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Bruner
Bruner
INTRODUCTION
The development of physiological growth lies in continuous activities and explorations for
children in the process of growing up. To achieve the balance of physiological development,
children are born with thirst for physical activities and such thirst must be met. The living
changeable and unstable situation, all sorts of learning help establish order in children’s lives and
among which only dancing requires physical postures to express directly, and it brings great
benefits to the establishment and promotion of self-worth and self-confidence (Chingchuan Huang,
2009).
Since the turn of the century, traditional teaching based on the framework of behaviorism,
2002), recommend a more student-centered math classroom that deemphasizes rote memorization
of isolated skills and facts and emphasizes problem solving and communication. According to
the teacher infers the learning level and preparation of the student and coaches the communication
so that the learner is able to construct meaning, understanding, and knowledge. Teachers who
constructs and reconstructs conception of phenomena. The learning is not assessed with separate
examination at the end of the course, but assessment methods are integrated into the learning
process itself (Tynjala, 2008). The objective of the assessment is to encourage the learning process
resulting in the discovery of qualitative changes in the student’s knowledge base. As a result, the
course in question would benefit from an assessment method that stresses the application or
performance that displays development of metacognition and critical thinking in an authentic and
constructive way.
considered to be boring and too abstract despite its importance and use. But why do students find
Mathematics hard to learn? What are some of their difficulties? How can they be helped? These
Mathematics involves problem solving skills which prove to be difficult for many pupils.
Researches show that the difficulty can be attributed to understanding Mathematics Language.
Students struggle in comprehending the Math terminologies and vocabularies in written or verbal
form. Another factor is inconsistency in computation. Students misread signs and symbols, carry
numbers wrongly, or sometimes putting the numeral in the wrong column. At times, students also
have difficulty in arithmetic operations. They are unable to remember facts, procedures or
formulas. Lastly, students have difficulty in analyzing word problem. They cannot perform the
consideration in planning a lesson. Teachers need to determine how to approach every learning
competency, the teaching aids to be used, through using the most effective method to help
teach many challenging word problems is through the Block Model Approach widely known as
Singapore Math. It is introduced in 1983 by Dr. Kho Tek Hong and his team of educators from
Singapore Ministry of Education. It uses strips, bars, or rectangular regions called models to
visualize concepts. It is useful in exposing pupils to respond better to visual stimuli (e.g.
illustration, drawing, picture, etc.). According to Kho (1982), “This bar model method helps
pupils gain concrete experience which are prerequisites for understanding abstract symbols of
Mathematics and their manipulation.” The model helped the pupils solve Mathematics problem
that were traditionally for higher levels only. Its effectiveness has gone beyond helping
Findings in various studies conducted in the Philippines, like the study of De Guzman
(2015), confirmed the effectiveness of Block Model Approach in teaching the word problems. The
retention of concepts learned are enhanced. The pupils performed better in answering problem
solving. It is perceived to be easy to use in solving word problems. Lastly, it showed that Block
This is just one of the many approaches that can be employed in teaching Mathematics.
Teachers must understand that there are varied ways to teach Mathematics to help struggling
students grasp difficult concepts. Teachers are called on to continue to adopt and use new
curriculum materials, active learning approaches and current methods of teaching proven to be
This research study specifically seeks to determine the effect of Bruner’s Block Model
The rationale for this study is supported by the research literature which suggests that Block
Method Approach play an important role in the academic achievement of their pupils in
Mathematics through problem solving and the Block Method Approach can effect positive
changes. It is being hypothesized that the amount of involvement displayed by teachers and pupils
in problem solving in mathematics significantly improves the academic learning of the pupils.
1. Is there a significant difference between the problem solving performance of the control
2. Is the effect of the problem solving approach on the problem solving performance
moderated by the type of problem (one - step, two – step, three – step problem)?
4. How do pupils perceive the use of block model approach in problem solving?
Teachers play a very important role in improving quality education in the Philippines.
Given the chance to improve problem solving in Mathematics through Block Method approach
This research study is significant to the following whose presence in the school system is
Policy Makers. The results of this study will provide them a clearer vision on upgrading
Teachers. This study will inspire and encourage them to undertake activities that will
augment student interest and academic performance through the use of Block Method approach.
Researchers. The findings of the study will provide knowledge and understanding on the
on the effect of Block Method approach on the academic achievement of Pupils in Tacloban City
Division.
CHAPTER II
The goal of this review is to present the literature review and conceptual framework of the
study through various related literatures and research works on Bruner’s theory, Block Method
Approach and problem solving in Mathematics and its impact on the academic achievement of the
pupils. To date, there is limited research on the subject matter, hence, research aims to fill this gap
in the literature and shine a light on the transformative power of this practice.
Related Literature
Humans are animals possessed of thinking ability, able to take the initiatives to conduct a
series of logical reasoning including understanding, reasoning, and judging, and the obtainment of
these thinking abilities is generated through a series of long-term qualitative changes. By observing
how children perform their thinking methods, such as highly imaginative, all things in the world
are similar to humans, and must depend on actual operating experiences; children’s mode of
thinking is utterly different from the adult. In terms of various theories concerning such
phenomenon, Piaget (J. Piaget, 1896-1980) is the best known for his research on cognitive
development. He was a Swiss scholar, who spent most of his life studying the development of
children and conducted the significant “theory of cognitive development”, which laid him the guru
Piaget’s research placed importance on two major issues, “formation of knowledge” and
“increase of knowledge” (Shengfeng Tu, 1991). He believed that the process of thinking is
generated from proceedings from the concrete to the abstract, and his research on stages of the
cognitive development describes types of frameworks for children at different ages. Because each
stage of children’s development is different, thus learning will be limited as well as learning
patterns.
Piaget believed that infants after birth would use innate behavioral patterns to react to the
surrounding environment. As he/she encounters a situation, he/she then collates and deals with
through some sort of corresponding cognitive structure, and such behavior is called “schema”.
Schema is not innate nor acquired through experience, but through a series of actions. In the
process of adaptation to the environment, schema can achieve the expansion of knowledge through
integrations and form a network structure, which is called cognitive structure, and the cognitive
structure changes along with the cognitive development of subject, and hence the “theory of
Piaget believed that an individual’s cognition began to develop at infancy and manifest in
childhood. The development of education derived though the basis of the theory was called
“positive teaching.” The main task for teachers was to inspire students, teachers should not only
act the role of knowledge instructor, but an innovator and researcher, the purpose was to enable
children to receive natural and comprehensive developments along with complete personalities.
From the above, we may find out that cognitive development is structural, connected with
a ring after a ring, it is seemingly independent, but in fact it connects with each other and affects
each other. Children must go through the above-mentioned four stages and none can be skipped,
but children will develop a series of procedures in different pace. Children require real
understanding of learning, they cannot rely on teachers to understand the process of dance postures
and developmental actions, but through themselves and spontaneous developments. Therefore,
you must comply with children’s cognitive development in order to help them learn how to dance,
teachers must be familiar with the theory of cognitive development to arrange various structural
and non-structural curriculum to go along with each stage of development, must know how to
make use of reversal hints, an environment full of resources and a group bathing in the atmosphere
of freedom are equally important, teachers need to provide the proper stimuli to promote students’
cognitive abilities. In dance teaching, teachers must grasp the process of children’s body
learning, and design curriculum in accordance with children’s ages and developmental stages.
Bruner (1915 - ) is best known mainly for his contribution to education. In “The Process
of Education” (Bruner, 1960), he claimed that knowledge of any subject could apply efficient
teaching to any child at any stage of development via certain reasonable ways. He is an educational
learning theorist, who conducts considerable contributions and enlightenment in the construction
thinking, learning, motivation, stages of cognitive development and knowledge structure, and
Bruner believed that education and cognitive development skills are closely related to each
other; at the same time he emphasized that functions of curriculum structure could reach peak only
through education and teaching. Therefore, he emphasized that education was the key of helping
an individual to develop his/her mental skills; in order to bring out the efficiency of education,
curriculum arrangement should be thought highly of. Hence, again and again he emphasized that
the content of curriculum requires theories of cognitive development, structure of materials, and
teaching methods (Licho Chen, 1985). Bruner emphasized on the importance of “curriculum
structure” in his theory of learning; therefore, Bruner proposed the spiral curriculum in terms of
curriculum organizations. He was of the opinion that teachers must understand the cognitive
structure of children, the design of curriculum should meet the cognitive method and correspond
to cognitive approach, making students take the initiatives to discover the structural context, and
designing new curriculum should be benefited to the cognitive approaches that children could find
them easier to study, making students take initiatives to discover the content included in the
textbook, and further to promote the individual’s cognitive development as teaching methods
learning.
Bruner was of the opinion that by passing out and instructing knowledge cannot be
regarded as complete education, we should let children explore, reason and think, solve problems,
discover facts or principles, enjoy the happiness derived from learning results on their own in order
to further cultivate the curiosity, encourage the creativity, and explore the unknown world in the
future, as well as to cultivate innovative and responsible modern people (Lichao Chen, 1985).
Bruner emphasized that the important tasks for teachers are to teach children how to think and
discover principles from activities of acquiring knowledge, and then integrate and summarize them
and form it into their own experiences of knowledge. He proposed the “discovery learning theory”,
as the teacher instructed students to learn, the purpose was not to have them learn knowledge and
facts of all sorts, but have them discover whether meaning-related structure exist among teaching
materials and objects, and as children were familiar of “structure”, due to it comprised of generality
and categorization, larger effect of learning transferring could thus be generated, which could help
children face other similar situations. Bruner believed that the effective teaching environment
should be available during teaching to stimulate students’ curiosity and maintain their interests as
Conceptual Framework
This study employed the Pretest-Posttest Control Group design. The control and the
experimental groups were given a pretest, exposed to different treatments and then given a posttest.
The control group was taught problem solving using the traditional approach while the
experimental group was taught using the block model approach on problem solving. The
participants of the study were taken from the ten heterogeneous sections enrolled in the school
year 2007 – 2008. Intact groups and group - matching techniques were used to come up with the
comparable groups. Fishbowl technique was used as a sampling technique in selecting the control
and experimental group. The lessons covered by the study were one step problem solving, two step
There are two problem solving approaches namely the Block Model Approach treated for
the experimental group while the Traditional Method was employed to the control group. The
Traditional Method merely employ algorithmic method of solving word problems while the Block
Model Approach employ the concrete- representation – abstract method of solving word
problems. The Block Model Approach helps pupils visualize situations because it creates concrete
picture of from abstract situation. It may satisfy the pupil’s learning through seeing and doing.
Finally, it transforms words into recognizable pictures for young minds. The researcher wanted to
find out whether the problem solving performance of the Elementary pupils was moderated by the
problem solving approach. The intervening variables are mathematical ability and types of
problem. Under mathematical ability pupils are grouped into above average, average, and below
average; for type of problems, it was classified into one - step, two – step, and three – step.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter describes the methods that will be used in conducting the research that will be
involved in answering the research questions. It will begin with a rationale for the case study
methodology utilized in the design of the project. The chapter continues with a description of the
setting in which the research will takes place, including community, school and classroom
demographics. A section will also be devoted to the pupil participants in the study and will describe
the criteria used in selecting each individual, as well as a brief profile. In order to come up with a
conclusion about the effectiveness of Bruner’s Block mEthod Approach in Problem Solving in
Mathematics, the researcher will utilize several data gathering methods including interviews,
Within the methods portion of this chapter, the procedures will be outlined to show a
positive correlation between Block Method Approach and Academic Achievement. The
trustworthiness of the research will be validated by the use of triangulation, participant validation
and prolonged engagement. This chapter is complete with a description of the ethical
Research Design
This research study will employ a qualitative and an experimental research design. This
methodology will make it possible for the researcher to track the subtle changes in the outcome of
academic achievement of elementary pupils in Tacloban Cit with regards to the use of Bruner’s
It was decided that the study will be conducted in thethe different elementary schools
Research Respondents
The study will be conducted randomly on teachers and pupils of the different elementary
Research Instrument
The research instrument consisted of two parts. Part 1 covered the Profile of Teachers
subdivided into Personal Profile and Professional Profile. Part 2 encompasses the factors that
influence the academic achievement of pupils with regards to Bruner’s Block Method approach.
Validation of Instrument
The validation of the research instrument will be done through a trial run in the Rizal
Central School and San Fernando Elementary School. The school is considered to have almost the
same characteristics as the sample of the study. Modification of the questionnaire will be based on
Permission to conduct the survey, using the research instrument was secured from the
Division Office of Tacloban. The questionnaire will be administered through the help of the
School Heads of Rizal Central School and San Fernando Elementary School. To minimize
potential bias, the researcher assured the respondents that all their responses would be held
Statistical Treatment
To facilitate the presentation and interpretation of the data, the researcher organized these
using the frequency counts, means, and percentages. In testing the hypothesized relationship of the
variable under study, mean and/or averages will be utilized for the following statistical measures.
The Pearson Product Moment coefficient of Correlation will be used to test hypothesis
concerning between the home visitation, student interest and academic performance with the
following formula:
𝑁 𝑋𝑌 − (𝑋)(𝑌)
𝑟=
√[𝑁 𝑋 2 − (𝑋)2 ][𝑁 𝑌 2 − (𝑌)2 ]
Where:
The probability for rejection or acceptance of the null hypothesis will be set at 0.05
significance level.