“ Improving the Basic Mathematical Operation Abilities through RPMM

among grade 7 students in Malobago Pagsang-an National High School.”

CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

general assumption about teaching and learning numeration and multiplication is
that these basic, fundamental concepts and processes are learned in primary
school. Thus, many high school curricula tend to proceed straight to higher
mathematics learning and abstract reasoning based on these ideas irrespective of
students' readiness. Consequently, a lack of multiplicative reasoning, which requires
a clear conceptual understanding and full knowledge of mathematical processes
and the relationships among them, appears to be a major cause of difficulties with
further mathematics (Siemon, 2004).
The four fundamental operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,
and their relations are basic mathematical concepts to be taught at primary
education level. Acquisition of those four concepts and their relations enables
students to develop their understanding for numbers and calculating strategies‟ as
well as associating them with daily life problems. In the curriculum of Kosova‟s
primary education (MASHT, 2004), multiplication and division are presented for the
first time in the second grade. According to this curriculum, second graders learn
the meaning of multiplication as repeated addition, and division as an inverse
operation of multiplication (finding a factor, when the product and the other factor
are known.
However, if the instruction was carried out to secondary students particularly to the
7th graders and yet they failed to grasp the skills that is already expected on them
before hand is something that caused for a concern. Malobago Pagsang-an National
High School is located at the most interior Barangay of the Municipality of San
Roque and catering several nearby barangays from their geographical location
which includes the poor road condition, the distance and the quality of their
elementary Education among others it is easy to ascertain why some of the
students perform poorly on the Instruction.
Students find difficulty in using the basic operation both in computing plain
numbers and solving word problems. Adding and subtracting one to two digit
numbers is manageable for them but adding more digits more often results to
confusion moreover huge numbers that uses the carry or a digit that is transferred
from one column of digits to another column is a much bigger problem.
Furthermore, going through another operation the Multiplication and Division is
much more difficult. In a previous study conducted in a Brisbane state high school
situated in a socio-economically disadvantaged area Seah (2004) found that many
students demonstrated very limited understanding of the multiplication concepts,
with their knowledge restricted to procedural rather than conceptual understanding.
Multiplication which begins with the need to group together various numbers of
objects using repeated addition gives them problem especially that they has yet
master the multiplication table and lastly is the Long Division operation that despite
of the effort of teachers to make it easier it remains to be the most difficult
operation because it requires control and use of subtraction, multiplication and
sometimes addition facts and operations.
There is a need for attention on this issue because this skill is fundamental and is
needed in acquiring higher level skill in Math.The need to think mathematically has
become essential for students (Booker, 1998) in a new millennium "awash in
numbers" and "drenched with data" (Steen, 2001). Today's society is inundated with
quantitative information ranging from statistical reports on the daily newspaper
headlines to numbers used as part of the marketing strategy to attract consumers,
not forgetting the quantitative thinking required in workplaces.

DataGathering

After seeking the approval from the principal, the teacher-researcher started the
experiment for 2 weeks.

The scores of both the pretest and the posttest were taken and these data were
coded, tallied, and were statistically treated using the mean, standard deviation,
and t-test of significant difference.

The mean and the standard deviation were used to determine the level of
performance of control and experimental groups and the classification of pupils,
while the t-test was employed to determine the significant difference of the mean
scores on pretest and posttest of both groups.
 PROPOSED INTERVENTION
After conducting the pretest by the researcher It’s time to plan for the possible
intervention that could solve the problem. The researcher will start from the first 2
fundamental operations which is the addition and subtraction and employing the
(RPMM) which stands for Repetition, Pair Work , Manipulation tools , and Math
Games.
Repetition A simple strategy teachers can use to improve math skills is repetition.
By repeating and reviewing previous formulas, lessons and information, students
are better able to comprehend concepts at a faster rate. According to Professor W.
Stephen Wilson from Johns Hopkins University, the core concepts of basic math
must be mastered before students are able to move into a more advanced study.
Repetition is a simple tool that makes it easier for students to master the concepts
without wasting time. According to the University of Minnesota, daily re-looping or
reviews will bring the previous lesson back into the spotlight and allow teachers to
build on those previous skills. Thus by giving students route activities like
computing different set of problems over a period of time provided that it is closely
supervised s that questions that could arise will be immediately answered.

Pair work Students have different learning styles and need to have lessons that help
improve all styles of learning to get the best results. Group work is a simple strategy
that allows students to work and problem solve with a buddy. When a teacher has
provided the basic instruction, it’s helpful to split the class into pairs or groups to
work on problems. Since the pairs are working as a team, the students can discuss
the problems and work together to solve the issues. The goal of pair work is to
teach students to be cooperative and lighten the burden of teacher most specially if
there is a huge number of students who needs teacher immediate attention and the
teacher cannot attend to everybody at once, with the aid of their group mate which
is knowledgeable on the problem. Someone can closely monitor each and every
one.

Manipulation tools Students may use blocks, fruits, balls or other manipulation tools
help students learn addition, subtraction and other areas of basic math.
Manipulation tools make it easier for students to learn and understand basic skills.
These are ideal when students learn best through hands-on experience and building
rather than traditional lessons and repetition. Using the physical materials, they will
illustrate the process of addition and subtraction.

Math games Reinforcing the information learned in class is not always the easiest
task for teachers, but math games provide the opportunity to make the lesson
interesting and encourage students to remember the concepts.
In this case student will challenge each one another on who will be the first to
answer each problem this could be done on the board or on their sets depending on
their preferences.
Each strategy employed will take a day or two depending on the flow of the lesson.
After the first two operations the remaining two which are the Multiplication and
Division will follow. Division will be the last since almost all the Operations are used
in the process.