Publication: Problem-solving difficulties in mathematics of the senior students of Amadeo Perez Sr. national high school
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Date
2000-03
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Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University - South La Union Campus
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the Mathematical Problem-Solving
difficulties of senior students of Amadeo Perez Sf. National High School. Binmeckeg,
Sison, Pangasinan during the school year 1999 - 2000.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following:
What are the Mathematical problem-solving difficulties of the sefiior students of
Amadeo Perez Sr. National High School in terms of: mathematical expressions, analysis
skills, synthesis and general skills?
What is the relationship between students' mathematical problem-solving difficulties
and the following selected variables: personal profile ( sex, age, parents' educational
attainment, reading materials and mass media ) , attitude profile (attitude towards math as a
subject and attitude towards their teacher)?
To what extent does each of the subdimensions of problem-solving difficulties of
the students affect one another?
The study tested the following hypothesis;
There is no significant relationship between the students' problem-solving
difficulties and the selected variables as: personal profile and attitude profile.
There is no significant reL1tionship among the sub dimensions of the mathematical
problem-solving difficulties of the students.
The respondents in this study were 62 senior students enrolled during the school
year 1999-2000.
The study made use of the descriptive method of research. Data were generated
through the student'}' responses to a questionnaire on difficulties encountered. The
responses were tallied, tabulated and analyzed in terms of frequency counts, percentage,
ranking weighted means. Correlation analysis was used to determine the extent of
relationship between students profile and the intercorrelation of the subdimensions. All
computations were done through the use of the statistical tools while all tests of hypothesis
was carried through the .05 level of significance.
The major findings of the study were the following:
The students' profile like sex, age and parents' educational attainment had no
relationship with the difficulties met by the students in the mathematical problem-solving
difficulties sub dimensions. Mass media like televisions, radios and newspapers has no
significant relationship with the mathematical problem-solving difficulties. Reading
materials such as books, worktext and mathematical magazines/journals had nothing to do
with their difficulties in analysis skills and synthesis skills but they had a relationship both
in mathematical expressions and general skills. The lack of reading materials like
mathematical magazines affected their difficulties to understand mathematical terms or
expressions that would lead to poor generalizations.
Attitude toward') math as a subject and towards their teacher had no relationship
with their difficulties in mathematical problem-solving.
Results of the correlation analysis revealed that problem') encountered in
mat.hematical expressions will not affect their difficulties met in analysis skills, synthesis
skills and general skills. It was also found out that if they encountered difficulty in
analysis skills, they will also encounter difficulties in synthesis skills and general skills.
Moreover, students' failure to analyze the problem situation would lead to poor
generalization.
From the findings, the following conclusions were drawn:
The age, sex, and parents' educational attainment had nothing to do with the
difficulties of the students met in mathematical expressions, analysis skills, synthesis
skills, and general skills.
The attitude towards mathematics as a subject, attitude towards their teacher and
mass media had nothing to do with the difficulties encountered by the students in solving
mathematical problem-solving.
Lack of reading mathematical books, magazmes or journals would affect the
students' ability of and that they would encounter difficulties in understanding
mathematical terms and generalizing a given facts.
Students' difficulty encountered in mathematical expressions had nothing to do in
their difficulties in the higher level cognitive tasks such as analysis, synthesis skills and
general skills.
The students generally had more difficulty in the higher cognitive tasks such as
analysis skills, synthesis and general skills.
Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, the following set of measures
are recommended.
Senior students shall he properly guided and motivated through further orientation
in the importance of mathematics particularly mathematical expressions, analysis skills,
synthesis skills and general skills.
Teachers in the secondary level must give emphasis on the importance of the
hypothesis and given facts in a problem situation for these lead to a concrete analysis of
facts on hand.
The school shall encourage the organization of mathematics organization on which
mathematically inclined and students can find an extension of their classes activities in a
more informal way wherein mathematics organization may be truly functional with the
administrators and the mathematics teachers behind the organization.
A similar study may be conducted in other schools in order to validate the result
of the present study.
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Citation
Liberatom, C. C., & Garcia, E. M. (2000) Problem-solving difficulties in mathematics of the senior students of Amadeo Perez Sr. national high school [Unpublished Undergraduate thesis]. Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University - South La Union Campus, Agoo, La Union.