The Big Picture: A Family of Instruments for Understanding University-Level Statistics and Data Science Attitudes

Attitudes matter in statistics and data science education, but previous instruments have been limited in scope, resulting in many unanswered questions. This paper discusses the Surveys of Motivational Attitudes toward Statistics and Data Science, a family of instruments designed to provide a broad understanding of university-level student and instructor attitudes as well as learning environment characteristics. Based on Expectancy Value Theory, a meta-model explains the interrelationships among the instruments, and an iterative design process is followed for survey development. Psychometric results from data collections using instruments developed thus far are presented. This is the first time a cohesive, synergistic set of instruments has been designed to work together to give a broader understanding of the state of statistics and data science education.