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Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Introduction

The competence gain in the study of Mathematics is widely used in all spheres of

human life. Mathematics plays a key role in shaping how individuals deal with the

various spheres of private, social, and civil life (Anthony & Walshaw, 2009). This

justifies the compulsion of the study of the subject by all students who go through basic

and secondary education in most countries. Mathematics is therefore a core subject at

these levels of education in the Philippines. It is regrettable, therefore, that in the

contemporary times many students struggle with Mathematics and perform abysmally

low in their final examinations in most jurisdictions. In Philippines, students’

performance in Mathematics at the Junior High School has not been encouraging of late.

Candidates are reported to exhibit poor understanding of Mathematical concepts

and are unable to form the appropriate Mathematical models which could be tackled

with the requisite skills”. It has also been realized that many students have developed

negative attitude towards the study of Mathematics as a result of mass failure of

students of the subject. It is an irrefutable fact that the successfulness of learning

the subject is contingent on myriad of factors. School, classroom, student and teacher

factors all impinge on the learning of Mathematics. In particular, the seriousness or

otherwise attached to the teaching of Mathematics invariably affects students’

performance in their final examinations.

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Classroom assessment encompasses a wide range of activities, including the

creation of paper-pencil tests and performance measures, as well as the grading,

interpretation, and communication of test results and the use of assessment results in

decision-making. There is a lot of information out there about teachers' assessment

practices, but there has been very little empirical research done to link these practices to

students' perceptions of the classroom assessment environment as well as their attitude

toward mathematics. According to Poehner (2007), the process of documenting students'

knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and achievements is usually measurable. This is

accomplished by any type of evaluation that provides feedback to students, improves

learning, determines achievement levels, and tracks student development.

Learning mathematics, in a similar vein, is based not just on thinking and

reasoning, but also on the learners' attitudes toward learning and mathematics (Kele &

Sharma, 2014). According to Han and Carpenter (2014), attitudes are cognitive, affective,

and behavioral reactions that people have toward an object or the environment based on

their feelings or interests. What the individual thinks or believes about mathematics is the

cognitive component of attitude. The affective component of attitude, on the other hand,

is the individual's feelings or emotions associated with learning mathematics (Ingram,

2015). As a result, this provides a source of motivation for kids to pursue mathematics.

Furthermore, the belief developed from the cognitive component of attitude, which forms

a mentality that becomes constant over time and shapes the students' feelings toward

learning mathematics, influences this element (Zan & Di Martino, 2007).

Along this underlying fact, the researcher deemed it considerably to determine the

teacher’s assessment practices in relation to students’ performance in and attitude

towards mathematics among Grade 9 students of Dapitan City National High School,
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Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. To have a better and equitable

education, one must identify the best pedagogical technique addressing the learning gap

and attitude particularly the mathematics students with low performance.

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

This study is anchored Reinforcement Theory of B.F Skinner (1938) who believes

that if the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be

repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated

becomes stronger. Reinforcement theory proposes that someone's change behavior by

using reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Rewards are used to reinforce the

behavior and punishments are used to prevent the behavior. Extinction is a means to stop

someone from performing a learned behavior.

Reinforcement theory of motivation overlooks the internal state of individual, (the

feelings and drives of individuals). This theory focuses totally on what happens to an

individual when he takes some action. Thus, according to Skinner, the external

environment of the organization must be designed effectively and positively so as to

motivate the pupils. This theory is a strong tool for analyzing controlling mechanism for

individual’s behavior. However, it does not focus on the causes of individual’s behavior.

Meanwhile, the theory of reinforcement was supported by the of Deci and Ryan

Theory of Motivation (2020) who believes that motivation provides the motive to every

human being to react and fulfil their needs. It is between the intrinsic and extrinsic

motivation where pupils perform well in the class and gets higher academic performance.

Intrinsic motivation depicts an activity done only for own contentment without any

external anticipation. These involves pupils the challenge, curiosity, control, and fantasy

as the key factors to trigger up intrinsic motivation. Contero (2021) claimed that intrinsic
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motivation and academic achievement share significant and positive bonding. Intrinsic

motivation directs an individual to participate in academic activities only to experience

the fun, challenging and uniqueness without any external pressure or compulsion rather

than expecting external rewards, gifts or under any compulsion or pressure. Attitude in

learning is considered prominent and it influences the academic achievement (Okak et.

al., 2018). Intrinsic motivation is able to spread the positivity and make the gained

knowledge to sustain for a long time.

In contrast, extrinsic motivation depicts external activities such as a reward,

compulsion, and punishment. A pupil is extrinsically motivated if they are receiving any

reward or under any pressure or compulsion. Jabbari (2020) states that the motivation can

be cultivated extrinsically at the initial stage and transform it as intrinsic motivation in the

learning process as it goes deeper. This kind of motivation provides a high level of will

power and engagement yet it would not able to sustain longer than the intrinsic

motivation can do. If they are continuously motivated through the use of external rewards

or compliments, it could be habitual for pupils to perform only to gain the rewards and

not for own sake or to mastery skills or knowledge. Other than that, when an individual is

not able to perform either intrinsically motivate or extrinsically motivate, then

amotivation occurs. Amotivation is a state where intrinsic motivation and extrinsic

motivation is no longer exist. Either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation, both

have its own unique features to motivate pupils. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is

needed in a learning process. Learning is a complicated process and motivation is the

hard rock of this process Hence, pupils have to be highly motivated to face the

challenges, understand the process and able to apply in real circumstances. Intrinsic
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motivation leads to self-motivation in pursuing the learning meanwhile extrinsic

motivation gives the purpose to pursue the learning..

More so, self-efficacy theory of motivation and skinner’s (1898) operant

conditioning focusing on reinforcement theory supported the idea of (Deci & Ryan,

2020) named the two effects of reinforcement, namely the positive, which strengthens a

behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding and the negative,

which is the removal of an unpleasant reinforcement can also strengthen behavior. On the

other hand, self-efficacy is the belief that people have in their own abilities, specifically

the ability to meet the challenges ahead of them and complete a task successfully

(Akhtar, 2008). The illustration shows the theoretical framework of the study.

To conceptualize the teacher’s assessment practices in relation to students’

performance in and attitude towards mathematics, a conceptual framework is shown in

figure 1. The study will use the Input-Process- Output Model. There are two important

variables. The first box served as the independent variable as the input of the study

includes Teacher’s Assessment Practices, Students’ Performance and Student Attitude

Towards Mathematics. The second box served as the process includes the data gathering

and statistical treatment. Lastly, the third box is the result of the study will serve basis for

a proposed enhancement program to strengthen learners learning competencies and

performance.
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Teacher’s
Assessment Practices Gathering of Data
1. Library Research
Proposed
Students’ 2. Internet Research
Enhancement
Performance
Statistical Treatment Program
1. Weighted Mean
Attitude Towards
2. Pearson r
Mathematics

Figure 1. Schema of the Study

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Statement of the Problem

The study aimed to determine the teacher’s assessment practices in relation to

students’ performance in and attitude towards mathematics among Grade 9 students of

Dapitan City National High School, Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines

during the Calendar Year 2021-2022.

Specifically, the study seeks to answers to the following questions:

1. What are the teachers’ assessment practices in teaching Mathematics?

2. What is the level of the students Mathematics performance?

3. What are the students’ attitudes towards Mathematics?

4. Is there a significant relationship between the teachers’ assessment practices in

Mathematics and their attitude towards Mathematics?

5. Is there a significant relationship between the teachers’ assessment practices in

Mathematics and the students’ academic performance?

6. What recommendation can be drawn out of the findings of the study?

Hypothesis

The following hypotheses is tested statistically:

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between the teachers’ assessment

practices in Mathematics and their attitude towards Mathematics.

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between the teachers’ assessment

practices in Mathematics and the students’ academic performance.

Significance of the Study

The study focusses on determining the teacher’s assessment practices and their

attitude in mathematics. Specifically, it gives use to the following:

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Students. This gave aid to the students to foster learning that is substantial in

meeting the needs in the new normal.

Teachers. The result of this study beneficial primarily to the teachers of the training

institutions. This gives ideas to the teachers in providing quality remote learning support

in addressing the learning gaps of the learners.

School Heads/Principals. The school heads/principals of the institutions can help

the students and the instructors by offering the best learning intervention and

reinforcement activities in teaching which offers the optimum learning condition for

individual students and situation.

Parents. The result of the study helps the parents by means of encouraging and

providing enough guidance to their children to continue learning. They serve an active

role to assist and guide students’ learning in the learning process.

Future Researchers. This serves as the starting point and can be a perfect

training ground in the field of research to the future researchers and serves as springboard

as related literature relevant to the present study.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The study was focused at determining the teacher’s assessment practices in

relation to students’ performance in and attitude towards mathematics. The Grade 9

students of eleven (11) sections were included in the study namely: Pieces; Perseus; Leo;

Aries; Virgo; Libra; Hercules; Aquarius; Sphinx; Sagittarius and Capricorn of Dapitan

City National High School during the Calendar Year 2021 – 2022, were the respondents

of this study. More so, the study utilized adopted and modified standardized

questionnaire from the study of Gonzales (2014) on the Teachers’ Assessment Practices

in Teaching Mathematics and Joshi (2014) on Students’ Attitudes towards Mathematics.

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Definition of Terms

The terms below are operationally defined for clarity and understanding of the

study.

Attitude Towards Mathematics. In this study, this refers to the student’s

mindset in mathematics. This involves their interest and motivation in mathematics

subject. Performance in mathematics will also differ on the individual attitude.

Enhancement Program. After finding out the result of the study, the researcher

can propose and offer an enhancement program that augment the student’s competencies

and performance in mathematics.

Students’ Performance. Students’ performance in the study is measured using

grade point average (GPA), high school graduation rate, annual standardized tests and

college entrance exams. A student's GPA is typically measured on a scale of zero to four

with higher GPAs representing higher grades in the classroom.

Teacher’s Assessment Practices. In this study, assessment is defined as the

gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to

develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand, and can do with their

knowledge as a result of their educational experiences.