics and no gender influence was found in the attitude of pre-service teachers towards the application of SPSS package. It was recommended that SPSS packages should be used in the teaching of Statistics in Social Studies classes to leverage the anxiety ascribed to manual calculation and all students must be given equal opportunity during the statistics classes.