Enhancing Students’ Performance and Attitude in Statistics using MEGASTAT

Abstract

With its aim to enhance students’ performance and attitude in Statistics
using MEGASTAT, this study made use of the quasi-experimental design.
The pretest and posttest were given to both the experimental group
participants as well as the control group with 15 participants in each group.
The instruction in the experimental group was done using MEGASTAT. With
the use of mean, standard deviation and t-test, the study ascertained that
both groups had comparable Statistics performance in their pretest. Control
group had “proficient” while experimental group had “developing” Statistics
performance after the experimental group’s exposure to the MEGASTAT;
t-test unveils no significant difference in the performance of the two groups
before the use of the MEGASTAT, while a significant difference exists in
the performance after their exposure to the MEGASTAT; t-test shows a
significant difference in the pretest and posttest of the experimental group;
t-test reveals no significant difference on the attitude of the experimental
group and the control group with respect to all four attitude subscale; for the
experimental group, a significant improvement in their attitude with respect
to the affective domain was observed. Generally, the study revealed that the
use of the MEGASTAT has greatly improved the academic performance of
students. By using the software, students exhibited significant improvement
in their achievement by working on interesting problem situations which
facilitated their achievement in a variety of higher-order learning outcomes,
such as problem-posing, problem-solving, reasoning, decision-making and
reflection. Utilizing the MEGASTAT increased the affective aspects of the
students’ attitude towards learning Statistics. Statistics in Higher Education
Institution is better taught as a laboratory science. Teaching through learning
packages and letting students perform relevant laboratory exercises helps
the students learn all the aspects and extensions of the Statistics concepts in
the context of the current real world situations.