CHAPTER II

REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE

Filipino learners register low performance in Mathematics in almost all levels

nationwide. This claim is supported by the drop in the National Achievement Test (NAT)
performance from 50.7% in school year 2007 – 2008 to 46.3% in school year 2011 –
2012 of high schools in the country and its low rank of 115th out of 142 states in the
(Global Competitiveness Report, 2015).

Pura (2016) found out in her study on Least Learned Mathematical Skills of Students
that the level of proficiency of the students in five mathematical skills, namely
describing, performing operations, solving worded problems and illustrating is all at the
beginning level. All of these skills are considered least learned. As released by the
National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC), secondary students of
Sorsogon City Division got a mean percentage score (MPS) in National Achievement
Test in Mathematics of 54.30% in 2011, 58.65% in 2012, 60.23% in 2013 and 53.57% in
2014. This result is far below the national target of at least 75% MPS. Furthermore, as the
data shows, there is an increase in Math MPS for two years from 2011 but a sudden drop
was incurred from 2013 to 2014.

Our changing world is becoming more economically competitive and doors of

opportunity are closing for students who struggle in mathematics. Occupations that
require analytical thinking and math skills become unattainable as fearful students rule
out higher level math courses. The national movement of increasing the numbers of
students entering science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related career fields
is critical. Sharpe (2012) reported about 43% of employers report a problem recruiting
staff with the right STEM skills. Reasons for not attaining STEM type skills is explained
by Bekdemir (2010), who believed many events in a person’s life determine the mindset
of thinking negatively about mathematics.

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 One of the common goals of all mathematics teachers at all levels of education is
that students should understand and learn mathematics. Various factors are involved in
shaping the understanding and learning of mathematics. Teachers’ attitudes and behaviors
have a great impact to the students when it comes to educational growth (Demanet & Van
Houtte, 2012).

For the past 15 years, results of studies and performance tests revealed the poor
Mathematics performance of students. Several studies proved the poor performance of
the students in Mathematics from basic education up to higher education level. According
to the study about performance on Mathematics Departmental examination , the
performance of the students in Algebra and Trigonometry in which result showed that
students who took the two subjects were not able to meet the required criteria. Similar
result is found among proficiency of grade 9 students in which performance is at the
beginning level. In the higher learning level, the achievements of students in Mathematics
courses such as Fundamental Mathematics and Contemporary Mathematics is at the poor
level (Ramon, 2019). Similar results are found about this under achievement of students
in Mathematics. More so, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS) 2003 data revealed that Filipino students’ poor mathematical performance has
placed the country in the 36th rank out of 38 nations worldwide (Adriel , 2019).

Math anxiety is the feeling of worry, frustration, agitation, and a fear of failure about
taking a math class, completing math problems, and taking a math exam. Being anxious
about math can begin when a child is in fourth grade and generally increases when
students are in middle and high school. Some studies have focused on students as young
as first-grade experiencing math anxiety (Harari, Vukovic& Bailey, 2013).

It also involves feelings of tension and anxiety that interfere with the manipulation of
numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in a wide variety of ordinary life and

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academic situations. Many adults, with and without disabilities, do not feel confident in
their ability to do math (Duffy & Furner, 2002).

CHAPTER IIl
METODOLOGY

Research Design
The study will employ the Quantitative research design specifically, descriptive
study. In this descriptive study, the survey model was used. According to Stangor (2011),
descriptive research creates a picture of the current scenario by providing a relatively
complete representation of what is happening at the moment. One of the methods of a
descriptive study is survey. In this study, high school seniors were surveyed using test
questionnaire to analyze their competency in General Mathematics.

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Research Locale
This study will be conducted at 7 public senior high schools of one school division of
Department of Education Region 8, Philippines during the School Year 2017-2018.

Sample For the respondents

The respondents of this study will be the Academic and TVL tracks students. Were
the 425 students who participated; 230 students are from the academic track, and 195
students come from the TVL tack. All were grade 12 students during the study.

Sampling procedure
Sampling techniques that will be used in this study is Random sampling.

Research Instrument
This study will be use the survey using questionnaire to analyze their competency in
General Mathematics.

Data Collection Procedure

The data will be collect via the paper-based General Mathematics Competency Test.
This test included: 1) Personal Information Form and 2) 80-item Competency Test.

1. Personal Information Form

The researcher used the “Personal Information Form” to collect data regarding students
tracks and strands in the senior high school program.

2. 80-item Competency Test

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This test is used in assessing the Senior High School competency in General
Mathematics. The test covered the learning competencies of the core subject-General
Mathematics as stipulated in the curriculum guide of the Senior High program.

Data Analysis Procedure

After the data collected, data will be analyzed using SPSS Version 21.0. Mean and
standard deviation were used to describe the competency of the senior high school
students. Frequency counts was used to rank the least learned competency in General
Mathematics. T-test for independent sample was used for comparison of the two tracks,
while the analysis of variance was used for multiple comparisons. Scheffe-test was used
for the post hoc analysis. P-value is set into 0.05.