Learners’ Preferences and Teaching Strategies

in Teaching Mathematics of Fourth Year

High School at Mabitac, Laguna

S. Y. 2010 – 2011

A Special Problem

Presented to theFaculty of the College of Education Laguna State Polytechnic University

Siniloan, Laguna

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Secondary EducationMajor in Mathematics

Ariola, Aleli M.2011

Chapter I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Student has there own learning style in learning mathematics. A learning style is a student’ consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning. Keefe (1979) defines learning style as the “composite of characteristics cognitive, affective, and psychological factors that serve as relatively stable indicators of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment.’ Stewart and Felicetti (1992) define learning as those “education conditions under which a student is most likely to learn.” Thus, learning style is not really concerned with “what” learners learn, but rather “how’ they prefer to learn.

Background of the Study

Education is one of the foundations of success. It is act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. Education has been one of the emphases of the government in the national struggle to meet the needs of society. In 1992, the DECS which governs both public and private education in all levels stated that its mission was “to provide quality basic education that is equitably accessible to all by the foundation for lifelong learning and service for the common good.” The department also stipulated its vision to “develop a highly competent, civic spirited, life-skilled, and God-loving Filipino youth who actively participate in and contribute towards the building of a humane, healthy and productive society.” All these are ambitions were embodied in the department strategy called Philippines 2000. (http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1199philippines-EDUCATION-SYSTEM-AN-OVERVIEW-html)

Teaching style or strategies is viewed as a broad dimension or personality type that enclose teacher stance, pattern of behavior, mode of performance, and attitude toward self and others. Penelope Peterson defines teacher style in terms of how teachers utilize space in the classroom, their choice of instructional activities and materials, and their method of student grouping. Student characteristics will influence sometimes greatly how a particular teaching strategy is employed and how successful it will be. Student characteristics will also enter into the selection of a teaching strategy.

Theoretical Framework

This study will be guided by the different theories: Learning/Thinking Style, and Multiple Intelligences.

A. Hilliard describes “learning style” as the sum of the patterns of how individuals develop habitual ways of responding to experience. Learning/Thinking Styles refers to the preferred way individual processes information. They describe a person’s typical mode of thinking, remembering or problem solving.

According to Hilliard, there are several perspectives about learning-thinking style, the sensory perspective and global-analytic continuum. In sensory preferences, individuals tend to gravitate toward one or two types of several inputs and maintain dominance in visual, auditory and tactile/kinesthetic learners. Analytic thinkers tend toward the linear, step-by-step processes of learning while the global thinkers lean towards non-linear thought and tend to the whole pattern rather than particles elements.

The theory of multiple intelligences was first described by Howard Gardner in Frame of Mind (1983). Gardner defines intelligences as “an ability or set of abilities that allows a person to solve a problem or fashion a product that is valued in one or more cultures.” Gardner believes that different intelligences may be independent abilities ─ a person can be low in one domain area but high in another. All of us possess the intelligences but in varying degrees of strength and skills.

It is important for teachers to use their knowledge about thinking/learning style and multiple intelligences in planning activities to help their students to effectively learn.

The above theories will help the researcher to gather the necessary information needed in evaluating the relationship among the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics to the fourth year high school students.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual model as shown in figure 1 consists of two boxes. The left box shows the independent variable which includes the learners’ preferences such as visual learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, analytic thinkers and global thinkers, and the teaching strategies such as lecture discussion, problem solving, cooperative learning, direct teaching and indirect teaching. The box in the right shows the dependent variable which is teaching strategies.

The line that connects the independent variable and the dependent variable indicates the relationship between them.

Learners’ Preferences•Visual Learners•Auditory Learners•Kinesthetic Learners•Analytic Thinkers•Global Thinkers

Teaching Strategies•Lecture Discussion•Problem Solving•Cooperative Learning•Direct Teaching•Indirect Teaching

Teaching Mathematics

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Figure 1. The Conceptual Model showing the relationship among the Independent Variable and Dependent Variables of the Study

Statement of the Study

This study aims to determine the relationship among learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics of fourth year high school students at Mabitac, Laguna.

Specifically, the study will seek answers to the following questions:1. What is the profile of the student-respondents in terms of their :

1.1 age; 1.2 gender; 1.3 section; and 1.4 school?

2. What are the learners’ preferences related to the teaching strategies employed by the teacher in terms of:

2.1visual learners; 2.2 auditory learners; 2.3 kinesthetic learners; 2.4 analytic thinkers; and 2.5 global thinkers?

3. What are the teaching strategies observed by the students in their mathematics teacher such as:

3.1 lecture discussion; 3.2 problem solving; 3.3 cooperative learning; 3.4 direct teaching; and 3.5 indirect teaching?

4. Is there significant relationship between the students’ preferences in learning mathematics and the students’ profile?

5. Is there significant difference between the teaching strategies in mathematics of fourth year high school students in different school at Mabitac, Laguna?

6. Is there significant relationship between the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses will be tested.

1. There is no significant relationship between the student preferences in learning mathematics and the students’ profile.

2. There is no significant difference between the teaching strategies in mathematics of fourth year high school students in different school in Mabitac, Laguna.

3. There is no significant relationship between the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies teaching mathematics.

Significance of the Study

The result of the study will help the following:Students. This will help them to be aware of their

preferences in learning mathematics. They will understand and identify the teaching strategies employed by their teachers that may affect their performance. Teachers. They will able to identify their strengths and weaknesses in employing the strategies in teaching mathematics. This will serve as a guide to devise better methods that can be used in the learning process to have better quality of teaching.

Parents. The parents who are greatly concerned in the education of their children will be aware of the styles on how their child learns.

School Administrators. This study will help them to be aware of students learning and thinking styles in Mathematics even in other subjects, it will also serve as a guide to provide training and seminars for mathematics teachers regarding teaching strategies.

Researchers. The results of this study will serve as a guide for future studies pertaining to teaching-learning process, learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in mathematics or for other parallel researches.

Scope and Limitation of the study

The main concern of this study is to determine the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics. A questionnaire-checklist determine the learner’s preferences and teaching strategies will be used to gather the needed information in this research.This study is limited only to one hundred fifty-seven (157) selected students of fourth year high school students from all secondary schools at Mabitac, Laguna during the academic year 2010-2011.

Definition of Terms

For clarify and understanding of the terms related to this study, the following terms are defined conceptually and operationally.

Analytic Thinkers. This term refers to learners who tend toward the linear, step-by-step processes of learning.

Auditory Thinkers. This term refers learners who learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say.

Cooperative Learning. This refers to a group helping each other learn but keeping each individual member accountable for his/her learning.

Direct Teaching. This refers to the teaching strategies begins with the abstract rule, generalization, principles, and ends with specific examples, and concrete details.

Global Thinkers. This refers to learners who lean towards non-linear thought and tend to see the whole pattern rather than particle elements.

Indirect Teaching. This refers to teaching strategies begins with the specific details, concrete data and ends with an abstract generalization rule, or principle.

Kinesthetic Learners. This term refers to person who benefits much more from a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them.

Learning Style. This term refers to patterns of how individual develop habitual ways of responding to experience.

Lecture Discussion. This refers to teaching strategy which presents information in ways that it can be attended to, easily processed, and remembered.

Problem Solving. This refers to teaching strategy that employs the specific method in searching information.

Teaching Strategy. This term refers to personality type that enclose teacher stance, pattern of behavior, mode of performance, and attitude toward self and others.

Visual Learners. This refers to learners who must see their teacher’s actions and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson.

Chapter IIREVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter shows the related literature and studies on the learner’s preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics of fourth year high school student at Mabitac, Laguna as will be reviewed by the researcher. The following literature and studies related to this study were presented below.

Related Literature

Learning styles as described by Litzinger and Ozif (1992) refer to the different ways in which children and adults think and learn. Ellis (1985) described a learning style as the more or less consistent way in which a person perceives, conceptualizes, organizers, and recalls information.

Professor Richard Felder of North Carolina State University (1994) has described some of the varied learning preferences. Learning preferences can help an individual begin to understand and choose strategies which work best for him. Some learning inventors include preferences for learning visually, auditory, or kinesthetically when working in groups or individually.

One consequence of studying learning styles is the recognition that teachers also have their own approaches to the classroom. While this may have become habitual and while he teacher may define the classroom according to theirs and not the students’ preferences, teachers have to acknowledge that their styles will not necessarily suit cluster of students in their classroom. As teachers attempt to modify their classrooms, they need it begin by exploring their own styles (http://web.instate.edu/ctl/style//learning.htm).

Related Studies

Related studies on the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics of fourth year high school students will be conducted and there studies will be reviewed by the researcher. Those studies will be useful findings in determining the relationship of learners’ preferences in teaching mathematics.

The study of Villamor (2008) found out that there is a significant functional relationship between gender, interest towards mathematics, teaching competencies, teaching strategies and techniques and library setting that there is no significant functional relationship between classroom setting and the students’ performance in mathematics.

The study of Sieddentop as cited by Javier (2002) revealed that for a teacher to be effective in instructional strategies that will help the students understand the concepts: the teachers must provide the student with diverse, creative and dynamic teaching techniques for the children to become interested in their own health conditions.

Effective teachers engage student actively in learning. This implies that teachers must know that students should be brought to the learning experience and to know what they need to learn (Travers and Rebore 1995).

The above mentioned studies and literatures are helpful to this study because they provide the researcher with the background information that may help for the development of the problem under study.

Chapter IIIMETHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research design, subjects of the study, determination of sampling techniques, research instrument, research procedure, and statistical treatment that will be used to analyze the data to be gathered.

Research Design

This study will determine the relationship of learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics to the fourth year high school students at all secondary schools at Mabitac, Laguna. The descriptive method is appropriate in this study. It is necessary to determine the relationship of the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics.

Gay defines descriptive research as involving collection of data in order to test hypotheses or to answer questions concerning the current status of the subject of the study. A descriptive study determines and reports the way things are. Descriptive research includes all of those studies that purport presents facts concerning the nature and status of anything. It is concerned with conditions of relationships that exist.

Subjects of the Study

Respondents in this study will be one hundred fifty-seven (157) selected fourth year high school students of all secondary schools at Mabitac, Laguna, school year 2010-2011 using the Slovin’s formula and stratified random sampling.

SchoolsSection No. of

StudentsPercentage Proportional

AllocationBlessed James Cusmano Academy

1 14 5.5 9

Paagahan National High School

1 32 12.5 20

2 33 12.9 20Paagahan National High School (Matalatala Extension)

3 32 12.5 20

4 30 11.7 18Mabitac National High School

1 43 16.8 26

2 40 15.6 243 32 12.5 20

Total 256 100 157

Table 1. Number of students in every school at Mabitac, Laguna

Determination of Sampling Techniques

Stratified random sampling and convenient sampling techniques will be used to determine the number of the student-respondents involved in this study. Not all fourth year high school students at Mabitac, Laguna will serve as respondents in this study. However, the samples to be taken are expected to possess characteristics identical to those of the population.

Research Instrument

The main tool that will be used in the study is a questionnaire checklist. One set of questionnaire-checklist will be constructed for the student-respondents in terms of their preferences prepared in the classroom and the teaching strategies they observe from their mathematics teacher. The other set questionnaire-checklist is the students’ profile such as age, gender, section, and school.

Part I of the questionnaire-checklist contains the personal information about the student-respondents which includes the age, gender, section, and school.

Part II pertains the learners’ preferences they prepared and teaching strategies the student observe from their mathematics teacher. This part is subdivided into two:

Part II-A contains several situational statements in order to ascertain the students’ preferences in learning mathematics. Each statement will be rated following the scale:

5 - Strongly Agree

4 - Agree3 - Moderately

Agree2 - Disagree1 - Strongly

Disagree

Part II-B consists of teaching strategies observe by the students. Each statement will be rated using the given scale:

5 - Always4 - Often3 - Sometimes2 - Seldom1 - Never

Research Procedure

The original title of this study proposed by the researcher was checked, revised and rechecked by the researcher’s adviser to maintain conformity on the subject of research.

Some parts of the questionnaire-checklists were adopted from the book of Maria Rita D. Lucas, Ph.D. and Brenda B. Corpuz, Ph.D. (2007) entitled “Facilitating Learning”. While the other parts of it were developed by the researcher with the assistance of the adviser in gathering the data needed in determining the relationship of the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics.

A questionnaire-checklist that aims to draw out proper responses to the objectives of this study will be constructed. This questionnaire-checklist will be presented, analyzed and checked by the researcher’s adviser and experts on different fields of specialization to ensure the validity of responses it would elicit.

Permit to conduct research and study on the subject school will be secured from the Dean of the College of Education which is attach to another letter request that will be sent to the school administrators and advisers of the selected students to obtain their learners’ preferences in mathematics. The researcher will administer the questionnaire with the help of some friends in retrieving the accomplished questionnaire.

Data gathered from the answered questionnaires will be checked, tabulated and analyzed according to the statistical tool described in this chapter and will be prepared for the final presentation to the experts of different fields of specialization.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The data to be gathered will be tabulated and interpreted using the following statistical tools.

Analysis Statistical Tools

1. Profile of student-respondents Frequency, Percentage, rank

2. The learners’ preferences related to the teaching strategies employed by the teacher

Weighted Mean, Median, and Rank

3. The teaching strategies observed by the students in their mathematics teacher

Weighted Mean, Median, and Rank

4. Significant relationship between the students preferences in learning mathematics and the students’ profile

Unpaired t-test, Regression Analysis

5. Significant differences between the teaching strategies in mathematics of fourth year high school students in different schools at Mabitac, Laguna

T-test, One-way ANOVA

6. Significant relationship between the learners’ preferences and teaching strategies in teaching mathematics

Unpaired t-test, Regression Analysis

Test of significance will interpret based on the threshold p-value of 0.05.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Books

Davis, James R. (1993), “Better Teaching, More Learning Strategies for Success in Postsecondary Setting”, pg. 12

Ornstein, Allan C., “Strategies for Effective Teaching”, pg. 526Sanchez, C. A. Ph.D., “Methods and Techniques of Research”,

pg. 216Sevilla, Consuelo G. Ed.D., “Research Methods”, pg. 94Vega, Violeta A. Ph.D. Prieto, Nelia G. M.A., “Facilitating

Learning”, pg. 124Corpuz, Brenda B. Ph.D., Salandanan, Gloria G. Ph.D. (2007),

“Principles of Teaching 1”, pg. 71-72, 79, 88Lucas, Maria Rita D. Ph.D., Corpuz, Brenda B. Ph.D. (2007),

“Facilitating Learning”, pg. 75-79Corpuz, Brenda B. Ph.D., Salandanan, Gloria G. Ph.D, Gigor,

Dalisay V. Ph.D., (2006), “Principles of Teaching 2”, pg. 175-176

B. Unpublished Books

Bacha, Erwin M., “The Effectiveness of Mathematics Games as a Strategy in Teaching Mathematics to First Year High School Students”, 2010Era, Ma. Kris Angela D., “Correlation Study Between Motivation Academic Performance in Mathematics of Secondary High School Students in Laguna State Polytechnic University, Siniloan Campus”, 2010Palino, Carolyn R. “Effectiveness of Teaching Mathematics as Perceived by the Students of Balian National High School A.Y. 2008-2009”, 2010

D. Internet Sources

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1199philippines-EDUCATION-SYSTEM-AN-OVERVIEW-htmlhttp://web.instate.edu/ctl/style//learning.htmhttp://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles.htmlhttp://www.bcps.org/students/online_learning/learning_preference.htmlhttp://www.mb.com.ph/articles/230164/elements-a-learner-s-preferences

LEARNERS’ PREFERENCES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES IN TEACHING MATHEMATICS OF FOURTH YEAR HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS AT MABITAC, LAGUNA S.Y. 2010-2011

I. PERSONAL INFORMATIONName: ______________________________Age: _______Gender: _____Male _____FemaleSection: _____1

_____2 _____3School:____________________________________________

II. LEARNERS’ PREFERENCES AND TEACHING STRATEGIES

Direction: Please indicate your response in the following items by putting a check ( / ) in the appropriate column.

A. Learners’ Preferences

Please rate the learners’ preferences in learning mathematics based on what you actually perform using the following scale:

5 – Strongly Agree4 – Agree3 – Moderately Agree2 – Disagree1 – Strongly Disagree

The first table is according to your sensory preferences such as:

V – Visual (sight)A – Auditory (hearing)K – Kinesthetic (action)

Sensory Preferences 5 4 3 2 11.If I have to learn how to do something, I learn

best when I: (V) watch someone show me how.

(A) hear someone tell me how.

(K) try to do it myself.

2. When I write, I:

(V) am concerned how neat and well spaced my letters and words appear.

(A) often say the letters and words to myself.

(K) push hard on my pen or pencil and can feel the flow of the words or letters as I form them.

3. If I had to remember a list of items, I would remember it best if I: (V) wrote them down. (A) said them over and over to myself. (K) moved around and used my fingers to name each items.4. When trying to concentrate, I have a difficult time when: (V) there is a lot of clutter or movement in the room. (A) there is a lot of noise in the room. (K) I have to sit still for any length of time.5. When solving a problem, I: (V) write or draw diagrams to see it. (A) talk myself trough it. (K) use my entire body or move objects to help me think.

5 4 3 2 1Analytic Thinkers I learn best through……. 1. responding to word meaning.2. linearly information processing.3. responding to logic.4. formal study design.5. well-lighted room while studying.Global Thinkers I learn best through……1. responding to tone of voice.2. information processing in varied order .3. responding to emotions.4. sound/music background while studying.5. frequent mobility while studying.

The second table pertains to the Analytic-Global Thinkers.

B. Teaching StrategiesPlease rate the extent by which your teacher in mathematics has used the following strategies in teaching the subject using the following scale:

5 – Always4 – Often3 – Sometimes2 – Seldom1 – Never

5 4 3 2 11. Lecture Discussion2. Problem Solving 3. Cooperative Learning (by grouping)4. Direct Teaching (general-specific details)5. Indirect Teaching (specific-general details)

_______________________Signature of respondent

Thank you very much for your cooperation.