Latent Growth and Statistical Literacy

In a world governed by thousands of data, the single number can still create fear among students of behavioral and humanities science. This paradox could be removed through the increase of statistical knowledge at both secondary and post-secondary education levels. Statistical knowledge has been studied in depth in the past, and it is well known as statistical literacy. The enhancement of statistical literacy should be realized under new teaching forms more familiar to the digital native generations. This note presents an experiment based on the use of an e-learning tool in order to increase the statistical literacy among Italian students of the humanities. Three cohorts of students were been examined, and the statistical literacy has been tested over time with a dual change difference score model. The results, in limited detail, confirm the initial hypothesis: If the teaching tools are closer to the characteristics of digital native generations, an improvement in statistical literacy can be realized, but the greater the statistical complexity, the less efficient the tools become.