{"id":463,"date":"2018-10-02T11:23:42","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T11:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bjornonl.wordpress.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2018-10-02T11:23:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T11:23:42","slug":"digital-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hhk3.kau.se\/onl181-blogposts\/2018\/10\/02\/digital-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shutterstock \/ Brian A Jackson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That fear of digital tools can undermine learning made me think about a topic that I encountered in a previous pedagogics course. Quant-phobia<\/em> or statistical anxiety <\/em>are terms describing how some students get mentally blocked when they see equations, calculations, or numbers.<\/p>\n

According to a study of US humanities, 75-80% of the\u00a0students experience that their anxiety towards statistics courses has a negative impact on their learning (Pan and Tang, 2004). Desai (2006) describes quant-phobia among US students of Public Policy and Management as follows:<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost of our students approach methods courses, particularly quantitative methods, with a sense of dread and trepidation.\u201d (p.13)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In a study of business students, Abbott (1993) writes that<\/p>\n

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\u201c…some students inevitably get caught up in the numbers and cannot see the logic behind the maze.\u201d (p.1)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Solutions<\/h3>\n

Is there a parellel between statistical and digital anxiety? Quant- and tech-phobia? Possibly they are triggered in the same part of our brain — I don’t know! Nevertheless, it may be useful for us to consider the ideas on how to reduce statistical anxiety:<\/p>\n