Chapter I

The Problem

Introduction

Mathematics is a significant subject that must be learned properly. It fosters

power of reasoning, creativity, abstract or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem-

solving ability and even effective communication skills. A lot has been said over the

years about developing a deep understanding of Mathematics. Teaching for mathematical

proficiency necessitates a significant amount of effort. (Marasigan, 2018). Mathematics

is important in areas other than academic circles. It is a trademark that the approach to

teaching, particularly in Mathematics, is anchored with too many problems to analyze,

numbers to compute, and measurements to find. Youths transitioning to adulthood who

have limited mathematics skills are likely to struggle in society. Basic arithmetic skills

are required for daily computations and, in some cases, job applications. Furthermore,

competence in mathematics skills is associated with higher levels of employ ability.

According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM),

learning mathematics is meant to help students improve their mathematical

communication, reasoning, problem-solving, connection, and representations. In essence,

all students are expected to have a basic understanding of mathematics, but in practice,

not all students are able to do so. This has to do with how well the learning process

proceeds. But among all the objectives a student should have, one is to judge the level of

mathematical competence of prospective teachers.

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 Teachers introduce ideas and processes through examples and prescribed

algorithms before allowing their students answer issues, which forces them to memorize

them rather than using their creativity and strategic thinking to solve non-routine

situations. It is important that teacher preparation programs give students the chance to

test their mathematical knowledge and skills through the use of pre-service tasks that

require problem-solving and reasoning. (NCTM, 2017). These tasks push students to

consider various approaches and possible solutions.

In 2016, The Word Economic Forum anticipated that by 2020 the 10 most

desirable skills to thrive would be in this order: complex problem solving, critical

thinking, creativity, people management, coordinating with others, emotional

intelligence, judgement and decision making, service orientation, negotiation, and

cognitive flexibility. These skills contemplate different nuances of the doing of

mathematics and they differ in nature from what was required from school graduates in

the past. As a recent report from the National Research Council put it, “To be employable

in the modern economy, high school graduates need to be more than merely literate. They

must be able to read challenging material, to perform sophisticated computations, and to

solve problems independently.

Pre-service mathematics teachers' (PSMT)must be prepared in both subject and

methodology through education programs (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

(NCTM, 2017). Deep and integrated understandings of mathematical concepts are

essential for pre-service teachers, One critical part is problem solving. Teachers of

mathematics must encourage students to think and solve problems with comprehension

while involving them in productive discussions that uncover and advance their learning

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(NCTM, 2014). According to Lam et al. (2013), problem solving need to be incorporated

into topic courses. It suggests that developing problem-solving skills is critical for

success in mathematics. It is important for pre-service teachers to participate in activities

that develop their capacity to accomplish the task.

Problem solving has historically been a component of the mathematical

curriculum (Schoenfeld, 2011), hence it is important to evaluate math competency.

Furthermore, the NCTM (2012) states that the primary expectation for mathematics is

problem-solving abilities. However, it can be challenging for instructors to adopt non-

routine, open-ended activities that call for critical thinking and problem-solving

techniques. These, according to Phonapichat, Wongwanich, & Sujiva (2014), may result

from teachers failing to make connections between the mathematical content and real-life

situations, requiring students to memorize formulas and "keywords" to solve problems,

failing to fully explain the concepts underlying textbook problems, or simply failing to

teach with understanding. All of these have an impact on how well kids learn and

comprehend material, which is later reflected in their math performance. This means that

having a "good influence on [their] students' learning" (Brabeck et al., 2014) as well as

boosting their confidence and self-efficacy require on educating teacher candidates in the

necessary mathematics content—in particular, non-routine problems and technique.

Mathematical proficiency is something that develops over time. The proficiency

of kids should increase each year they attend school. In another sense, proficiency

acquisition requires time. If students are to become proficient in a particular

mathematical topic, they must have enough time to participate in activities related to it.

They may easily fail to learn if they are given only one or two examples to explain why a

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procedure works or what a concept means before being asked to practice following the

procedure or identifying the concept. They must practice their abilities for extended

periods of time, solve problems, reason, gain insight, and connect previously learned

material to new information in order to become proficient. Mathematical proficiency is

not a one-dimensional trait, and it cannot be achieved by focusing on just one or two of

these strands. In later chapters, we argue that helping children acquire mathematical

proficiency calls for instructional programs that address all its strands. As they go from

pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, all students should become increasingly proficient in

mathematics. That proficiency should enable them to cope with the mathematical

challenges of daily life and enable them to continue their study of mathematics in high

school and beyond.

Objectives

This study aims to determine the mathematical proficiency of pre-service

mathematics teachers at Batangas State University The National Engineering University

JPLPC Malvar campus. These pre-service are officially enrolled during academic year

2022-2023. Specifically, it seeks to

1. Describe these pre-service mathematics teachers' profile in terms of:

1.1 Sex

1.2 Year Level

1.3 General Weighted Average (GWA)

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2. Assess the pre-service mathematics teachers’ mathematical proficiency also the

following strands:

2.1) Conceptual Understanding

2.2) Procedural Fluency

2.3) Strategic Competence

2.4) Adaptive Reasoning

2.5) Productive Disposition

3. Test the relationship between the respondents' profile and their assessed mathematical

proficiency.

4. Suggest activities to enhance the pre-service teachers' mathematical proficiency.

Hypothesis

This study will test the hypothesis in its null form: there is no significant

relationship between the respondents' profile and their assessed mathematical proficiency.

Scope, Delimitation, and Limitation of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to assess the mathematical proficiency of pre-

service teachers. The study considers the students' personal information, such as sex, year

level, and general weighted average.

The researchers limited the study to 88 male and female College of Teacher

Education students enrolled in Batangas State University JPLPC Malvar Campus. The

students will be selected from first year to fourth year to prevent bias and get objective

perceptions.

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 The study will not extend to problems that are not related in assessing the

mathematical proficiency of pre-service teachers in Batangas State University JPLPC

Malvar Campus.

Pedagogical Implications

In this part, the researcher will show the pedagogical implications of the research

questions that served as the guidelines for the present study. It is essential to re-examine

these questions and discuss the findings of the study to suggest ideas for assessing the

mathematical proficiency of pre-service teachers.

This study is said to be most significant to pre-service teachers at Batangas

State University, The National Engineering University - JPLPC Malvar Campus

Specializing in Mathematics as it may give them a reliable assessment and basis

for their mathematical proficiency. Along with this, the result of this study will be

a great help to the university to assess how proficient in mathematics the pre-

service mathematics teachers.

Definition of Terms

Mathematics – The science and study of quality, structure, space, and change.

Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by

rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.

Mathematical proficiency – The ability to competently apply the five

interdependent strands of mathematical proficiency to mathematical investigations.

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 Pre-service mathematical teachers - Theses term refers to Bachelor of

Secondary Education students major in Mathematics from first year to fourth year.

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 Chapter II

Review of Literature

This chapter took into related reading materials and present a review of existing

and available literature as well as studies. The literature and studies presented in this

chapter is deemed helpful in attaining a comprehensive discussion of the problem.

Likewise, the researchers believed that literature and studies provideo complete the

research.

Conceptual Literature

According to Kilpatrick et al. (2001); MacGregor (2013) mathematical

proficiency consists of five strands which are: Conceptual understanding, Procedural

fluency, Strategic competence, Adaptive reasoning, Productive disposition.

Conceptual understanding reflects the student’s ability to construct a

mathematical knowledge and to relate it to previous experiences and use it in new

mathematical contexts and situations through absorbing the concepts and mathematical

interrelation. For deep understanding, learner is better able to remember procedures and

avoid errors in solving mathematical problems (NRC, 2004; Siegfried, 2012). Obeida

(2017) ascertain that conceptual understanding includes accurate handling of

mathematical concepts in the learner’s cognitive structure together with all relevant

generalization, in addition to a deep and clear knowledge built up. The indicators reflect

understanding mathematical concept, its meaning, characteristics, symbols, correlated

procedures, method of application in life situations, and inferring relevant mathematical

generalization.

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 Shteiwi, Zubi, and Barakat (2019) define conceptual understanding as: “the

ability to completely perceive mathematical ideas, the ability to present such concepts in

more than one way, and correlating them to relevant procedures, and finally the ability to

conclude and assess interrelations in a reasonable and correct way”. It also involves

accurate and swift use of such symbols in a correct mathematical language that provides

the student with flexibility and fluency needed for mathematical problem solving.

Al-Shammari (2019) defines the second strand of math proficiency, procedural

fluency, as “the ability to choose the propitious mathematical operations to solve

problems skillfully and precisely”. MacGregor (2013) defines it as the ability to skillfully

and precisely perform mathematical operation and procedures. Siegfried (2012) pointed

out that procedural fluency without conceptual understanding leads to an inadequate

understanding of mathematical rules through memorization. The fluency, based on

conceptual understanding as mere knowledge of mathematical procedures, doesn’t secure

understanding mathematical concepts (Al-Shammari, 2019). Al-Shammari also assures

that several mathematical tasks require using algorithms mentally or in writing as some

of them are not less important than conceptual understanding. Procedural fluency enables

learners to develop procedures to solve out familiar situations, but not only to memorize

them for solving familiar problems. The fluency also reflects learner’s ability to

remember steps of mathematical operations, to implement them quickly and accurately,

and to correctly and skillfully use them to relate concepts and relations among operations.

Procedural fluency refers to knowledge of procedures, knowledge of when and how to

use them appropriately, and skill in performing them flexibly, accurately, and efficiently

(David Ginsburg, 2012). Students must know when, as opposed to just how, to use

9
a procedure. And they must not only be able to perform procedures accurately,

but also flexibly and efficiently--again, think stamina.

The third strand of mathematical proficiency, strategic competence, was viewed

by Groves (2012) to be the learner’s ability to draft, to re-assess problems in a correct

mathematical language and to put down solution strategies using the conceptual

understanding and suitable procedures. According to Al-Shammari (2019), strategic

competence implies learners’ abilities to solve mathematical problems, determine

important mathematical data and present them through numerous methods, to discover

mathematical interrelations and to elicit new solution methods that suit problem

requirements. Thus, the learner gets the resilience needed for processes of mathematical

problem solution to present them in several ways through drawing, mental or in writing a

formula disclosing interrelations opting for suitable strategies such as: figure drawing,

guessing, table constructing, using logical elicitation, and using models to present the

context of a mathematical problem, etc. There is correlation between strategic

competence, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency. In order to develop non-

routine solution strategies, the learner needs to understand implicit information and

interrelation between problems, in addition to fluency and skill to solve out routine

problems (NRC, 2004; Qarni & Shalhub, 2019).

As for the fourth strand of math proficiency, adaptive reasoning, refers to the

ability to think logically regarding relations between mathematical concepts and

situations. Reasoning is necessary because it stems from contemplation, interpretation,

and logical thinking. Adaptive reasoning incorporates how to justify math conclusions as

it correlates elements to one another (Groves, 2012). Qarni and Shalhub (2019) confirm

that adaptive reasoning is the ability to emotionally think of relations, concepts, and
10
situations and to include intuition, induction, and guessing. It is used to comprehensively

understand aspects of the problem. It also helps in the orientation of learning process and

in determining the suitable measure of solution. Through implementing solution plan, the

students use adaptive reasoning to monitor their progress. Reasoning also implies using

logic to interpret and justify the solution of a certain problem or to synthesize one. All

such things are reflected in the practice of informal justification, intuition, logical

induction and logical thinking about relations between concepts and operations to

discover whether or not solutions were logically integrated (Kilpatrick et al., 2001).

Regarding the fifth strand of math proficiency, productive disposition, it refers to

inclination and feeling for math, thus perceiving its significance and benefits gained from

it, when accompanied by a serious, industrious and competent learner. Henceforth, math

can be understood through persistent efforts. In addition, it provides the learner with self-

confidence that makes him consider it to be an essential subject that is worth attention.

Developing productive reasoning requires identifying benefits of being persistent

throughout the process of math learning (Siegfried, 2012).

Schoenfeld (2007) ascertains that math proficiency is essential for the learner

because mathematical knowledge is not enough for math competence. The learner should

be able to effectively use this knowledge in real life. His possession of math proficiency

is indicative of a long-range success. The aforementioned five strands of math

proficiency need to be taken into consideration, as they are intertwined, inseparable and

developed in integrated manner (Groves, 2012; MacGregor, 2013; NRC, 2004).

Many studies were conducted exploring the teaching performance in terms of the

components of mathematical proficiency among pre-service mathematics teachers, such

11
as Usman (2020). The results of this study showed that student teachers exhibit a weak

level of conceptual understanding in trigonometric inequalities, their level of

performance in procedural fluency. The strategic competence was weak as well, and in

general, the performance of student teachers in light of mathematical proficiency was

also weak in the subject of trigonometric inequalities. Awofala (2017) aimed to explore

the relationship between mathematical proficiency and gender in math course. The

sample consisted of 400 secondary school students in Nigeria. Results revealed that the

students’ mathematical proficiency level was high. In addition, it was found that there

was not any statistically significant difference between the respondents’ mathematical

proficiency levels which can be attributed to gender.

Conceptual Framework

The goal of this research is to determine the mathematical proficiency of pre-service

teachers in Batangas State University - The National Engineering University JPLPC

Malvar Campus. In order to demonstrate the graphical illustration of the study, the

researcher uses the Input-Process Output or IPO method.

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 INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Figure 1

Research Paradigm

The first box contains the input of the study which is composed of the

respondents’ profile and mathematical proficiency. The respondents’ mathematical

proficiency will be determined using the researchers-made questionnaire. The

assessment will be derived from their responses on the given statements

classifying each respondent’s mathematical proficiency in terms of conceptual

understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and

productive disposition.

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 The arrow is directed towards the second box which represents the process

of the study. Through the questionnaire, the respondents’ profile and mathematical

proficiency will be determined. Researchers will present, interpret, and analyze the

data using appropriate statistical treatment. It will also be used in analyzing the

relationship between respondents’ profile and mathematical proficiency.

Another arrow is directed towards the third box which represents the

output. The result of the study will be of help to formulate suggested activities

which will enhance the mathematical proficiency of pre-service mathematics

teachers.

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 Chapter III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the nature of research design, respondents of the study

and the instrument necessary for the collection of data. It also describes the

statistical treatment of data that will help the researchers to come up with definite

results.

Research Design

The present study made use of descriptive-correlational method to answer

the questions posed in this endeavor. Rishad (2021) define descriptive

correlational study as a study in which the researcher is primarily interested in

describing relationships among variables, without seeking to establish a causal

connection.

The researchers believe that the descriptive correlational method is the most

employable method in the present study since the purpose of the research is to

assess the mathmatical proficiency of pre-service mathematics teachers in

Batangas State University-TNEU JPLPC-Malvar Campus. Through this method,

findings of the study would benefit the educational institution as well as the people

involved in the research.

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Subject of the Study

The subject of the study will consist of 88 pre-service teachers who have

chosen Mathematics as their field of specialization at Batangas State University

JPLPC-Malvar and are officially enrolled during the academic year 2021-2022.

These mathematics pre-service teachers will serve as the respondents of the study

because they are the group of students who are taking major courses in

Mathematics.

Table 1

Distribution of the Respondents

Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

Year Level
Population Sample
First 36 28
Second 27 21
Third 36 28
Fourth 14 11
TOTAL 113 88

In order to get a valid and reliable result, an adequate number of

respondents and an appropriate sampling technique will be used. Batangas State

University JPLPC-Malvar has 113 pre-service mathematics teachers. The Raosoft

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Digital Calculator was used to determine the sample size of respondents, which

resulted in a total of 88 respondents with a 5% margin of error.

Simple random sampling will be used to pick respondents in order to

achieve a proportional distribution of the sample size. For proper representation,

the respondents will be divided into groups based on their year level.

Research Instrument

The researchers will create a self-constructed questionnaire to acquire the

essential information about the mathematical proficiency of pre-service

mathematics teachers in Batangas State University - The National Engineering

University JPLPC Malvar Campus. This questionnaire will be created by the

researchers and will be divided into five parts. A Google form will be used to

create a questionnaire.

After consultation with the adviser, validation and revisions to the

formulated questionnaires will be considered. The opinions and ideas of panel

members will be considered in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the

items. Proven, valid and reliable, the researchers will gather data from the

respondents.

The researchers will seek permission from the chairperson of the Bachelor

of Secondary Education under the College of Teacher Education at Batangas State

17
University-JPLPC Malvar to conduct a survey on the mathematical proficiency of

pre-service mthematics teachers.The researchers will then ask the instructors of the

chosen respondents for permission and assistance in administering the

questionnaire. The researchers will email the link of the google form personally

and will retrieve the information from the website. The researchers will tally,

tabulate, evaluate, and interpret the responses, after the retrieval.

To determine the respondents’ assessed mathematical profiency, the

following mean ranges with their respective interpretations will be utilized.

Scale Mean Ranges Interpretation

4 3.51 – 4.00 Highly Proficient

3 2.51 – 3.50 Moderately Proficient

2 1.51 – 2.50 Slightly Proficient

1 1.00 – 1.50 Least Proficient

Data Gathering Procedure

After the approval of the research title, the researchers will gather related

information as means to conceptualize and formulate ideas essential to the study.

A letter asking authorization to conduct and administer a researcher-created

questionnaire to the target respondents will be presented to the Dean of the

College of Teacher Education for approval.

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 In coordination with faculty of College of Teacher Education at Batangas

State University JPLPC-Malvar, the researchers will use the revised questionnaire

accomplished by the respondents to obtain information. The research instrument

will be received by the respondents through e-mail and social media. After the

distribution, gathered data will be retrieved by the researchers.

Immediate tabulation of data will follow afterwards. The researchers will

analyze and interpret them in order to arrive at definite result of the study.

Statistical Treatment of Data

To satisfy the requirements of the research, the researchers will use

appropriate statistical treatment. These are presented as follows:

Mean. This will be used to determine the respondents’ assessment on their

mathematical proficiency.

Standard Deviation. This will be utilized to determine the homogeneity

and heterogeneity of the respondents’ assessment on their mathematical

proficiency.

Chi-square. This will be used to determine if significant relationship exists

between the respondents’ profile and their mathematical proficiency.

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