A Survey Instrument Exploring Students’ Attitudes Toward Data Science

• In Event: Scale Development and Validation Across Diverse Educational Contexts

Abstract

Many undergraduate programs have focused on implementing a data science-focused curriculum to meet the increasing demand for data scientists. However, there are no existing instruments to measure the impact of training and curricular interventions. We fill part of this gap by developing a survey instrument to explore students’ attitudes toward data science around four constructs: interest in data science, career aspirations in data science, perceived value of data science, and self-efficacy in data science. We administered 53-item instrument to measure attitudes toward data science to 226 undergraduate students in two waves at a college located in the New England. We conducted Rasch analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis finding that our instrument is highly valid and reliable.

Authors

• Zhushan Mandy Li, Boston College

• Xiaohan Qian, Boston College

• Olivia Szendey, WestEd

• Merve Nur Kursav, Dartmouth College and CPM Educational Program

• Scott D. Pauls, Dartmouth College