Statistical Literacy as Ethics in Education: Assessing How Well Community Education Students Understand Data in the Era of Evidence-Based Policy

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-567-6_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

statistical literacy; ethics in education; community education; evidence-based policy; statistics anxiety; educational assessment; quality education

Abstract

In today’s education landscape, where decisions are increasingly guided by data, statistical understanding is no longer merely a technical skill—it is an essential dimension of ethics in education. For future community educators, misinterpreting data can lead to poorly designed programs or policies that fail to address real community needs. This study assesses how well undergraduate students in the Community Education program at Universitas Negeri Jakarta understand core statistical concepts—including measurement scales, t-tests, correlation, assumption checking, and result interpretation—as outlined in their official course syllabus (RPS). Using a descriptive-quantitative survey approach, data were collected through a validated and reliability-tested questionnaire. The study also explores factors influencing students’ comprehension, particularly prior mathematical background and statistics anxiety—common challenges in social science programs. Findings indicate that the majority of students fall into the “moderate” to “low” understanding categories, especially struggling with interpreting statistical output and selecting appropriate tests. Statistics anxiety and weak mathematical foundations were significantly correlated with lower performance, suggesting that the challenge is not only cognitive but also emotional and pedagogical. As a recommendation, lecturers should adopt anxiety-sensitive, context-rich teaching strategies—such as case-based discussions from real community settings (e.g., PKBM programs) and step-by-step interpretation exercises using SPSS output. By framing statistical literacy as an ethical imperative in education, we prepare future community educators to use data wisely, fairly, and accountably—thereby directly contributing to SDG 4: Quality Education through evidence-informed practice in community development.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Fera Kuraysia
AU  - Sylvia Octaviani Tambunan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/23
TI  - Statistical Literacy as Ethics in Education: Assessing How Well Community Education Students Understand Data in the Era of Evidence-Based Policy
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Environmental Learning and Educational Technologies (3rd ICELET 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 40
EP  - 45
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-567-6_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-567-6_6
ID  - Kuraysia2026
ER  -