Statistical anxiety in adult learners: Anxiety level in statistics courses and the use of software

Adult learners are becoming important stakeholders in the accomplishment of the goals of universities in educating students. Adult learners possess a wide range of information; however, they exhibit high levels of anxiety when they tackle challenging courses (i.e., statistics) for high demand in professional settings, such as for recording, analysis, and the interpretation of data. This research study investigated the statistical anxiety of adult learners in a midwestern university to determine if their anxiety could be reduced with the use of Wolfram Mathematica statistical software as an intervention. The researcher compared the anxiety levels of experimental and control groups of adult learners in a statistics course before and after the experimental group used Mathematica. Data were collected with the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) instrument. Results indicated a significant reduction in anxiety levels in the experimental group of N = 32 that used Mathematica. Data were analyzed with SPSS software for a sample size of N = 62. Using one-way ANOVA, data indicated a significant anxiety reduction with p =.000 in adult learners' anxiety level and additional significant reductions in anxiety levels of p = .000 in all six factors of the STARS. This significant reduction in statistics anxiety from the current study implies that instructors can decrease students' anxiety levels in statistics with technological interventions such as Mathematica. Data supports the direct application of technological interventions, such as Mathematica in future research. From the current study findings, the researcher recommends using Wolfram Mathematica software as an intervention in statistics courses in all colleges and universities. Additionally, the researcher recommends more studies to be conducted using other types of technological software interventions.