Factors Affecting the Poor Performance in Mathematics of the

Junior High School Students in Infant King Academy

A research study

presented to

Infant King Academy

South Pob. Jimalalud, Neg. Or.

In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the strand General Academic Strand
(GAS) Research Project

By:

AB Gyl A. Garupil

Gina A. Gargoles

Sean Laurence B. Uy

March 2019
 APPROVAL SHEET

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the strand General Academic

Strand (GAS) this research study entitled “Factors Affecting the Poor
Performance in Mathematics of the Junior High School Students in Infant King
Academy has been prepared and submitted by AB Gyl A. Garupil, Gina A.
Gargoles, Sean Laurence B. Uy and is recommended for Oral examinations.

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Approved by the committee on Oral Examination with the grade of .

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Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the General

Academic Strand (GAS) in research project.

Date of Oral Examination:

Principal

Infant King Academy

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 PANELIST’S GRADING SHEET FOR THE

ORAL EXAMINATIONS

RESEARCHERS’ NAME GRADE GRADE AVERAGE PANELIST’S

INDIVIDUAL (GROUP) GRADE SIGNATURE
1.AB Gyl A. Garupil

2.Gina A. Gargoles

3.Sean Laurence B. Uy

Grading System:

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90-94 Very Good

85-89 Good

80-84 Fair

75-79 Passed

70 Below Failed

Suggestions/ Comments:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Page Number

Title Page.............................................................................................................i

Acknowledgement..............................................................................................ii

Abstract...............................................................................................................iii

Table of

Contents..............................................................................................................iv

List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………..v

List of figures………………………………………..…………………………......…vi

CHAPTER 1
 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Education is something which makes a man self-reliant and self-less. It is

a process, which does all round harmonious development of the individual to

modify his or her behavior, attitude and thinking. It place a tremendous role in

economic and social development and national integration of country. It includes

all the knowledge and experiences, acquired during infancy, childhood,

adolescence youth manhood and old age any agency of education.

Mathematics is the science of reasoning and computations. It is the

science of numbers, quantities or shapes. It is one of the most important subject

in our human life. Without the knowledge of mathematics, not all are possible in

the world. Nowadays, mathematics is globally accepted but locally useless

because there are some students who are not interested in this subject.

(Acharya, 2017).

Mathematics is intimately connected to daily life and everybody’s need to

increase our mathematical understanding. Those who understand and can do

mathematics will have opportunities that others do not. Mathematical

competence open doors to productive futures. A lack of mathematical

competence closes those doors. It is a fact that students have different abilities,

needs and interest but everyone needs to be able to use mathematics in his or

her personal life, in the workplace and further study.

 According to Nordin (1992), some proponent factors that contributed to

difficulties in learning mathematics are students' dislike in mathematics that may

have stem from psychological incidences such as fear, endurance, perseverance

and other associated factors. The mathematics curriculum may have failed to

show much relevance to real life application. Mathematics teachers lack of

having much interest in the subject, and consequently, did not help students by

way of catering for individual differences.

In other words, some of the topics or lessons in mathematics cannot apply

in real life situations. Students also lacks interest and focus especially in the area

of factoring numbers, fractions and solving mathematical problems. Teachers

also may affect in building the confidence of their students.

Student's related factor is one of the important aspects of high fail rate in

mathematics that plays vital role in a teaching-learning process. Without

student’s interest in the teaching -learning actives, there is no possibility to

achieve knowledge in subject matter. Student's achievement depends on their

need, interest, practices and seriousness in subject matter. Students related

factors include mathematics anxiety, prior knowledge of students and student's

labor in learning mathematics are considered as one of the causes why students

fail in mathematics.

Some people say that they like to study mathematics because it is

interesting, challenging and engaging. People should be aware of the wide

importance of mathematics. Some says it’s a boring subject and difficult to

understand the formulas. They think that by knowing only the four majors
operations are enough, and the rest are no longer needed. It is because they

don’t get what mathematics really meant to be. Only if they understand the logic

behind this subject and the principles applied in different problems, they will find

that it is not a boring subject.

Mathematical knowledge plays a crucial role in understanding the contents

of other school subjects such as science, social studies and even music and art

like reading and writing it is an important component of learning and “doing”

(using one’s knowledge) in each academic discipline.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the causes of student’s failure in learning

mathematics in Infant King Academy. Hence, the result of this study would

greatly help the students to be able to know their discrepancy in learning

mathematics and for the teachers to adopt new methods and techniques to

enhance their teaching strategies in mathematics.

Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What are the profile of the respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age:

1.2 Grade level:

1.3 Grades in mathematics

2. What are the common issues that lead students to get low scores during

exam or quizzes in mathematics subject?

3. How much interest do students have towards mathematics?

1.3 Research Objectives

1. To determine the profile of the Junior High School students.

2. To find out the case that affects the poor performance in mathematics subject

the Junior High School students.

3. To know how the students value mathematics.

1.4 Research Hypothesis

Most of the students lacks interest during mathematics period. Students

can't easily understand the lessons being discussed by the mathematics teacher.

There are some also can't understand because of the teaching strategy of the

teacher. Some students are though listening but their minds are thinking

something that is not related to their lesson. Lack of motivation and poor attitudes

by students and were less consistent in studying mathematics that can lead to

poor performance in mathematics subject.

1.5 Significance of the study

This study will be a great help to the following:

Teachers. They will be able to realize their vital role in developing the

performance of the students. This study will also help the teachers to know more

techniques and strategies to be used in sustaining the learners’ interest to learn.

This will be a guide to them in providing appropriate learning materials to their

student.

Parents. This study will also a great help to the parents in realizing their

responsibility to the development of their children's performance in mathematics.

Parents should motivate, understand and support their children in school

especially in mathematics. They can use their knowledge in mathematics subject

to help their children develop a better performance in mathematics.

Students. This study will also help the students to know what they are going to

improve or develop their capacity to understand, analyze, solve, etc. through

listening to the teacher’s discussion. It also help them to become motivated to

learn and gain new knowledge. They will also realize the value of mathematics

into their lives.

Future Researcher. This study will help the future researchers who will conduct

the same study that serve as a guide to their research.

Scope and Delimitation

This study focuses on the poor performance of the students in

mathematics, specifically the Junior High School Students. This study will be

conducted at Infant King Academy. It started on the first semester SY 2018-2019

until the present time.

1.6 Definition of terms

Mathematics - the science of numbers and their operations, interrelations,

combinations, generalizations, and abstractions and of space configurations and

their structure, measurement, and transformations

Tremendous - extraordinarily great in size, amount, or intensity

Factors - one of the elements contributing to a particular result or situation

Discrepancy - the state or quality of being discrepant or in disagreement, as by

displaying an unexpected or unacceptable difference; inconsistency

Issue - the act of sending out or putting forth; promulgation; distribution

Motivation - the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to

act in a certain way

Interest - the feeling of a person whose attention, concern, or curiosity is

particularly engaged by something

Performance - a particular action, deed, or proceeding

 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Research and studies done by the different person were mentioned here,

and everyone agreed that poor performance in mathematics of all Junior High

School students and present must be given full attention because it did not affect

their performance in class and their future endeavors.

Related Literature

Educators defined that mathematics is a very important tool in the learning

process of every students. Learning to count read and write numbers and

symbols is one of the level of understanding of the process. However,

performance depends on the ability to solve and understand quickly and

effortlessly. Learning mathematics is fun but depending on the individual factors

that affect the learning process of the students.

The review of related literature of this study identifies how fear and interest,

physical and health condition, availability of the books and references at home,

together with the students’ study habits can affect their performance in various

subject matters, specifically, mathematics.

Mathematics as defined your dictionary.com, is ”the group of sciences

(including arithmetic, geometry, algebra, calculus, etc. dealing with quantities,

magnitudes, and forms and their relationships, attributes, etc., by the use of

numbers and symbols.” Ernest (1989) mentioned that learning mathematics

involves more than basic knowledge of facts, skills and procedures. He added
that it has a crucial involvement of conceptual structures, the general strategies

in solving problems, attitudes towards the subject and appreciation of

mathematics.

According to the latest Gallup youth survey conducted in 2004, the subject

that the teenagers find most difficult in school is mathematics. Thus, Saad(2005)

said that it is not surprising how the subject has the lowest performance rate. The

reasons were not mentioned, however, Stites (1993) said that people have the

tendency to blame the educators of the poor performance of the students in

math. However, Temple professor and mathematician John Allen Paulos directed

these problems to a number of factors. Paulos attributed this problem to the

educational system that "emphasizes practice without incorporating the concept."

In addition to this, he mentioned that this is also partly because of the mentality

that math is not for everyone. According to Paulos, people think that math is only

for a selected few or the left-brained ones. However, Paulos disagreed with this

as everyone has the ability to do mathematics and problem solving as long as

they know the basics. Another problem pointed out by Paulos, is the hierarchical

way math is taught where teachers teach algebra and geometry instead of more

applicable ones such as probability and statistics for their students to have a high

percentage in passing standardized exams. Fullarton (1993), stated that poor

attitude towards mathematics is often being said as one of the contributing

factors to lower participation and less success in the courses.

Theoretical Framework

The theory that guide this study is the Self-efficacy by Albert Bandura.

Self-efficacy is person’s self-confidence about their ability to accomplish a task.

According to the theory of Bandura, people judge their capability to accomplish

certain levels of performance. This theory relates to our feelings of the

confidence that we can achieve from a desired outcome in specific areas. Beliefs

of personal efficacy influence choices of activities, situations and ultimately

shape lives. Bandura (1997) has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's

ability to succeed in specific situations. Luszczynska & Schwarzer (2005) point

out that one's sense of self-efficacy can play a major role in how one approaches

goals, and challenges particularly when handling Mathematics tasks.

Understanding the mechanisms in Bandura's theory that determine perceived

self-efficacy judgment is important. This will reflect and shed some light when

trying to understand students/teachers‟ attitude towards Mathematics curriculum

and contributing reasons. The beliefs of personal efficacy may influence the time

one spends on each concept taught in Mathematics. For instance, one is likely to

spend more time to learn/teach algebra and ignore vectors if self-efficacy is

higher in algebra than vectors.

The attitude a person has is likely to influence the way one will perceive

the objectives, content, methods and even evaluation strategies used in

Mathematics. This theory has a relationship in our study because the Self-

Efficacy Theory tells us that people generally will only attempt things they can do
or accomplish and to the things they think they can't, they will just ignore it

because they also think that they will fail.

Attitude is a person’s feelings about a task, such as whether or not they

believe a task is important, enjoyable, or difficult. Our attitudes can be seen as

positive or negative. The attitudes that we have can greatly affect how we

perceive things around us, like how we perceive the subject mathematics. A

positive attitude towards mathematics will lead to high performance and a

negative attitude will also lead to a low performance. This attitude has a great

impact on an individual’s behavior as one is likely to achieve better in a subject

that he or she enjoys, has confidence in or finds it useful. For this reason,

positive attitude towards mathematics are desirable because they may influence

one's willingness to learn and know how beneficial mathematics is through the

instructions it gives.
Conceptual Framework

Profile of the respondents:

 Grade level
 Age
Input  Gender
 Grades in mathematics

 Surveying
 Observing
 Interpreting the data
Process

The researcher determines the factors that affects the poor

performance in mathematics of the Junior High School
Output students.

Figure 1. Schematic Paradigm of the Conceptual Framework

 Figure 1 shows the input which are the profile of the respondents who are

the Junior High School students of the Infant King Academy. Surveying,

observing and interpreting the data, enables the researchers to collect data from

the respondents. Through that process, the researchers determine the factors

that affects the poor performance in mathematics of the Junior High School

students which is the output of the study.

 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter the researcher discusses the Research design, Context and

Participants, Instruments, Data gathering procedure and the Data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

This study uses the descriptive research design. The researcher used

survey method to investigate the factors that affects the poor performance in

mathematics of the Junior High School students of Infant King Academy. This

method was used in this study because it enables the researcher to collect

information from the respondents.

3.2 Context and Participants

The research will not be complete without the respondents. The

participants of the study are the Junior High Students of Infant King Academy

who will answer the questionnaire that is given by the researcher. The

respondents will answer the questionnaire in their respective classrooms.

3.3 Instruments

To gather data, the researcher made a questionnaire. This questionnaire

was carefully formulated by the researchers in order to gather an accurate data.

The researcher uses Likert scale method to gather data from the respondents.
 Questionnaire

Name:_____________________________ Age:__________

Grade & Section:____________________ Gender:_______

Grade in mathematics:________________

Instruction: Read it carefully and answer it honestly. Put a check (√)

which corresponds your answer.

Questions Always Sometimes Never

1. I am interested in listening to

our teacher during math subject.

2. I can accomplish the task

given by the math teacher.

3. I can answer and analyze

math problems.
4. Get low scores during exams

and quizzes.
5. The teacher is too fast in

his/her discussion.
6. I feel bored during math

subject.
7. I cannot understand the

discussion of the teacher.

3.4 Data-gathering Procedure

In order to be successful in gathering the data, the researchers carefully

planned the following steps:

a. Constructing a questionnaire
 b. Administration

The researchers secured permission from the school principal by sending a

letter for approval. Once it was approved, the researchers will visit the

classrooms of the Junior High School students who are the respondents of the

study, who are in charge of the respective section was also asked for

permission.The researcher will give the questionnaires and give instructions on

how to fill or answer them. Lastly, the researcher assured confidentiality to the

information that the respondents give.

3.5 Data Analysis

The type of Random Sampling in Qualitative Research we used to analyze

our data is the Stratified sampling. All the members of the population can be

selected and will be divided into strata.

To interpret the data we had gathered for this study, the following statistical

tools were utilized:

A. Formula for the problem no. 1 or the students’ Profile Questionnaire

f
rf = x 100
N

Where:

P = Percentage

F = Frequency
N = No. Of Respondents

CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter includes the presentation, interpretation and analysis of the data

gathered that were used as basis in formulating the conclusions and

recommendations. These are the data that the researchers gathered from the

Junior High School Students of Infant King Academy.

TABLE 1.0

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR

AGE

N=125

Age Frequency (f) Percent of Total

12-13

13-14

14-15

15-16

Total N=125

TABLE 1.1

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR

GRADE LEVEL
 N=125

Grade level Frequency (f) Percent of Total

28%
Grade 7 35
Grade 8 34 27.2%
Grade 9 29 23.2%
Grade 10 27 21.6%
Total N=125 100%

TABLE 1.3

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION ACCORDING TO THEIR GRADES IN MATHEMATICS