Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.

6994920, ISSN 2822-4353

Research Article

Trending Motivational Activities and Mathematics Performance of Grade 7 Students

Gretchen D. Abañera*
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.

Abstract
This quasi-experimental study aimed at determining whether or not Trending Motivational Activities had
an effect on the mathematics performance of the students. Fifty-three Grade 7 students from each of two
intact sections of Sara National High School were matched based on their pretest results. One group
was exposed to Trending Motivational Activities while the other group was exposed to traditional
motivational activities. The assignment of the groups to trending or traditional motivational activities was
made through toss coin. The intervention period lasted for eight (8) weeks. An observation- checklist was
provided to the teacher- observers as guide in assessing students’ reactions or performance during the
conduct of classes. The sources of data were the 30- item multiple choice researcher- made pretest and
posttest. The topics included were: Basic Concepts and Terms in Geometry, Angle, Basic Constructions,
Polygons, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Circles. After the intervention, the students were asked about
their reaction to the given motivational activities. Mean and standard deviation were used for descriptive
data analysis, and t-test for independent samples at 0.05 alpha were used for inferential analysis. The
results revealed that the levels of mathematics performance of the Grade 7 students before exposure to
Trending Motivational Activities and Traditional Activities were “low”. After the intervention, the
students exposed to Trending Motivational Activities improved from “low” to “high”; likewise, the
students exposed to Traditional Motivational Activities. The students’ mathematics performance in the
two groups was comparable prior to the intervention. There was no significant difference in their pretest
score. After exposure to different motivational activities, both groups showed a significant difference in
their performance. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in the mean gain scores of the
students in the two groups; students exposed to Trending Motivational Activities became more active and
participative, and maintained their enthusiasm and interest in mathematics throughout the conduct of the
study.

Keywords: Trending Motivational Activities, Mathematics Performance, Grade 7

Introduction cope with the subject and learn meaningfully (Joquiňo,

Amidst the significant technological changes that are
happening in the society, especially in the educational
system, students sometimes lose enthusiasm and
become passive in learning mathematics. The process
of learning mathematics is a very complex cognitive
task that requires much understanding of principles to
fully understand the concepts. Williamson (2003; in
Halat, 2007), says “declines in positive attitudes
toward mathematics are common among students in
the middle school year and high school” (p.281). It is
therefore important to know what causes students’ low
performances in mathematics.
According to Ashcraft (2002; in Sobrevega, 2014), a
negative attitude towards mathematics is a growing
barrier for many students in learning mathematics. The
feeling of tension and anxiety interferes with the
manipulation of numbers and solving of mathematical
problems. According to him, appreciation and
enjoyment of mathematics in the teaching- learning
process should be given emphasis so that mathematics
anxiety will be m in imized or er ad icated .
Consequently, the students need much motivation to
2014).
Wentzel (1998; in Braza, 2014), stated that interest in
activities tends to increase the likelihood that
individuals formulate goals relating to that activity and
invest time and effort to achieve them. Moreover,
individual characteristics such as intelligence,
cognitive styles, and personality play an important role
in learning and instruction as does the context of
learning. Other research findings have shown that
individual student characteristic variables such as
motivational orientation, self-esteem, and learning
approaches are important factors influencing academic
achievement. In an effort to improve students’
cognition and affective outcomes in mathematics
and/or school learning, educational psychologists and
mathematics educators have continued to search for
variables (personal and environmental) that could be
manipulated in favor of academic gains. Of all the
personal and psychological variables that have
attracted researchers in this area of educational
achievement, motivation seems to be gaining more
popularity and leading other variables (Tella, 2007).
When students’ interest is sparked, their curiosity level

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Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6994920, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article
is increased and they are motivated to learn. The
question of how to motivate students in the classroom
has become a leading concern for teachers of all
disciplines. The impact of motivation on education of
mathematics of a child cannot be undermined. That is
why Hall (in Braza, 2014) believes that there is a need
to motivate students so as to arouse and sustain their
interest in learning mathematics. The use of
motivational activities in teaching mathematics in the
form of games, puzzles, wordles, pick-up lines,
brainteasers, guessing, and others will further arouse
the interest of students in learning mathematics.
Experiences which they will enjoy are easily
remembered; thus, students are helped in mastering
their lessons.
Learning can be enjoyable and meaningful if the
students are motivated. Students’ academic
achievement requires coordination and interaction
between different aspects of motivation; hence, a
teacher has a big role in sustaining students’ interest. It
is within the creativity of a teacher to use different
motivational activities in teaching.
In the school under study, the mathematics
performance of the students was noted to be low as
reflected in the results of the National Achievement
Test. It was observed that students are highly
motivated to learn when motivational activities are
given prior to the discussion; however, their interest is
not sustained all throughout the teaching–learning
process and eventually their attention is diverted or
redirected into something else which hampers
learning. The researcher believes that once the need to
know more comes from within, the student’s learning
becomes easy, teaching gets to be challenging, and
students perform better. The ideal- teaching learning
process is interactive–where the learners, teachers and
instructional materials reciprocally interact with one
another (Gamutea, 2012). It is the teachers’ initiative
and innovativeness to produce the necessary materials
or activities needed to improve teaching instruction.
Driven by the need to substantiate the claim that
exposing students to different trending motivational
activities not only before instruction is given but
during and even after the lessons can facilitate
desirable learning outcomes, this study was conducted.
Research Questions
This study aimed at determining whether or not the use
of trending motivational activities in teaching
mathematics has an effect on the mathematics
performance of the Grade 7 high school students.
Specifically, the study sought answers to the following
Gretchen D. Abañera
questions:
1. What is the pretest and posttest mathematics
performance of the students exposed to trending
motivational activities?
2. What is the pretest and posttest mathematics
performance of the students exposed to traditional
motivational activities?
3. Is there a significant difference in the pretest and
posttest mathematics performance of the students
exposed to trending motivational activities?
4. Is there a significant difference in the pretest and
posttest mathematics performance of the students
exposed to traditional motivational activities?
5. Is there a significant difference in the pretest
mathematics performance of the students exposed to
trending motivational activities and the traditional
ones?
6. Is there a significant difference in the mean gain
scores in the mathematics performance of the students
exposed to trending motivational activities and the
traditional ones?
7. How do trending activities motivate students to
learn mathematics?
Methodology
This study was conducted to ascertain whether or not,
the use of trending motivational activities in teaching
mathematics has an effect on students’ mathematics
performance. It employed Quasi-Experimental
Approach. A quasi-experiment is an empirical study
used to estimate the causal impact of an intervention
on its target population. Quasi- experimental design
allows the researcher to control the assignment to the
treatment condition, but using some criteria other than
random assignment. In some cases, the researcher may
have control over assignment to treatment. Quasi-
experiments are subject to concerns regarding internal
validity, because the treatment and control groups may
not be comparable at baseline. With random
assignment, study participants have the same chance of
being assigned to the intervention group or the
comparison group (Fraenkel, 2006).
The participants in the study were the two intact
sections handled by the researcher. A coin was tossed
to determine which group would be assigned to
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Research Article
teaching with trending motivational activities and
teaching with traditional activities. A pretest was
administered to both groups. One of the two sections
was exposed to teaching with trending motivational
activities and the other section, to traditional approach
in teaching. Lesson plans with corresponding
motivational activities (activity sheets) in each method
were validated by expert validators. The study was
conducted on the second quarter of the School Year
2016-2017.
The scores of the students in their pretest and posttest
were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences (SPSS) software. For descriptive
analyses, mean and standard deviation were used.
Means of the pre-test and post-test of each group were
used to determine the level of the students’
mathematics performance.
For inferential statistics, t- test for independent
samples using the 0.05 level of significance was
utilized to find out if there would be any significant
differences in students’ mathematics performance
between the two groups. Furthermore, the paired-
samples t-test with p = 0.05 was used to detect
significant mean differences between pretest and
posttest scores of students in each group separately
based on the performance test.
Results and Discussion
Mathematics Performance in the Pretest and
Posttest of the Students Exposed to Trending
Motivational Activities and Traditional
Motivational Activities
Table 1. Pretest and Posttest Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Exposed to Trending
Motivational Activities
There is a considerable increase in the mathematics
performance pretest score (M=9.660, SD = 2.808) to
Gretchen D. Abañera
mathematics performance posttest score (M =20.132,
SD = 5.657) of students exposed to trending
motivational activities. The result is interpreted as
“low” mathematics performance in the pretest and
“high” mathematics performance in the posttest.
The results imply that students enjoyed the use of the
Trending Motivational activities. Probably, this may
be attributed to the fact that these motivational
activities were something new and appealing to them
without being aware that these motivational activities
opened their minds and concretized their mathematical
concepts as they constructed their own pick-up lines
and other trending activities. Further, these activities
were appealing because these trending motivational
activities were constructed in media but are now
applied in the teaching and learning of mathematics.
Table 2. Pretest and Posttest Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Exposed to Traditional Motivational
Activities
Grade 7 students have “low” mathematics performance
(M =9.962, SD = 6.887) in the pretest and appreciably
increased to “high” (M =19.854, SD =5.553) after
exposure to traditional motivational activities. It is
clear that there is a drastic increase in the mathematics
performance of Grade 7 students after exposure to
traditional motivational activities.
The dispersion from the mean of the pretest scores (SD
=6.887) and that of the posttest scores (SD =5.553) are
nearly the same, which probably would mean that the
students had varied impressions on the use of the
traditional motivational activities.
The results imply that any activity employed by the
teachers that could catch students’ curiosity and
concentration and help “open” the students’ minds and
improved performance in mathematics.
Mathematics Performance of the Students in the
Pretest and Posttest between groups
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Table 3. T-test for Paired Samples to Show Significant
Difference between the Pretest and Posttest Scores in
Mathematics Performance of Students Exposed to Trending
Motivational Activities
There is a significant difference in the pretest and
posttest scores in mathematics performance test of
Grade 7 students as shown by t (52) =15.862 at p
=.000. This implies that the performance of Grade 7
students in mathematics was meaningfully diverse
after they were exposed to trending motivational
activities.
The result of the present study is in agreement with
that in the study of Broussard & Garrison, (2004)
which revealed that motivation is related to
achievement and IQ. Further, the study disclosed that
there is a relatively consistent relationship between
motivation and achievement in reading and
mathematics.
Table 4. T-test for Paired Samples to Show Significant
Difference between the Pretest and Posttest Scores in
Mathematics Performance of Students Exposed to Traditional
Motivational Activities
There is a significant difference in the pretest and
posttest scores in the mathematics performance test of
Grade 7 students as shown by t (52)) = 14.146 at p
=.000. This suggests that the performance of the Grade
7 students in mathematics was somehow diverse after
they were exposed to traditional motivational
activities. The result can also be interpreted that the
students had low pretest mathematics performance and
increased to high mathematics performance in the
posttest. It further implies that when students’ interest
is sparked, their curiosity level is increased, they are
motivated to learn, and their performance increases.
This result affirms Tobias’ study (1994; in Farillon,
2008) which revealed that the degree to which students
like school subjects and find them interesting is related
to their willingness to become engaged in school and
in learning. Students are excited to attend their
mathematics class when the teacher prepares activities
Gretchen D. Abañera
for them to enjoy and engage in. Psychologists suggest
that increased motivation may lead to personal
satisfaction and a feeling of challenge. Furthermore,
the result supports the claim that students receive
higher test scores and show favorable attitudes when
motivated (Cinco, 2014).
Table 5. t-test for Independent Samples to Show Significant
Difference between the Pretest Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Before Exposure to
Motivational Activities
The table shows that there is no significant difference
in the pre-treatment mathematics performance between
the students exposed to trending motivational activities
and those exposed to traditional motivational activities
as shown by t (52) = .510 at p =.612. This indicates
that both groups had more or less the same
mathematics performance at the start of the
experimental period and were therefore comparable in
terms of mathematics performance. Both groups had a
pretest mean score of 9.960 and 9.962, respectively,
somewhat in favor of the traditional motivational
group.
Table 6. T-test for Independent Samples to Show Significant
Difference in Mean Gain Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Exposed to Trending and
Traditional Motivational Activities
It shows that there is no significant difference in the
mean gain scores between the students exposed to
trending motivational activities and those exposed to
traditional motivational activities t (52) =.374, p =.710.
This suggests that there was no significant difference
in the mathematics performance of the students in the
two groups after the experimental period.
However, it is important to note that students exposed
to trending motivational activities have a greater mean
gain than those exposed in the traditional ones. This
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Research Article
mean gain difference may be attributed to the trending
activities that elicit students’ interest in the lesson and
improved more their performance, although the eight
week experimental period mean gain is not significant
at 0.05 level. Perhaps, the eight week actual teaching
might not have been enough to cause big difference in
the students’ mathematics performance.
Another reason may be attributed to the disruption of
classes during experiment period. The experiment
process was not done continuously because of some
school activities. Furthermore, class size is quite big
enough to manage. Students are interested in the
activities yet, not all are given the chance to perform
the task due to the number of members in the groups.
Conclusion
In view of the findings of the study, the following
conclusions were made.
The mathematics performance of the students in the
two groups was at par with each other before trending
and traditional motivational activities were introduced.
It shows that neither group had a disadvantage over the
other.
The Grade 7 students had “low” mathematics
performance prior to the intervention. Their poor
background on the topics included in the pretest was
probably due to their limited knowledge they had
about geometry.
After exposure to trending motivational activities, the
students’ mathematics performance greatly improved
to “high” level. This implies that since the trending
motivational activities introduced were new and
appealing to students, these activities caught their
curiosity and concentration and helped open their
minds and thus improved their performance.
Students would normally increase their performance
with the use of traditional motivational activities. This
sheds some light on and gives clues to the natural
learning curve of the students.
Although the results show no significant differences in
the performance of the two groups, students exposed
Gretchen D. Abañera
to trending motivational were more active,
participative, and enthusiastic and interested in
mathematics throughout the conduct of the study. This
implies that the use of trending motivational activities
needs to be improved in the future or that students
need longer immersion in this type of activities.
The researcher believes that the teacher has a great
influence on students’ motivation. Aside from the
activities teacher prepares, she/he has to be lively and
humorous in dealing with the students to sustain their
eagerness to learn. Furthermore, careful planning of
the motivational activities and teacher’s creativity
must be given due attention.
References
Braza, M. (2014). Trending motivational strategies and mathematics
performance of Grade 9 students. Unpublished Action Research.
West Visayas State University, Iloilo City, Philippines.
Cinco, J. (May 2014). Computer- assisted instruction (CAI) and
comprehension on fraction of pupils with learning difficulties.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis. West Visayas State University, Iloilo
City, Philippines
Farillon, S. (2008). Chinese school pupil’s self efficacy and attitudes
towards mathematics: Their relationship to mathematics
achievement. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. West Visayas State
University, Iloilo City, Philippines.
Gamutea,M. ( 2012). The use of worksheets on the students’
performance in geometry.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Iloilo, Iloilo City,
Philippines.
Halat, E. (2007). Reform –based curriculum and motivation in
geometry.
Sobrevega, L.(2014). Emotional quotient, mental toughness,
mathematics anxiety, and performance: Bases for enhanced general
education mathematics curriculum. Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation. West Visayas State University, Iloilo City, Philippines.
Affiliations and Corresponding Information
Gretchen D. Abañera
Sara National High School
Schools Division of Iloilo, Philippines
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