Concerns and Challenges in Introductory Statistics and Correlates with Motivation and Interest

We explore how students' course concerns at the outset of their introductory statistics course predict their later perceived course challenges and future interest in statistics via a function of achievement motivation. Data were collected from undergraduate students (N = 524; 70% female; 37.8% students from racially marginalized groups) during the COVID-19 pandemic, using both open-ended (concerns and challenges) and closed-ended (achievement motivation and future interest) questions. Overall, incoming course concerns positively predicted perceived costs during the course and challenges at the end of the course and negatively predicted success expectancy and utility value during the course and future interest in statistics at the end of the course. Patterns varied by individual concerns/challenges, gender, and race/ethnicity. Cost played an important mediating role for female students and students from racially marginalized groups (e.g., Black, Latinx, or Native American/Indigenous students) between course concerns and future interest in statistics. Our findings (a) add to the increasing body of research reporting differences in how female and male students as well as students from racially marginalized backgrounds and racial majority students experience STEM courses and help explain different levels of interest in pursuing STEM careers, and (b) suggest that increasing future interest in statistics might require different interventions.