Investigating the Effectiveness of Teaching Methods of Neophyte Teachers in

Teaching Grade 6 Mathematics

Chapter 1

Introduction

Background of the Study

Mathematics plays an important role in everyday life. Learning mathematics

helps students' reasoning abilities and analytical thinking. It also helps students

develop lifetime learning abilities for problem solving. Math is a topic that many

students either love or hate academically. It is hated by learners who do not find

figures interesting, especially those students who are more into social sciences

(Prayoga &Abraham, 2017). Because of the formulas and rules involved in a

mathematics lesson, students tend to develop negative attitudes and concerns towards

the subject (Altintas & Ilgun, 2017).

At some point, many students struggle with learning mathematics. For this

reason, they have to experiment with different learning approaches when learning

mathematics. Individuals taking responsibility for their own learning is one of the

most difficult problems in learning. When learners take responsibility for their own

learning, they attribute meaning to the process of learning, leading to effective

learning (Nzesei, 2015). Teachers need to understand the process of individual

learning and the different learning styles of the students. Thus, addressing the

challenge of facilitating learning conditions while organizing such interactions should

be taken into consideration to help individuals optimize their learning (Sighn, 2017).

According to the Department of Education (DepEd), a public school in

Davao de Oro scored 65.0% on the National Achievement Test in Mathematics in

Grade 6 in 2019. The National Achievement Test is one of the country’s criteria for

measuring students’ academic achievement in mathematics. The Philippine NAT

results provide continuous documentation of the need to put greater emphasis on

improving the teaching and learning of mathematics in the country. The question is:

what teaching methods must be done to be able to improve the academic performance

of elementary students in mathematics?

The researcher wants to study this topic to seek an answer to the

effectiveness of the teaching methods used by the neophyte teachers in Grade 6

mathematics. The researcher believes that by understanding the influence of learning

styles and teaching strategies, educators will find effective strategies that will improve

the academic performance of students in mathematics.