REPUGNANCE TO MATHEMATICS OF A GRADE ELEVEN STUDENT: A CASE STUDY

A Term Paper Proposal

Presented to Dr. Porfonio B. Lapa Jr.

University of the Philippines - Cebu

In Partial Fulfillment of the Course Requirements

in EDFD 201 - Psycho-Philosophical Foundation of Education

Cirilo C. Gastanes, Jr.

M.Ed. Physics

September 2018
 Chapter I – THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Rationale

Obviously, yet quite profound, education is important and enhancing its quality is critical

and urgent to an individual’s and the society’s success. This issue is aptly addressed by the

Enhanced K to 12 Basic Education Program of the Department of Education (Padre, 2010). An

additional two years is added to the 10-year basic education program and with it comes not

only the restructuring of teaching approaches but the addition of learning areas for the added

two years.

These new learning areas now brings with them new challenges for the learners. Each

subject presents unique problems, but for most students nothing compares to the challenges

brought about by Mathematics; majority of the students across the world dislike mathematics

(Scarpello, 2007). Mathematics is a fundamental subject as it is an instrument for the

development of all other sciences. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are using Mathematics in

every facets of life. And yet, the National Research Council (1989) reported that Mathematics

has often been termed as the “gatekeeper” of success or failure for high school graduation and

career success (as cited in Peria, 2015).

This term paper was conceived to investigate through a Case Study the reasons and

factors why students, even the ones who are academically performing better than most in

Mathematics, regard the subject with such aversion. This paper will also provide some

important information and contribute suggestions to curtail the repugnance of the students on

the concerned learning area. The results of this short study then will be beneficial to the
students, Mathematics teachers, the parents, the school community and other stake holders of

education.

Theoretical Background

For learning to be conveyed permanently, students must understand what they are

learning. And one of the ways for learners to understand Mathematics is to engage in actual

physical experiences in learning the simple and complex concepts involved and make use of

them in and out of school institutions. However, there are students who are indifferent to these

experiences. Education experts and psychologists though provide theories and models to

address such concerns.

One such theory is the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) where this case study is anchored

upon. As theorized by Bandura (1986), SCT states that that learning occurs in a social context

with a dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behavior (as cited in

LaMorte, 2018). And so a person’s functioning therefore is a product of continuous interactions

between cognitive (self-aware and actual experience), behavioral and contextual (environment-

dependent) factors. It is with these factors that the respondent’s (of this case study) disliking of

Mathematics will be investigated upon and, hopefully, understood. In addition, Bandura’s Social

Learning Theory (SLT) stresses the importance of observation, learning, imitation, and modeling.

His theory integrates a continuous interaction between behavior, cognition and environment.

In support to both the SLT and the SCT and in which this study is also anchored on is the

Theory of Cognitive Development (TCD) by Jean Piaget. TCD states that a person acquires,

constructs, and makes use of knowledge through a progressive reorganization of mental

processes resulting from biological maturation and environmental processes (Mc Leod, 2018).

This totally holds up the cognitive, behavioral, and contextual factors of the learning process.

Statement of the Problem

This case study aims to describe a Grade 11 Senior High School student’s repugnance

towards Mathematic in Lawaan National High School for the first semester of the school year

2018-2019.

Particularly, it seeks to answer the following questions:

1) What are the factors that influence the student-respondent’s repugnance towards

Mathematics?
a. Cognitive factors?
b. Behavioral factors?
c. Contextual factors?
2) How do these factors contribute to the student’s repugnance towards Mathematics?
3) How is the repugnance towards Mathematics manifested by the student-

respondent’s during class interaction and discussion?

4) How does the student-respondent deal with these factors in order to maintain a

good performance in Mathematics?

Significance of the Study

The results of this case study will be beneficial to the following:

Students. This study can greatly help students who dislike Mathematics and related subjects

such that they will be informed and appropriately guided on the proper course of

action to address their aversion and perform well on the concerned subject/s.
 Mathematics Teachers as well as Other Teachers. Through the suggested solutions, this

study will help teachers to accordingly address issues on negative proclivity of

students in their corresponding subjects.

Mathematics Department and School Administration. Like the help that the result of this

study can provide for the teachers, the same thing is true for the Department Areas

and the School Administration as a whole in the formulation and implementations of

programs that would address issues on academic performance of students brought

about by the repugnance of students to different learning areas in addition to

Mathematics.

Parents and Other Stakeholders. This study will be of great help for parents and other

stakeholders, for the factors determined and the suggested solutions, as a better

guide in motivating and helping students to do well academically.

Scope and Limitation

This study intends to describe in detail the reasons of a Grade 11 student’s repugnance

in Mathematics, despite her academically high performance in the concerned subject, for the

first semester of the school year 2018-2019. The case study is to be conducted in Lawaan

National High School, Lawaan I, Talisay City, Cebu. The student-respondent was purposively

chosen out of 105 grade 11 students of the said school. The study will be conducted through

the whole month of September 2018.

Related Literatures and Studies

 A student’s proclivity of a learning area or subject depends on a lot of things; such

inclination can be affected by multiple factors or causes. However, one of the most disliked of

these subjects is Mathematics. Repugnance to Mathematics and the fear of numbers (not the

disorder) has been a subject of numerous research studies and research literatures. Hence, the

researcher has decided to further seek problems in relation with the concepts of these

literatures.

Students’ dislike for some subject could be due to a continuing state of despondency

because of their fear of being victims of the disapproval of their teachers and classmates – this

is quite evident in Mathematics. Mc Leod (2011) argued that a child will behave in a way in

which he/she believes will earn approval because he/she desires so (approval). Moreover, the

dislike of Mathematics may as well “stream out” of the students’ negative preconception of

themselves with regards to Mathematics which could be inert in nature or due to bad

experiences on the subject early on. As Anderson (2007) pointed out that the students’

disinclination to Mathematics is because they are keeping the belief that they are never good at

the subject. The students’ behavior then is a critical factor in their attitude towards

Mathematics.

In addition, students’ enmity on some subjects, including Mathematics could be due to

the external or environmental factors affecting the delivery of the lessons. According to Mann

and Robinson (2009), 60% of learners found at least half of their lectures boring and about 30%

of them claiming to find most of their lectures boring and this is mostly due to the teaching

approach and the setting were the lectures are conducted. Mann and Robinson, added, that

such conditions rarely promotes interaction and active learning that more hands-on and
practical applications can facilitate. Henningsen and Stein (1997) further added that classrooms

must become environments in which students are able to engage actively in rich, worthwhile

Mathematics activity, in order to develop student’s capacity to “do Mathematics.” These studies

support the idea of contextual factors in disliking Mathematics.

Closely connected to the contextual factors are the cognitive factors where learners

must be fully aware of the objects in their surrounding environment and engage themselves in

manipulating or experimenting with these objects. As Larbi and Mavis (2016) emphasized in

their study, students who made use of objects or manipulatives (algebra tiles) performed

significantly better than those that did not. Larbi and Mavis added that the use of the algebra

tiles improved students’ thinking process as they solve problems in algebra. Another cognitive

issue of students on the concerned learning area is mathematics anxiety which is described by

Richardson and Woolfolk (1980) as a condition in which students experience negative reactions

to mathematical concepts and evaluation procedure (as cited in Cates and Rhymer, 2003). Cates

and Rhymer argued that the higher mathematics anxiety the more significantly lower is the

fluency level across all mathematical operations. They added though that mathematics anxiety

is more related to higher levels of learning than to the initial acquisition stage of learning. By

virtue of these studies, it is evident that cognitive aspects are vital factors in the students’ dislike

of Mathematics.

To sum up, these literatures that linked a connection between the existing problems

have assisted the researcher to furthermore continue the present study. And in line with these

studies, the researcher believed that the cited factors may have contributed to the student’s

aversion towards the subject (Mathematics).

Research Design

This case study is qualitative in nature and will make use of a thematic approach in

treating each data that will be gathered. The method requires the researcher to identify and

describe the different reasons of the student-respondent’s dislike of Mathematics despite her

above average performance in the subject. The researcher will use an observation sheet and

interview guide as research instruments to acquire and evaluate data to consequently identify

and describe the factors of the student-respondent’s aversion towards Mathematics.

Research Respondent

This case study used the purposive sampling technique; the respondent is selected using

the following criteria:

Grade level: a grade 11 senior high school student

Age bracket: 16 – 18 years old

Gender: female; and

Academic Performance: with a midterm grade in Mathematics of 88 and above

Research Instrument

To acquire the necessary data needed in describing the student-respondent’s

repugnance towards Mathematics, the following instruments were used; (a) an observation

sheet, in which the researcher put into writing the data during the non-participative
observation on the respondent and (b) an unstructured interview guide, which serves as the

researcher’s guide questionnaire during the interview with the respondent. The interview will

not be bounded by the questions in the interview guide; it can be freely adjusted or even not

followed depending on how the interview will span out.

Research Procedure

The researcher of this case study will make use of: (1) observation, and (2) interview as

the main procedure in gathering and analyzing the data.

Observation. The subject of the study is to be observed for a week or in duration of a

unit/chapter coverage for the final term of grade 11 Mathematics without the act of personal

interaction. This time frame of the observation is designed to monitor all possible behavior of

the respondent at different parts of the delivery of the unit/chapter. (The student-respondent at

this time is not yet aware that she is the subject of a case study so she would continue to act

normally in class discussions and exercises; the student-respondent will only be informed of her

participation during the Interview phase. The researcher is her Mathematics instructor. The

researcher actually purposively chose several candidates as the subject of the case study during

this phase to address the possibility of refusal of the first subject chosen to participate in the

study.)

Interview. The subject will then be interviewed after the Observation phase through the

use of an unstructured interview guide questionnaire. During the interview, the researcher will

ask questions from the guide questionnaire and follow up questions based on the answers of
the respondent. The data that will be gathered during the one-on-one interview with the

respondent will serve as the basis in making the conclusions and recommendations.

After the data gathering process, thematic content analysis was be used as a tool in

treatment of the data. Thematic analysis involved categorizing strategy which will enables the

researcher to analyze and interpret the data gathered in accordance to the specific objectives of

the case study.

REFERENCES

Anderson, R. (2007). Being a Mathematics Learner: Four Faces of Identity. The Mathematics
Educator. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2orbC1E, September 2018.
Cates, G., Rhymer, K. (2003). Examining the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety and
Mathematics Performance: An Instructional Hierarchy Perspective. Journal of
Behavioral Education . Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2PUHBUz, September 2018.

Henningsen, M., Stein, M. (1997). Mathematical Tasks and Student Cognition: Classroom-Based
Factors That Support and Inhibit High-Level Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning.
Journal for Research in Mathematics, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2LOcgj4, September 2018.

LaMorte, W. (2018). Behavioral Change Model: The Social Cognitive Theory. Boston University
School of Public Health. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2LdY2vA, September 2018.

Larbi, E., Mavis, O. (2016). The Use of Manipulatives in Mathematics Education. Journal of
Education and Practice. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2ov1WmU, September 2018.

Mann, S., Robinson, A. (2009). Why do 60% of students find their lectures boring? The Guardian.
Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2LMk2Kj, September 2018.

Mc Leod, S. (2011). Bandura – Social Learning Theory. Cram. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2NCmHIf,

September 2018.

Mc Leod, S. (2018). Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development. SimplyPsychology.

Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2oNa9jY, September 2018

Padre, J. (2010). The Enhanced K + 12 Basic Education Program Rationale. Philippine Education
Research Journal. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2FlfjjG, August 2018.

Peria, E. (2015). Why Do Many Students Find Math a Difficult one?. Pressreader. Retrieved:
https://bit.ly/2Pqq7hB, August 2018.

Scarpello, G. (2007). Helping Students Get Past Math Anxiety. Association for Career and
Technical Education. Retrieved: https://bit.ly/2oq3Bdc, August 2018.

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Observation Guide

Day 1 :
Date: _________________
 Time : ________________
Observation:
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Day 2 :
Date: _________________
Time : ________________
Observation:
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Day 3 :
Date: _________________
Time : ________________
Observation:
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Day 4 :
Date: _________________
Time : ________________
Observation:
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Day 5 :
Date: _________________
Time : ________________
Observation:
__________________________________________________________________
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Appendix B: Interview Guide

1. What can you say about Mathematics?

(Unsa imong ikasulti sa subject nga Mathematics?)

2. When have you started disliking Mathematics?

 (Kanus-a man ka nagsugod nga din a ganahan sa Mathematics?)

3. What are your reasons for disliking Mathematics?

(Unsa may mga rason nimo nga dili ka ganahan sa Mathematics?)

4. What are your thought and reactions upon knowing your grades in Mathematics during the
time that you started hating the subject? (Unsa may naa sa imong huna-huna ug mga
reaksiyon pagkahibalo nimo sa imong grado sa Mathematics sa kadtong panahon nga
nagsugod ka nga dili na ganahan sa subject?)

5. What did you do to increase your grade in Mathematics as can be seen in senior high school?
(Unsa may imong gibuhat adto para modako imong grado sa Mathematics base sa
makita karon nga senior high school naka?)

6. What would you do if you were given activities in Mathematics?

(Unsa man ang imong mga buhaton kung tagaan ka ug mga activities sa Mathematics?)

7. What had you experienced during class discussion in Mathematics?

(Unsa man ang imong mga nasinati kung mag-discussion mo sa Mathematics?)

8. If Mathematics is your next subject to attend, how would you react?

(Unsay imong mga reaksiyon kung Mathematics na ang sunod subject?)