Analysis of the Students’ Level of Problem-Solving Skills in Mathematics: Basis for an Intervention Program

A.G. Vasquez¹ , M.S. Garcellano²

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.8 , Issue.6 , pp.7-12, Dec-2021

Online published on Dec 31, 2021

Copyright © A.G. Vasquez, M.S. Garcellano . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Problem-solving is one of the two goals of Mathematics in Philippine basic education. In 2018, the country joined for the first time in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which manifested that the Philippines ranked second-lowest in Mathematics out of the 79 member and partner countries, scoring 353 below the average of 489 points. This low level of students’ Mathematical problem-solving skills paved the way for this research to be coursed through, involving 53 students of the Narra National High School – Science, Technology, and Engineering (STE) program. A Convergent Parallel Mixed Methods design was utilized in this study, where the data collection method included a problem-solving test and an interview. It found out that the students’ level of problem-solving skills is Working towards Mastery and that their gender and parents’ educational attainment profile do not significantly affect their problem-solving skills. This study suggested that to improve the level of problem-solving skills of the students; it is vital to strengthen the integration of Polya’s method in teaching lessons about problem-solving; conduct an intervention program in the form of remedial and peer tutoring; enrich students vocabulary skills and intensify the reading skills of the students since problem sets in Mathematics involve reading comprehension skills.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Intervention program, Polya, Problem-solving skills

References :
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