MATHEMATICS LITERACY: INCREASING THE ACADEMIC

PERFORMANCE OF GRADE 8 STUDENTS

THROUGH PEER
TUTORING

GRADE 12-GAS A

ROSALYN G. GALORA
ALAIKA G. TANIO
MARILOU A. FURIO
KEMBERLY G. GAMOS
MARTIN GANZAN
MICHELLE FRANCIAL
JAMER FUENTES
BIANCA MAE G. DE JOSE
ROSIEDOLL F. ALICANTE
JERSON GAYTA
ERIKA ESPANIO
RALPH GALLINERA

April 2020
 MATHEMATICS LITERACY: INCREASING THE ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE OF GRADE 8 STUDENTS
THROUGH PEER
TUTORING

Rosalyn Galora*, Alaika Tanio1, Marilou Furio2, Kemberly Gamos, Martin

Ganzan, Michelle Francial, Jamer Fuentes, Bianca Mae De Jose,
Rosiedoll Alicante, Jerson Gayta, Erika Joy Espanio, Ralph Gallinera
*rosalyngalora@gmail.com
1
tanioalaika@gmail.com
2
mariloufurio10@gmail.com
Bulusan National High School

Abstract

This research work is carried out to investigate the validity and effect of peer-tutoring
strategy on Grade 8 student’s academic performance in Mathematics. The research design
adopted was a pre-experimental. 15 selected students from Bulusan National High School were
used as a research sample. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondent
which has a grade below 80 in Mathematics. All the student was exposed to peer-tutoring and
used of 5a’s lesson plan. Mathematics test consist of 26 item was used to collect data from the
pretest and posttest. The data where analyzed using t-test and the hypothesis were tested at a
0.05 level of significance. The finding of the studies shows that peer-tutoring is fruitful in
increasing student academic performance and achievement of students who are weak and
mediocre. It was recommended that teachers should undergo training for a proper
implementation of peer-tutoring in secondary school.
Introduction

According to Oxford learning, there are four common reasons why student’s dislikes
mathematics subjects, (1) there are limited ways to earn marks, (2) student’s thinks it’s dull, (3)
it requires lots of memorization and (4) it requires making a lot of mistake. They often tend to
underestimate their selves over thinking that they can’t solve any mathematical problem given to
them.
Attitude and interest also plays a big role for student’s performance towards
Mathematics. It increases the active participation, as well as the binding of good relationship
with their teacher. Like Ms. Sally S. Calalang, a teacher III at Diosdado Macapagal High School,
Mexico Pampanga said that attitude plays an important role to achieve the target in many
things, and has direct correlation to a student’s learning. Teacher often state that students’
failure in subject is related to negative attitudes, including laziness. This means that attitude
does not only pertaining to the willingness of the student, but also his or her encouragement and
motivation to learn the subject, even it’s hard for them.
Another reason why students do not like Math subject is lack of attention of people in
their surroundings, like a person who cannot just motivate them, but also to accompany them to
solve and understand Mathematical equations and principles. Hence, the researchers aimed to
use a Peer tutorial strategy to increase the student’s interest at learning Mathematics.
 Peer tutorial is a strategy which both the acted teacher (researchers) and the students
(respondents) are actively interacting with each other, where the students can ask questions if
they do not understand a certain topic. Through these, they can be more engaged and
connected to the material and tasks that their teacher gives unto them. Thus, this study aims to
assess and help students to surplus their difficulties in Math subject. It also evaluates the
effectiveness of peer tutorial on attaining a goal, which is being a Mathematical literate student.
According to Yahoo News in 2003 when Philippines joined at Trends in International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Philippines just ranked 23 rd out of 25 countries when
it comes to Grade 4 math performance, while ranked 41 st among 45 countries in 2nd Year High
School Math. This only means that Philippines has a very low performance when it comes to
Mathematics. Furthermore, students need more attention, guidance, understanding and
patience, not just for their teachers, but also for themselves.
The Philippines has rank worst not just in Science, English, but also in Math. According
to the results of International Student Assessment (Pisa) by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2018), The Filipinos fared worst among 79 countries in
reading literacy and second lowest in both mathematical and scientific literacy. The Philippines
joined an educational achievement through Pisa where 600,000 15 years old students
participated. The country’s average score in Math was 353 compared to the global average of
489 and was the second lowest score in the subject.
Mathematical Literacy is important to ensure that students can further understand the
mathematical information that they can valuably use not just for their future lives but also to their
society. According to the National Research Council, Educating of Science, Mathematics and
Technology, Mathematics is a critical component that must be seriously tackled among middle
grades because they are the future builders of our nation. Mathematical foundation nowadays
aims to provide skills and knowledge in order to elaborate the learning students not just in
Mathematics, but also in other disciplines to reach success and become mathematically literate
citizens. The main purpose of these study is to increase student’s academic performance and
change their negative perspective on math subject.

Objective of the study

The general objective of this study is to identify and determine the effectiveness of peer
tutoring in enhancing the ability and learnings in Mathematics of specific Grade 8 students. To
improve their performance and knowledge on this particular subject and to change their
negative impression in Mathematics. Specifically, (1) to know the validity of peer tutoring as a
strategy to empower student’s mathematics literacy (2) to evaluate and compare the
performance and the ability to solve math related problems and (3) to compare the effect of peer
tutoring in student learning about mathematics and whether the students improved or not.

Methodology
This chapter deals with the procedure for data collection, the research design adopted in
the study, the respondents, research instruments and sampling techniques as well as method of
data collection and analysis.
 Research Design
The researchers used the pre- experimental design where group of students received a
treatment. The results being gathered will determine the students’ weaknesses in their
mathematics subject.

Respondents
The researchers choose the selected Grade 8 students of Bulusan National High
School. Through purposive sampling with 15 students as respondents which has an average
below 80 in Mathematics subject.

Research Instruments
The researcher used a pretest and posttest research instrument. It is a 26 items multiple
choice questions consisting of topics such as Basic Fundamentals of Mathematics, Operation of
Fractions, Integers, Laws of Exponent, and Operation on Polynomials.

Data Gathering Procedures

The first procedure that the researcher will do is to make a letter to the principal, asking
permission to conduct a tutorial. Once approved, the researcher will set a meeting to the
students and their parents to formally ask for their approval to let their kids be part of a three-
week tutorial starting from Jan. 06- Jan. 28, 2020, starting from 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon
until 5:00. Next, on the first day of tutoring a pre-test will be given to the students in order to
identify the difficulties they have in the different areas of mathematics. After gathering the result
and evaluate it, start the tutorial. On the last day of tutoring a post- test will be given. In this
case, the gathered result in the pretest and posttest will be compare. In order for the researcher
to identify the effectiveness of conducting a tutorial.

Data Analysis Procedures

The researcher will use the descriptive statistics using the weighted mean and paired
sample t-test to find out if a difference exists between the before and after mean. The
researcher will also get the Cohen’s d which will show the effect size to indicate the
standardized difference between the two means. It may suggest that d=0.2 can be considered
having a small effect size, d=0.5 represent medium and d=0.8 showing a large effect size.
These will signify that if the two means don’t differ by 0.2 or more, the difference is not important
even if it is statistically significant.

Results and Discussion

The peer tutorial program was held in Bulusan National High School Site 2. This was
done last January 06- 28, 2020 every 4:00- 5:00 in the afternoon. Participant are the chosen
Grade 8 students that have difficulties in Mathematics. The researcher also prepared a detailed
5A’s lesson plan consisting of five topics which are the following:

Lesson 1: Basic Fundamentals of Mathematics

The main objective of these lesson is to recall the basic operations such as
addition, subtraction, multiplication and divisions, understand and solve exercises about these.
Which are the basic operation in primary education and very significant in moving on to another
level of mathematics. According to Grace C. Manuel (2018) that mastering the four basic
mathematical operations will be the key in further progress and understanding about math.
Therefore, choosing the topic will be helpful for the student to deeply understand Mathematics.
The flow of the lesson started from a short warm-up drill, which enable student to adjust to their
teacher before going into the proper discussion. Followed by a motivational activity which will
determine the prior knowledge of students to the topic. Lastly, before ending the session an
activity and problems will be given. Other problems will also serve as an assignment.

Lesson 2: Operation of Fractions

Within these lesson students are expected to identify the basic operations of
fractions, solve activities, exercises and problems and understand the topic deeply. Commonly,
students struggle with fraction operations hence beginning to understand these operations will
further help them to fully understand what is a fraction, which actually have different approach
than whole number. But when the student understands this topic it will be easier for them to
operate this just like how they operate whole numbers. Like basic operations, Francis Fennell
states that proficiency with fractions is important foundation for learning more advanced
mathematics. Because fractions develop links on decimals, percentage and solve problems
easily involving their use. Therefore, this topic was chosen to be part of the peer tutoring
because this is really important to help students develop their literacy in math.

Lesson 3: Laws of Exponent

Student in this lesson are expected to define the term exponent and demonstrate
the ability to use the different laws of exponent. An exponent is a number that will determine
how many times the number will be multiply from itself. There are six rule of exponent namely
product rule, quotient rule, zero exponent rule, power rule, expanded power rule and negative
exponent. It is important to learn the exponent because it allows student to abbreviate
something that would otherwise be really too long to write. In peer tutorial session student
doesn’t know the different rule of exponent to well that they sometimes use a wrong law to solve
a problem. Therefore, it is important to know this rules in order to make mathematics easier.

Lesson 4: Integers
Integers are whole number that can be positive, negative or zero. it helps to
facilitate certain calculations by including negative numbers. This lesson is very confusing to
student not like the basic operation itself. This one is solving two different number with different
or same sign using also the basic operation. At times the operation becomes different especially
when solving unlike signs.

Lesson 5: Operation on Polynomials

A polynomial is a mathematical expression that is constructed from one or more
variables and constants, using only the operations of addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
The constants of the polynomials are real numbers, whereas the exponents of the variables are
positive integers. Polynomials are an important part of the "language" of mathematics and
algebra. They are used in nearly every field of mathematics to express numbers as a result of
mathematical operations. Polynomials are also "building blocks" in other types of mathematical
expressions, such as rational expressions.
 Those are the topics being tackled by the researcher to imposed a basic knowledge that
can be useful for continues progress in mathematics. The lessons are arrange depending on the
most basic until the hardest part. As what every author said basic mathematical knowledge is
considered as a backdrop of student to further understand mathematics. It may be difficult at
first but mastering the basic are really helpful. According to the survey done by the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (2013), Math proficiency is a strong predictor of
positive outcomes for young adults and it influences their ability of participating in their
secondary educations and future earnings. Every new product and innovation is a work of
science and mathematics.

Data’s of the Grade 8 students from their Pretest and Posttest

This chapter is concern with data presentation and interpretation of the result of
data collected from Pretest and Posttest. All the results are analyzed at 0.05 level of
significance.

Table 1: Pretest and Posttest Results

STUDENTS PRETEST SCORE POSTTEST SCORE DIFFERENCE

Student 1 6 11 5

Student 2 8 13 5
Student 3 8 11 3
Student 4 9 12 3
Student 5 7 11 4
Student 6 11 15 4
Student 7 8 16 8
Student 8 6 8 2
Student 9 6 9 3
Student 10 4 9 5
Student 11 5 7 2
Student 12 8 14 6
Student 13 4 10 6

Student 14 7 15 8
Student 15 6 15 7
Mean 6.87 11.73 4.73

Student 7 and 14 got the highest improvement from the tutorial session
performed in three weeks while student 12, 13, 15, 1 and 2 are the second who got the
high improvement. The rest are those who got the lowest difference from pretest and
posttest result because of the following factors, activeness and willingness. As study
 conducted by Ajuba (2011) found that peers are more sensitive than adult readers to
picking up on non-verbal cues, students being tutored may give to reveal that they may
not understand what a tutor is trying to communicate. While in peer tutoring, students
give more attention from the tutor and more time to teach while the student listen more.
This allows the students to take active part in constructing their knowledge. According to
Anselm (2010) poor motivation, and lecture method have been highlighted as a problem.
The approached used is very significant in the pursuit of enhancing student own
mathematical ability. Therefore, (Ullah 2008) Peer tutoring has positive impacts on
expanding students learning, motivation and socialization.

Table 2: Pretest and Posttest using Paired Sample T-test

Variables Mean Degree of T- Critical T-value Cohen’s D

Freedom

Pretest 6.87 14 1.761 4.86 0.91

Posttest 11.73

The table shows the pretest and posttest using paired sample t-test. The mean posttest
is greater than the mean pretest (11.73 > 6.87) with a degree of freedom of 14, which is
subtracted from the population of 15 and 1. The t-value is greater than the t-critical value
(4.86>1.76) and the Cohen’s D result is 0.91, which indicates a large effect size. The calculated
t-stat value is less than the conducted p-value (-4.82>0.05) and suggested that the null
hypothesis is rejected with 0.05 level of significance. This result was parallel to the study of Asaf
Nawaz and Zahoor Ur Rheman (2017) that peer tutoring strategy is found fruitful in increasing
the academic performance and achievement of students who were weak and mediocre.
Therefore, the teachers may apply peer tutoring as a strategy in increasing the students
Mathematical Literacy through group studies, where the weak students will be grouped with the
academically excellent student. Parents may apply this strategy during their free times by
teaching their children about the basics of mathematics. Thus, peer tutoring based on the data
analyze is an effective strategy in increasing the student mathematical literacy.

Conclusion and Recommendation

From the results obtained, the research concluded that peer tutoring strategy is one
effective methods in teaching and that students/ tutees respond better and freely with their
peers. Therefore, if peer tutoring is effectively utilized, it will produce great positive impact on
participants. It helps to a better understanding of the topics, answer difficult mathematical
problems and giving more positive approach in Mathematics. Therefore, researcher made a
recommendation based on the findings which are the following: (1) Seminars or workshop
should be organized to educate teachers on the use of peer tutoring. (2) Teachers should
occasionally give students topic to go and make inquiry about, so that before starting the lesson
student can be able to share and explain their prior knowledge about the topic. (3) Intensive
training for teachers is proper in implementation of peer-tutoring in secondary school. (4)
Teacher may give and provide reward system to reinforce on task behavior and participation.
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