CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Despite the growing body of literature existing factors affecting the

students’ mathematical achievement are yet to be systematically reviewed and

meta-analyzed by researchers. Way of teaching, concepts, techniques and

strategies are one of the factors that greatly affect the student’s Mathematical

achievement.

Research Design

The research design is meta-analysis research in which the researchers

systematically assess previous research studies to derive conclusions about the

main aim and purpose of the study that is, determining the effectiveness of Vedic

Mathematics specifically the Vedic Vertical and Crosswise Technique in

improving students’ mathematical achievement, and to know whether there is a

significant difference between Vedic Mathematics (Vertical and Crosswise)

technique compared to the traditional technique. Thus, researchers are

systematically reviewing the effects of Vedic Mathematics in improving students’

mathematical performance and meta-analyzing the results that can guide

practice and areas for future research.

Search Procedure

In order to select the studies in the meta-analysis, the literature was

reviewed systematically. An attempt was made to access all published studies

that focus on the effectiveness of Vedic mathematics in improving students’

mathematical achievement. The searched studies were also focused among the

students who belong to the secondary level only.

To specifically find those related studies, the researchers used important

keywords and phrases on digging through in the search engine such as: vedic

mathematics, arithmetic skills, mathematical achievement, vedic techniques,

vertical and crosswise technique. The Google Scholar search engine, and

academia.edu were the following databases that were used in the searching

process from the year 2000 until the year 2020. The researchers only chose

dissertation, theses studies, journals and meta-analysis studies to be included on

the list of related studies. After an extensive literature review, 52 theses, meta-

analysis studies and dissertations were selected. However, there are only 5

studies which fit the purpose of the study were identified.

 PRISMA Flow Diagram

Records identified through Additional records identified

Google Scholar through academia.edu
Identification

(n = 36)
(n = 16)

Records after duplicates removed

(n = 49)
Screening

Records screened Records excluded

(n = 49)
(n = 2)

Full-text articles assessed Full-text articles excluded,

for eligibility with reasons
Eligibility

(n = 47)
 Irrelevant
participants
(n=10)
Studies included in  Irrelevant
qualitative synthesis intervention
(n = 5) (n=12)
 Irrelevant
comparator (n=15)
 Irrelevant
Included

Studies included in outcome (n=10)

quantitative synthesis
(meta-analysis)
(n =5)

Figure 1. Prisma Flow Diagram

Choosing the Included and Excluded Studies

The researchers want to systematically choose the included studies that

best fit to the purpose of the study which is to provide meta-analysis utilizing the

concept of Vedic Mathematics and to determine the effectiveness of Vedic

Mathematics in improving students’ mathematical achievement. To obtain this

aim and purpose, the researchers used the Prisma Flow diagram to orderly and

accurately list the included and excluded studies by following the step by step

process on the flow of the diagram.

The databases that the researchers have used were the Google scholar

search engine which consists of 36 studies, and academia.edu which consists of

16 studies. The first flow of the diagram is to check the duplicate studies. The

researchers manually checked the studies that might have been duplicated and

they found out that there are absolutely duplicate studies. After the duplicates

have been removed there were a total of 24 studies left.

The next process of the diagram is screening. In the screening process,

the researchers read the title and abstracts and the research design on each of

the 24 studies left. As the researchers read on each of the abstract, they

excluded studies which were not relevant to the research question. After

excluding studies that were irrelevant to the research questions, there were

already 20 studies left.

The third process of the diagram is eligibility. The researchers examined

the remaining citations in more details by including the studies that meet the
criteria set referring to the PICO framework. There were studies that were

excluded because the criteria were not met due with these following reasons:

irrelevant participants, irrelevant intervention, irrelevant comparator and irrelevant

outcome. The total studies were excluded was 47.

Criteria for the Inclusion of the Studies

After an extensive literature review regarding on adequately choosing the

studies included in the meta-analysis, the researchers determined the criteria for

selecting the studies about the effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics in improving

students’ mathematical achievement.

The first criterion for inclusion in the meta-analysis was that the study

must only be focused on the students who belong to the secondary level. There

were 10 studies that were excluded because mostly were primary and college

students sample which means that the studies failed to fit on the first criterion.

The second criterion was that the study reported on an intervention

involving mathematics instruction. It is focused on direct approach and discovery

learning. There were a total of 12 studies excluded from the studies since it was

focused on other types of instruction and that was not relevant on the criterion.

The third criterion involved the comparator of the study which is the

traditional teaching. The effectiveness of Vedic Mathematics (vertical and

crosswise) as technique to improve students’ mathematical achievement will be

compared to traditional teaching in the Mathematics instruction. There were

studies that don’t have any comparator or the comparator is not relevant and
similar with traditional teaching. For this reason, there were 15 studies that were

excluded.

The fourth criterion was the possible outcome which is the improvement of

academic achievement in Mathematics. All of the subjects which belong to the

field of Mathematics will be included and subjects that did not relate to any

Mathematics field like Science, Physics, application in Information Technology

and Engineering and many more were excluded especially the studies that have

irrelevant applications of the Vedic Mathematics said outcomes. Hence, 10

studies were excluded.

After a careful and systematic extraction of the studies to choose and

include in the meta-analysis, the researchers have a total of 5 final studies.

Statistical Treatment

To obtain a precise analysis and interpretation of the acquired data, the

statistical tool that the researchers used was Review Manager 5 (RevMan 5)

software. Review Manager 5is a software that is used for preparing and

maintaining Cochrane Reviews. The researchers used it to enable the calculation

of summary measures as core of the meta-analysis with respective presentation

of results in forest plots.

Forest plots are graphical representations of the meta-analysis. It provides

the summary data entered for each study. In addition, it provides the weight for

each study; the effect measure, method and the model used to perform the meta-
analysis; the confidence intervals used; the effect estimate from each study, the

overall effect estimate, and the statistical significance of the analysis.