The Effect of Statistical Literacy on Response to Environmental Change

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Due to constant social, technological and economic change, social actor, interacting with environment, is constantly faced with the need to acquire new knowledge and develop different competences – field of statistics included. The latter, with development of statistical literacy, enables one to reflectively analyse environment and respond to its changes. The aim of this paper is to determine response effectiveness of a better statistically literate social actor to environmental changes from perspective of different generations in Slovenia. Design/Methodology/Approach: Empirical data was collected through a survey questionnaire, processed and analysed using chosen descriptive and inferential statistical methods. 1239 respondents of all three Slovenian gen­erations participated. Two research questions were asked, one relating to the whole sample and the other to three subsamples according to age groups and generations. Results: Based on whole sample of all three generations, it can be concluded that statistical literacy influences responsiveness of social actor to environmental changes. Survey results show that better statistically literate social actors are more completely and actively involved in working environment, personal and social life and respond to environmental changes more effectively. Conclusion: More attention, on urgency to develop statistical literacy individually in professional and everyday life, should be put on raising awareness of statistical knowledge importance to cope with environmental changes and improving supply and accessibility of formal and informal forms of statistical education for all generations. Research results will also contribute to better planning and implementation of statistics education at the level of educational institutions and teachers of all three generations. Keywords: environmental change, statistics, statistical literacy, social actor, education, generations