Changes in anxiety among doctoral students.

Abstract

As part of an ongoing study of statistics anxiety, 70 doctoral students in two research universities, completed a Likert-scale instrument asking them to rate the extent to which elements increased and decreased anxiety levels they experienced in educational research courses. Ranking at the top for increasing anxiety was the amount of work due for the educational research class, followed by the amount of material covered in class, tests, the difficulty of the work, and the amount of work due for other classes. Ranking at the top for decreasing anxiety was getting a good grade on an assignment, followed by completing an assignment and receiving encouragement from the teacher. Analysis of open-ended questions revealed several themes for increasing anxiety (e.g., dissatisfaction with the teaching style of the professor, amount of work) and decreasing anxiety (e.g., availability of the professor, extensive feedback from the professor).

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Changes in Anxiety Among Doctoral Students

Students in graduate courses in educational research methodology and statistics courses report high levels of anxiety (Onwuegbuzie, DaRos, & Ryan, 1997; Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Paterson, Watson, & Schwartz, 2001; Onwuegbuzie & Wilson, in press; Schacht & Stewart, 1990, 1991; Zeidner, 1991). As a result of this anxiety, many students delay enrolling in these courses as long as possible, and some even fail to complete their degree programs (Onwuegbuzie, 1997). A growing body of evidence supports the possibility that a professor of educational research may have some power to at least reduce the anxiety inherent in the study of educational research methodology and statistics by encouraging and reassuring the students that they can do the work, addressing the anxiety, using humor, giving open book/open note tests, and promoting cooperative learning in and outside the classroom (Wilson, 1996, 1999a, 1999b).

Previous studies (e.g., Wilson, 1996, 1999a, 1999b) have focused primarily on master's degree students in teacher education programs. However, little is known about the anxiety reactions of doctoral students enrolled in statistics and research methodology courses. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine whether doctoral students have similar experiences with respect to anxiety as do master's students. Specifically, mixed-methodological techniques were utilized (Onwuegbuzie & Teddlie, 2002; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). The following research questions were addressed: (a) What, specifically, increases the anxiety levels of doctoral students in research courses? and (b) What decreases their anxiety? It was hoped that findings from this study would provide useful information to statistics instructors who are responsible for teaching doctoral students.

Method

Participants The participants in this study were 70 doctoral students in educational administration programs at two research universities, one in the South and one on the West Coast. These students ranged in age from 28 to 56, with a mean of 41 years. Twenty-two (31%) were male, and 48 (69%) were female. Participants had completed between 6 and 100 semester hours of doctoral work, with a mean of 31 hours. They had taken from 1 to 7 courses in educational research; most had taken one or two courses. On a scale of 1 ("Hopeless") to 10 ("Confident"), the participants' confidence ratings of their ability to understand and to apply statistics ranged from 1 to 10 (M = 6.1, SD = 2.4); these sample members' confidence ratings in their ability to undertake educational research from 2 to 10 (M = 7.5, SD = 1.8).

Instruments and Procedures A Likert-scale instrument was developed from research on master's degree students (Wilson, 1999a, 1999b, 2000), which had its basis in the prior literature on statistics and educational research pedagogy. The instrument was divided into three parts. The first section asked students to rate from 1 ("Not at all") to 5 (A great deal") the extent to which 20 elements decreased the anxiety they experienced in the educational research course; an open-ended question asked for "other things that reduced" their anxiety levels. The second part of the instrument asked them to rate from 1 to 5 the extent to which 17 elements increased their levels of anxiety, followed by an open-ended item that asked for "other things that increased" their anxiety levels. The third part elicited demographic information, including level of study, age, gender, number of hours taken at the doctoral' level, and number of courses taken in educational research. Students also were asked to rate themselves from 1 ("Hopeless") to 10 ("Confident") their confidence in their ability to undertake statistics problems and educational research (appended).

The questionnaire was configured for an on-line response and sent as an attachment to two professors of educational research, one in a university in the South and one in a university on the West Coast. They, in turn, e-mailed the questionnaire to a total of 100 doctoral students currently or recently (within one year) enrolled in one of their educational research courses. Participants e-mailed their responses to the principal researcher; to preserve anonymity, they were given the option of downloading the questionnaire and mailing it to the researcher. A total of 70 (70%) responded. Numeric responses were analyzed using SPSS 10.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc., 2001). The reliability of scores generated by the instrument, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was .89. Qualitative responses were categorized by key words and organized into themes by both authors individually and then collectively.

Results

The quantitative data are displayed in order of descending means in Table 1 for those elements that increased anxiety and in Table 2 for those that decreased anxiety. Because it was apparent that respondents did not work with graduate assistants, those items were eliminated from the analysis. See issue's website <http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/spr2003.htm> The most prevalent elements for increasing anxiety levels were the amount of work due in the educational research class, the amount of material covered in class, taking tests, the difficulty of the material covered in class, the amount of work in other classes, and preparing individual research projects. The top elements for reducing anxiety were receiving a good grade on an assignment, completing an assignment, instructor's encouragement, support of peers in class, and support of peers outside of class.

The open-ended prompt, "Other things that increased my anxiety," elicited 54 responses from 37 participants. Table 3 lists the number of responses for the emergent themes. The associated percentages presented in this table served as effect size estimates (Onwuegbuzie, in press; Onwuegbuzie & Teddlie, 2002). Table 4 presents the themes associated with increases in anxiety levels. Again, effect sizes are reported. Dissatisfaction with the professor included such issues as failure to recognize student frustration, not giving clear explanations, going too fast--and going too slow! Problems with working with groups included finding time to meet as a group, dealing with classmates who "did not observe time lines or carry their weight," and group grades, where "my grade is dependent upon another's performance."

In listing factors that made her anxious, one student wrote, "The word 'statistics'!" The open-ended prompt, "Other things that reduced my anxiety," elicited 81 responses from 47 participants. Table 4 lists the number of responses for the emergent themes. Other comments about the behavior of the professor included respecting varying backgrounds, exhibiting empathy for students, being flexible, being patient and understanding, having fair and consistent grading practices, encouraging and supporting students, being knowledgeable about the topic, and having an effective teaching style. Time-related comments included having time to complete the work, success at juggling school and work commitments, and preferring shorter classes. Several students felt relatively low levels of anxiety. For example, one student stated, "I felt comfortable with the professor's style, as well as with my own abilities to succeed." Another wrote, "I wasn't anxious. I like statistics."

Discussion

Findings from the present study indicate that in statistics and educational research courses, a significant proportion of doctoral students find the amount and difficulty of the work, alongside formal examinations, to be anxiety producing. Interestingly, preparing research projects causes more stress than presenting the results of that research, and working on individual projects is more stressful than working within a group situation. Further, personal and family problems, as would be expected in this group of mid-career teachers and administrators, cause a considerable amount of stress as students attempt to balance school, work, and personal lives. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that dissatisfaction with the teaching style of the professor can contribute to anxiety in the educational research course, as can those stressors more directly related to the student: lack of academic preparation, time management problems, and difficulty with technology. Conversely, reading research and critiquing research articles are relatively low on the list of things that cause anxiety in educational research courses.

These doctoral students tend to experience many of the same stressors as do master's degree students described in previous research (Wilson, 1999a, 1999b). Both groups experience anxiety about the amount of work in quantitative-based research courses. Both populations report elevated levels of anxiety in testing situations and when working in groups in which group members are less motivated or capable than they are. Juggling work, school, and families is stressful for both groups. There are, however, some notable differences: master's degree students appear to be more anxious about undertaking statistics problems, working with computers, and presenting the results of their research to classmates than are their doctoral counterparts. Further, doctoral students note that the anxiety of their classmates is itself anxiety producing, a theme not previously noted in research on master's students. There is nothing so anxiety relieving to doctoral students (and all students, we presume!) as completing an assignment and getting a good grade. Encouragement of the professor and support from peers both inside and outside the classroom also are high on the list of stress reducers. These doctoral students also find that excellent instructional practices can relieve the stress they encounter in quantitative-based research courses: clear explanation of the subject material, sufficient examples and sample problems, and extensive feedback from the professor, especially in one-on-one, face-to-face discussions. They also report that having previous experience makes these courses less stressful.

It is interesting to note that although peer support ranks high on the list of stress reducers, working with a group in class and outside of class does not rank nearly as high; again, this is evidence that working in a group can be a mixed blessing, depending on the composition of the group. This mixed outcome of cooperative learning groups for graduate students is supported by the literature (Onwuegbuzie & DaRos-Voseles, 2001; Onwuegbuzie, Collins, & Elbedour, in press). When compared with master's level students, the doctoral students seem less easily influenced by the personal teaching style of the instructor. Although they highly value encouragement by the professor, they are much less likely to find the instructor's recognition of student anxiety and his or her use of humor in the classroom as anxiety reducing. Doctoral students also consider test-related strategies, including open book/open note tests, to be helpful, but not to the same extent as do master's students, who ranked this item at the top of the list.

Conclusions

Although it is dangerous to generalize too dramatically from small groups of widely dispersed students, perhaps these conclusions are worth considering:

* Doctoral students, like master's students, experience a considerable amount of anxiety in quantitative-based educational research courses.

* Some of the stress they experience is outside the reach of the instructor, including poor academic preparation and family and career pressures.

* Sometimes, "just doing it" (i.e., completing an assignment and doing it well) is necessary for alleviating anxiety.

* Excellent instruction, including clear explanation of the subject matter with lots of example, is an important stress reliever.

* Extensive feedback from the professor in individual conference can do much to reduce the stress doctoral students feel as they attempt their initial forays into the world of educational research.

* The encouragement of the professor is an important tool for reducing stress and enabling students to succeed in educational research courses.

* Master's degree students may be more sensitive to the affect of the professor and may require more nurturing than do doctoral students if they are to be successful in these courses.

References

Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (1997). Writing a research proposal: The role of library anxiety, statistics anxiety, and composition anxiety. Library and Information Science Research, 19, 5-33.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (in press). Effect sizes in qualitative research: A prolegomenon. Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Collins, K. M. T., & Elbedour, S. (in press). Aptitude by treatment interactions and Matthew effects in graduate-level cooperative learning groups. Journal of Educational Research.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., DaRos, D. A., & Ryan, J. (1997). The components of statistics Anxiety: A phenomenological study. Focus on Learning Problems in Mathematics, 19, 11-35.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & DaRos-Voseles, D. A. (2001). The role of cooperative learning in research methodology courses: A mixed-methods analysis. Research in the Schools, 8, 61-75.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Slate, J., Paterson, F., Watson, M., & Schwartz, R. (2000). Factors associated with underachievement in educational research courses. Research in the Schools, 7(1), 53-65.

Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Teddlie, C. (2002). A framework for analyzing data in mixed methods research. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 351-383). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Onwuegbuzie, A.J., & Wilson, V.A. (in press). Statistics anxiety: Nature, etiology, antecedents, effects, and treatments: A comprehensive review of the literature. Teaching in Higher Education.

Schacht, S., & Stewart, B. J. (1991). What's funny about statistics? Interactive/user-friendly gimmicks for teaching statistics. Teaching Sociology, 20, 329-332. SPSS Inc. (2001). SPSS 10.0 for Windows. [Computer software]. Chicago, IL: SPSS

Tashakkori, A., & Teddlie, C. (1998). Mixed methodology: Combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 46. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wilson, V. A. (1996). Factors related to anxiety in statistics. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg.

Wilson, V. A. (1999a, April). Student response to a systematic program of anxiety-reducing strategies in a graduate-level introductory educational research course. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal.

Wilson, V. A. (1999b, November). Reducing statistics anxiety: A ranking of sixteen specific strategies. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association, Point Clear, AL.

Wilson, V. A. (2000, April). Stress and stress relief in the educational research classroom. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans.

Zeidner, M. (1991) Statistics and mathematics anxiety in social science students--Some interesting parallels. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 319-328.

Vicki A. Wilson, Muskingum College, OH
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Howard University, Washington, DC

Dr. Vicki A. Wilson is professor and chair at Muskingum College. Dr. Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie is associate professor of Educational Psychology at Howard University.