Alleviating statistics anxiety in psychology: Learner and educator viewpoints understood using Brookfield’s Reflective Model

Statistics for psychology is a challenging aspect of undergraduate psychology courses but poorly understood in experiential terms. Accordingly, we drew on Brookfield’s ‘four lenses for critical reflection’ to acquire insights from first year psychology undergraduate free text survey responses (learner lens), and psychology educator survey free text responses (colleague lens) which were content analysed. Scholarly and autobiographical lenses were also generated via literature reviews and written activities, respectively. Wide-ranging relevant pedagogic processes and dynamics (e.g. peer-to-peer collaborative work, cognitive load; the importance of constructive alignment and verbal articulation) were highlighted from learner and colleague lenses. The scholarly lens underscored tendencies within the evidence base, and our autobiographies suggested how educator learning experiences served to facilitate compassionate and inclusive learning to mitigate impacts of statistics anxiety. Study findings produce a much-needed holistic account of statistics anxiety, prompt future research directions, and suggest priorities for classroom practices.