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Effectiveness of Online Tutorials in Improving Mathematical Skills of Grade 10 SPSTE

Students

Category: Descriptive Research

Researchers:
Lance Vladimir Cabotaje
Marc Vryant De Guzman

Risalita C. Nalla
Research Teacher

Marcelo H. Del Pilar National High School


October 2018

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Table of Contents................................................................................................................ii

Chapter I..............................................................................................................................1

Introduction......................................................................................................................1

Background of the Study..................................................................................................1

Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................3

Hypothesis........................................................................................................................3

Conceptual Framework....................................................................................................3

Significance of the Study.................................................................................................3

Scope and Delimitations..................................................................................................3

Chapter II.............................................................................................................................5

Review of Related Literature...........................................................................................5

Review of Related Studies...............................................................................................7

References..........................................................................................................................11

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Chapter I
Problem and Its Settings

Introduction

Mathematics as a formal area of teaching and learning was developed about 5,000

years ago by the Sumerians. They did this at the same time as they developed reading and

writing. However, the roots of mathematics go back much more than 5,000 years.

[ CITATION Dav05 \l 13321 ]

Online tutorials are videos, interactive materials, and lessons on the internet that

help students in learning a concept using virtual technology. Online tutorials provide real-

time education without the learner physically going to a school. Websites like Khan

Academy, CoolMath Games, and Purple Math has free and accessible online tutorials

that are helpful for students of all ages that struggle understanding a lesson from school.

The websites mentioned are all known in teaching mathematical concepts through a

variety of ways.

Background of the Study

At school, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) struggle

with mathematics. However, little attention has been paid to their numerical cognition

abilities. The goal of this study was to better understand the cognitive basis for

mathematical difficulties in children with DCD. Twenty 7-to-10 years-old children with

DCD were compared to twenty age-matched typically developing children using dot and

digit comparison tasks to assess symbolic and non-symbolic number processing and in a

task of single digits additions. Results showed that children with DCD had lower

performance in non-symbolic and symbolic number comparison tasks than typically

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developing children. They were also slower to solve simple addition problems.

Moreover, correlational analyses showed that children with DCD who experienced

greater impairments in the non-symbolic task also performed more poorly in the

symbolic tasks. These findings suggest that DCD impairs both non-symbolic and

symbolic number processing. A systematic assessment of numerical cognition in children

with DCD could provide a more comprehensive picture of their deficits and help in

proposing specific remediation. (Dehaene, et al., 2015)

In this randomized controlled trial, 312 low-socioeconomic-status children from

15 Dutch schools participated. Children in the intervention condition played early literacy

games via the intelligent tutoring system Living Letters. Control children played a non-

literacy computer game. At the beginning of each intervention session, children received

instruction from computer characters about how to play the game. While playing the

game, half of the children in the intervention group received individualized feedback,

which included oral corrections and cues from a computer tutor. The other half of the

children received no individualized feedback. On average the intervention comprised 11

sessions (approximately 110 min). A main finding was that children's code-related skills

increased as a result of the Living Letters program but only when the program included a

computer tutor that gave oral feedback to children's correct responses and errors.

Children with underdeveloped inhibitory control scored disproportionately low in a

computer environment without tutoring. [ CITATION Keg12 \l 13321 ]

Since online students may experience problems beyond normal business hours, it

is beneficial to offer live technical support in off-hours. Although most institutions have

some sort of help desk for online students, what varies is the availability of support hours.

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The 2010 Managing Online Education Survey shows that in the Fall academic term of

2010 about a third of institutions offering a technical support help desk for online

students provided it 24 hours/7 days a week, another third during weekdays, evenings and

limited weekends, and about 15 percent during regular work hours. The remaining 20

percent offered support during weekends and limited evenings. What is not known is the

impact that these hours have on online student completion and success rates. [ CITATION

Bri13 \l 13321 ]

Statement of the Problem

Is there significant effect in improving the Mathematical skills of Grade 10

SPSTE students using Online Tutorials?

Hypothesis

Online tutorials has no significant effect in improving Mathematical skills of

Grade 10 SPSTE students.

Conceptual Framework

Mathematical Skills of Grade


Online Tutorials
10 SPSTE Students

Significance of the Study

Mathematics The significance of the study is to know the number of Grade 10

SPSTE students who have difficulties in mathematics. With this, the teachers can identify

the students that will be needing improvements and help them to further improve their

Mathematical skills.

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Scope and Delimitations

The study will only focus on knowing the effectiveness of online tutoring and to

know the number of Grade 10 SPSTE students who improves their mathematical skills

using online tutorials and know the students who disagree in using online tutoring. Other

variables that will came up during the experimentation will not be included.

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Chapter II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Review of Related Literature

A. Foreign

Online Tutoring

The biggest difference is that typically—both online and in the real world—

tutoring means helping a student with a subject that the student is being taught by

someone else. Tutors are helpers not necessarily the teachers, though, some online tutors

can provide extensive teaching. Tutors may not follow a specific curriculum like teachers

but assess where the student needs help and provide it in specific areas. [ CITATION Bru17 \l

13321 ]

With considerable input from the student voice, the paper centres on a detailed

account of the experiences of Western academic, tutoring Eastern students online to

develop their critical thinking skills. From their online experiences together as tutor and

students, the writers present a considered case for the main emphasis in facilitative online

tutoring to be on building, and then building upon, congruent relationships and

constructive feedforward. Initially, the Western tutor had followed as best he could the

norms of a Confucian Heritage Culture, concentrating reactively on instructional

feedback. He then took the considered risk of reverting to proactivity, following the

advice of Rogers and Vygotsky and according to an explicit rationale. The ensuing

changes in students' online discussions and their learning experiences were marked and

were objectively analysed. The tutor and two of his students suggest that the nature of

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congruent tutor/student relationships, irrespective of culture, is more significant in

effectively promoting development than the cognitive content that might feature in

feedback in such interactions. For it seems possible from the reported experiences that

learning dependent on technological links may benefit from meaningful tutor/student

relationships. (Chen, et al., 2013)

The Internet and mobile communication technologies have greatly expanded

opportunities for teams of educators to reflect and collaborate with each other and experts

outside their schools—and even outside their districts—for learning, joint lesson

planning, and problem solving. These electronic platforms provide ready access to

knowledge and resources without the usual limitations of time, space, and pace. Hybrid

PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) combine online interactions with the face-to-

face interactions of traditional PLCs. [ CITATION Bli13 \l 13321 ]

The use of online lecture recordings as a supplement to physical lectures is an

increasingly popular tool at many universities. The paper by Andrew Williams, Elisa

Birch, and Phil Hancock (2012) combines survey data with student record data for

students in a Microeconomics Principles class to examine the relative effects of lecture

attendance and online lecture recordings. The main finding is that students using the

online lectures as a substitute for attending lectures are ultimately at a fairly severe

disadvantage in terms of their final marks. Moreover, students attending few face to face

lectures do not close this gap by viewing more lectures online. In contrast to this, students

who attend the majority of lectures in person do receive a benefit from additional use of

the lecture recordings. The results provide empirical evidence that, when used as a

complementary tool, lecture recordings are a valuable supplement for students. However,

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when used as a substitute to attending lectures, lecture recordings provide no additional

benefit.

Mathematics

The development of reading, writing, and formal mathematics 5,000 years ago

allowed the codification of math knowledge, formal instruction in mathematics, and

began a steady accumulation of mathematical knowledge. Relatively few K-12 teachers

study enough mathematics so that they understand and appreciate the breadth, depth,

complexity, and beauty of the discipline. Mathematicians often talk about the beauty of a

particular proof or mathematical result. [ CITATION Dav05 \l 13321 ]

Review of Related Studies

A. Foreign

A study conducted by Eleazar Vasquez III and Timothy Slocum (2012) states that

this study examined the effects of online reading instruction for at-risk fourth-grade

students in Philadelphia. The authors used a multiple baseline design to assess the extent

to which the students increased their oral reading rate given systematic supplemental

online reading instruction. Tutoring consisted of 4 sessions per week with 50-min lessons

of instruction delivered over Adobe Connect. Analysis of the multiple baseline across

participants revealed gains in oral reading fluency for all participants when placed into

the synchronous online tutoring program. Participating students and tutors reported an

awareness of increased reading skills and value of synchronous online instruction.

Teachers and parents generally reported that students demonstrated increased reading

skills after receiving instruction.

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A study conducted by Yi He, Sandra Swenson, and Nathan Lents in 2012 showed

that Educational technology has enhanced, even revolutionized, pedagogy in many areas

of higher education. This study examines the incorporation of video tutorials as a

supplement to learning in an undergraduate analytical chemistry course. The concepts

and problems in which students faced difficulty were first identified by assessing

students’ homework assignments and exam responses. Then, a tutorial video clip aimed

at that specific knowledge point was designed by the instructor using the Camtasia

software package and was uploaded to the course Web site portal (Blackboard). To assess

the effectiveness of the tutorials, students’ oral and written feedback, pre- and post-video-

tutoring exam performance, and data from previous classes taught by the same instructor

were examined. Results indicate that online video tutorials are a valuable, flexible, and

cost-effective tool to improve student mastery of chemistry problem solving.

The impact of an online tutorial program, Math Whizz, on student mathematics

was explored in a study conducted by Amy Clark in 2014. Students from 15 elementary

schools participated in the use of the Math Whizz program for the duration of the school

year as a supplement to mathematics instruction. The Math Whizz program recorded such

information as initial mathematics age, growth in mathematics age, amount of usage,

average quiz score, and average test score. Teachers were also surveyed regarding the

implementation of the online tutoring platform. In addition, 1 school provided assessment

scores from the summative statewide mathematics assessment, which was used as the

outcome variable of a multiple regression with variables from the online tutoring program

as independent variables. Findings indicated that Math Whizz usage was related to

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improvement in mathematics achievement as measured by the online tutoring program,

teacher survey responses, and the state assessment data.

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the impact of

synchronous online tutoring services on struggling middle school students' mathematics

achievement. The online tutoring was provided as a response to intervention (RTI) Tier 3

support (intensive, individualized intervention) in schools implementing a school-wide

mathematics program that addresses Tier 1 (high-quality classroom instruction) and Tier

2 (small group interventions). We employed quasi-experimental, within- and between-

group designs to examine impacts for 119 students in two schools to measure the

tutoring's impact on mathematics assessment scores. We also conducted qualitative

analyses of student and tutor post-session commentary. The findings suggest that the

tutoring contributed to statistically significant gains in student assessment scores post-

intervention. Online tutors' descriptions of their practice centered on ongoing progress

monitoring of student learning, delivery of guided practice to students, the use of multiple

explanations and representations of target concepts. Student perceptions of the online

tutoring were predominately positive in nature. (Arnold, et al., 2015)

Determining if student performance in an online College Algebra course that

relies heavily on text-based multimedia tools can be improved by replacing publisher-

generated educational resources with instructor-generated video lectures was the purpose

of the study conducted by Jennifer Hegenan in 2015. Low retention rates in online

freshman-level mathematics courses are a concern, especially at postsecondary

institutions that serve academically unprepared students. The original online College

Algebra course placed the publisher-generated educational resources in the role of

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content provider by enabling all publisher-generated learning aids within the online

homework system and treating instructor-generated educational materials as

supplemental resources. In contrast, the redesigned online College Algebra course

enhanced the course instructor's teaching presence by requiring students to complete

instructor-generated guided note-taking sheets while watching instructor-generated video

lectures, treating publisher-generated learning aids as supplemental resources by

removing them from within the online homework system. Results indicate students who

enrolled in a redesigned online College Algebra course that strategically placed the

instructor in the role of content provider performed significantly better on both online and

handwritten assessments than did students who enrolled in an online College Algebra

course that placed the publisher-generated educational resources in that role.

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References
Arnold, P., et al. (2015). An Examination of an Online Tutoring Program's Impact on
Low-Achieving Middle School Students' Mathematics Achievement. Online
Learning, 37-53.
Birch, E., et al. (2012). The Impact of Online Lecture Recordings on Student
Performance. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, pp. 199-213.
Blitz, C. (2013). Can Online Learning Communities Achieve the Goals of Traditional
Professional Learning Communities? What the Literature Says. New Brunswick:
Institution of Education Sciences.
Britto, M., & Rush, S. (2013). Developing and Implementing Comprehensive Student
Support Services for Online Students. Journal of Asynchronous Learning
Networks, 29-42.
Brunelli, L. M. (2017, February 15). Online Tutoring Versus Online Teaching: What’s
the Difference? The Balance Careers.
Bus, A., & Kegel, C. (2012). Online tutoring as a pivotal quality of web-based early
literacy programs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 182-192.
Chen, Y.‐T., et al. (2013, June 25). Concentrating on affective feedforward in online
tutoring. British Journal of Educational Technology, pp. 694-706.
Clark, A. (2014, May 5). The Impact of an Online Tutoring Program on Mathematics
Achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, pp. 462-466.
Dehaene, S., et al. (2015). Mathematical difficulties in developmental coordination
disorder: Symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing. Research in
Developmental Disabilities, 167-178.
He, Y., et al. (2012). Online Video Tutorials Increase Learning of Difficult Concepts in
an Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Course. J. Chem. Educ., 1128-1132.
Hegenan, J. (2015). Using Instructor-Generated Video Lectures in Online Mathematics
Courses Improves Student Learning. Online Learning, 70-87.
Moursund, D. (2005, May 23). What is Mathematics? Retrieved from Improving
Mathematics Education: https://pages.uoregon.edu/moursund/Math/index.html
Slocum, T. A., & Vasquez, E. I. (2012). Evaluation of Synchronous Online Tutoring for
Students at Risk of Reading Failure. Exceptional Children, 221-235.

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