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Alenton Chapter 1
Alenton Chapter 1
Alenton Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
Rationale
that helps enable a person to analyze, describe, and understand the world we live in.
look for a possible employee that can estimate, interpret data, and communicate
Mathematics teachers have observed that many students have poor performance in
Mathematics. Classroom researches over the years show that Math instruction has
continuously been taught in a traditional manner wherein only a few students were
able to understand and grasp the concepts (Winters, Cerulli, Bjork, & Mor, 2006).
Teaching Math has been viewed as unappealing to the majority of students and has
been outdated and not connected with their interests and experiences, bringing
the desired outcome. In the 2003 international examination for Math and Sciences,
the Philippines ranked 23rd among 25 participants in the elementary level with an
average score of 358 compared to the average of 495 while for the Grade 8 or 13
year-old level, the country ranked 42nd among 45 participants with an average
In an article of The Philippine Daily Inquirer (May 29, 2005 issue), it was
stated that regardless of the Constitutional mandate for the Philippine government
to spend its largest share of the national budget on education, the national National
achievement Achievement test Test (NAT) results on Math and Science showed a
low level of learning on the part of majority of the public school students. In the last
2012 – 2013 NAT examination (De Dios, 2013), the overall Mean Percentage Score
(MPS) for Filipino high school students was 48.9 % which was far away from the
goal of 75%. In Math specifically, the MPS of all the high school students is 46.37 %
which was also very far from the 75% goal. This also holds true in the classroom
setting of the researcher. There is a really low Mean Percentage Score (MPS) during
periodical exams. Last December 2013, the MPS scores of the grade 7 students in
these changes was the DepEd Order No. 73 S. 2012. This order emphasized on
Curriculum in both public and private schools nationwide. This started a wide range
reflection and personal responsibility for individual learning which was commonly
the top, bottom, and middle of their classes all did better with the integration of AFL
than their counterparts using the traditional assessment (Riorda & Noyce, 2001).
their students, may affect what was taught, the fundamental issues and problems of
Math education remained, which is the poor performance of students. Students at all
levels from grade Grade sSeven to fFourth yYear high school had difficulty
transferring and connecting Math concepts taught in the classroom into other fields,
subjects, and in real life situations. Thus, this study is conducted to find out if
assessing the students, properly with the use of the Assessment For Learning (AFL)
Theoretical Background
Related Theories
This study is anchored on the following theories: 1.) John Dewey’s Learning
by Doing Theory, 2.) Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal, and 3.) Siegfried Engelmann’s
theory of Direct Instruction. John Dewey’s Learning by Doing Theory stated that the
which means spending time, effort, and energy dedicated to the learning process
(Dewey, 1938). This theory is related to the Chinese proverb about learning which
states that,
In order to let the students understand, then they must be involved. In AFL,
students are given active roles in their learning. They are tasked to take charge for
their own learning and assessment (The Assessment Reform Group, 2002). AFL also
Development” which stated that social interaction played a fundamental role in the
was the actual level of development of the learner and the next level attainable
through the use of adult or peer facilitation (Vygotsky, 1978). AFL also exposed the
students or learners to varied activities facilitated by the teacher and contain peer
AFL is anchored on these two theories. On the other hand, the control group
theory developed by Siegfried Engelmann. This theory focuses on the teacher giving
lecture/discussion while students listen, then they are given practice exercises and
seat works to reinforce learning (Huitt, 2009). Direct Instruction was also found out
discussions, and improving their achievement (Magliaro, Lockee, & Burton, 2005)
administered to take into account the different learning styles, strengths, and needs
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of each student (Goode, 2010). In the Philippine setting, these standards referred to
the expected outputs of students taking up high school Math. On a study conducted
by Linn, he observed that content standards should influence both the choice of
assessments to be measured and the ways in which they were eventually measured
(Linn, 2000). Thus, assessment should be based on standards. These standards were
the competencies or learning objectives that schools set for their students to achieve
or accomplish.
learning”. Assessment for Learning (AFL) transpired as a part of the daily teaching
and learning process. Through strengthening the connections between lessons and
standards of teaching and learning giving benefits to both learners and teachers. It
also showed good results in checkpoint tests, Cambridge set exam in England, and
achievement tests (William, 2004). AFL was where teachers and students worked
together to find out what needed to be learned, to identify the steps to take in order
to get to the targeted goal, and to check individual progress or how far one have
In another research done by Shute, AFL helped identify students who were
improve instruction that addressed student learning (Shute, 2008). This type of
another study, Brockhart (2010) observed that teachers began to see students as
their partners, a partner who was responsible and capable to monitor for their own
learning.
AFL was a research-based theory of learning and teaching which had many
components all of which had been shown to improve the learning of students
(Guest, 2000). However, there were also researches that showed the said
2009). In support of this, efforts to teach according to what would come out in the
test or exam by supplementing the new curricula with drill on basic skills were
There were studies which implied that AFL intervention had a positive effect
on the performance of students while there were also some researches that claimed
the carrying out of the K to 12. One of which was to improve teaching through the
use of Spiral progression in Science and Math (DEPED, 2011). In connection, DEPED
implemented standards based assessment which also supports AFL. One major
component of AFL is the setting of learning goals and success criteria which are
For the past 25 years, Statistics, also known as data analysis and probability, has
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become a key component of the K – 12 Math curriculum (Franklin & et. al, 2007). In
current years, many Math teachers and statisticians had dedicated huge fragments
present investigation and provide the conceptual framework shown in the next
page.
Based on this theoretical background, the conceptual framework is Formatted: Indent: First line: 0.5"
The schematic diagram of the theoretical background of the study which shows the
rectangle is in line with that of Dewey’s and Siegfried’s. Formatted: Font: Not Bold
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the Study
development and Dewey’s concept of learning by doing, which all supported the
Instruction Theory which supports the teaching process done on the control group.
letting the learners be informed of the goals they were able to set for themselves to
monitor their progress. Another part of AFL was questioning and feed backing. This
was done after every activity given during the learning process. The last part of was
peer and self – assessment. In this part, students were assessed by themselves and
Both the control and experimental groups of grade seven students were
given a pretest in which, the mean scores were compared to evaluate the
comparability of the groups and to assess their learning prior to the discussion of
the identified topic. After the discussion, the control group was given paper and
pencil test as a form of assessment while the experimental group was given an
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activity based on the concept of assessment for learning. Posttest was then given to
both groups. The mean scores of the different groups were compared as well.
This study was done in two phases, in which, the two groups were
interchanged in the second phase. The experimental group became the control
group while the control group became the experimental group. Same set of
Analyses of data were done after gathering the pretest and posttest scores.
The conclusion and recommendation were drawn from the data and results
acquired.
THE PROBLEM
The main purpose of this study was to find the effects of assessment
Grade seven Seven students of Pooc National High School, in Statistics as one of the
1 and phase 2:
2. Is there a significant mean gain from the pretest to the posttest performance
Statistics?
From the statement of the problem above, the following hypotheses were
Ho1: There is no significant difference between the hypothetical mean and actual
mean of:
Ho2: There is no significant mean gain difference from the pretest to the posttest
This study was conducted to find out if integrating AFL in the teaching and
grade seven Statistics. This can also possibly benefit the following people:
in Math.
Teachers. This would encourage them to integrate AFL which can help in
improving students’ performance in Math. Also, this would give them the
This would also give them an opportunity to explore the possibility of improving
their Math performance at the same time enjoying a certain task while assessing
themselves.
integrating AFL do affect a student’s performance in Math. This would also enlighten
the researcher to investigate further into other possible ways of improving Math
performance of students.
This study was conducted at Pooc National High School – Division of Talisay
City Cebu. This school was located in Pooc, Talisay City, Cebu. The subjects of the
study were the grade Grade sSeven students of the said school. Included in this
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study were the gathering of students’ pretest and posttest scores for both phase 1
and phase 2.
This study was conducted during the fourth quarter of school year 2013 -
2014. This was pushed in the fourth quarter because Statistics was offered in the
fourth quarter and it was the field of Math in which the study was intended to focus
on since also it was the subject taught by the researcher in the said school.
One of the limitations in this study was the time constraint. There were
several class interruptions, which were brought about by the different activities
held in school, which resulted to the back log of topics in the third quarter of the
school year. Some of the topics from the third quarter were moved to the fourth
quarter already which decreased the number of meetings for the Statistics class and
just allowed a shorter time to conduct the study. Another limitation was the
attendance inconsistency of some of the respondents. These were the students who
had been out of school due to family matters, health concerns, and money matters.
Some of these respondents were not able to complete the task due to the fact that
they need to find money for their family. Thus, random samplings were done to
assure the equality of the number of students in both the control and experimental
groups.
In this study, the groups were treated separately due to time constraint and
lack of facility. It was not possible to gather all respondents in one place for the
pretest and posttest because the school had no extra space or classroom or facility
that would hold all the respondents in one place. Thus, the respondents took the
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pretest and posttest in their respective classrooms during their respective Math
class schedule.
Definition of Terms
Comprehension of this study was made easier through the definition of some
Paul Black and Dylan William. It refers to the different activities done on a day-to-
day basis and takes place during the learning process. This includes learning
intentions and success criteria, feedback, questioning, and peer and self-assessment.
Learning Intention. This refers to the description of what the teachers wants their Formatted: Indent: Left: 0"
Success Criteria. This refers to the statements that help the students recognize if
Self-assessment. This refers to the students ability to reflect of their own progress.