Join us for an insightful symposium on Statistics Anxiety! This event brings together statisticians, educators, and researchers in numeracy to explore the causes, effects, and strategies for overcoming anxiety related to statistics.
Statistics anxiety is a common emotional response characterised by feelings of stress, fear, and unease when faced with statistical concepts or tasks. It affects students, professionals, and researchers alike, often leading to a lack of confidence and avoidance of statistical learning. This anxiety can stem from various factors, such as fear of failure, negative past experiences, or a lack of understanding of the subject.
You probably encountered people suffering from statistics anxiety, for example students in your class, researchers who consult you for statistical help, or people at parties who reply negatively when you tell them about your job. In this symposium we will learn more about the causes of statistics anxiety and how to help people build resilience against it (or at least, how not to make it worse).
This symposium is a collaboration between the Statistics Communication and Statistics Education sections of the VVSOR.
Date: March 3rd, 2025
Location: Social Impact Factory Vredenburg, Utrecht (5-10 minutes walk from Utrecht Centraal)
Programme:
13.45 – 14.15: Welcome
14.15 – 15.00: Intro on Statistics Anxiety by Jolien van Straalen-Pas, University of Twente
15.00 – 15.45: How to build Statistical Resilience by Sue Johnston-Wilder, University of Warwick, UK
16.15 – 17.00: Interactive brainstorm session: How can we implement this in our work?
17.00 – 17.30: Drinks
Costs:
Members can attend this event for free. Non-members pay a fee of €15,- to cover some of the costs for the venue and catering. Note that this fee will not be refunded in case of a cancellation or no-show.
Jolien is a lecturer at the University of Twente where she teaches statistics to students in Psychology. She did research on statistics anxiety among her students and tries to reduce this by adapting her teaching methods. Jolien creates a safe and motivating learning environment for students, which is especially important in the statistical courses she teaches. These efforts seem to be quite effective, as student elected her for the Best Teacher Award in Psychology in both 2020-2021 and 2023-2024!
Originally trained at Cambridge University as a secondary mathematics teacher, Sue later directed her focus towards research in Mathematics Learning and a.o. developed courses to develop mathematics subject knowledge of non-specialist teachers. She currently works as an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick and focusses on the topic of 'Mathematical Resilience'. In collaboration with Clare Lee, she developed this construct into a positive framework for working with schools and families on 'the maths problem'. Their work resulted in the publication of several books in this topic, which are translated to multiple languages.
Deadline for registration: February 24th, 11.00h.