Math Education

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CONFERENCE FOR MATH

The study investigated the difficulties encountered by Grade 11 teachers in teaching Senior High School General Mathematics, the reasons for the problems, and the strategies employed by teachers in overcoming the challenges with an end view of developing training design. The sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used in the study with the aid of a questionnaire checklist and an interview to validate the answers generated by the questionnaires. The study revealed that the challenges in teaching emerged due to time constraints and mastery issues of contents. Though teachers were pedagogically and technologically equipped to teach the course, however, some have poor time management and link to peers to share the best strategies to cope with the problems. Hence, training, as well as seminars and workshops for the unmastered competencies/contents and the competencies with no strategies applied to deal with the difficulties in teaching, are to be provided to Grade 11 General Mathematics teachers by implementing the training design developed by the researchers. Keywords: Difficulties, reasons, strategies, training design

The investigation attempted to find out the competence evidence among the grade 9 mathematics teachers in the secondary schools of Dumaguete City, Philippines. Survey and correlational methods of research were employed with the aid of questionnaire-checklist to profile the teachers’ number of years in teaching Mathematics, training and seminars attended, educational attainment and measure their competence levels in mathematics curriculum competencies set by the Department of Education in the country. Data collected were treated using frequency counting, percent, weighted mean, standard deviation and Spearman Rank-Order Correlation. Results revealed that mathematics teaching was dominated by teachers with at least 6 years of teaching experience, with more locally attended seminars and training, and a higher percentage of those who pursued graduate education. The study revealed further that the teacher-respondents were highly competent in content for patterns, algebra and geometry. Moreover, the demographic profile of the teachers significantly translated their competence in content and pedagogy. Keywords: Competence, content, pedagogy, enhancement program.

Malunggay (Moringa Oleifera) has many health benefits based on national and international research findings but none so far has conducted an investigation on its mathematical & statistical properties, thus this study was conceptualized. One thousand five hundred samples were examined and revealed the following: Trichotomy & reflexive properties between the number of leaves in the right and left sides of the stem so with the number of leaves in the upper and lower parts of the petiole; and a high positive correlation between the number of leaves in the right and left sides of the stem so with the number of leaves in the upper and lower parts of the petiole. It is recommended that further investigations will be sought to determine other mathematical & statistical properties on malunggay leaves and its other parts.

This workshop intends to present the capability of the TI 84 plus in: solving equations in one variable; solving quadratic equations; drawing families of graphs; finding maxima, minima and zeros of functions; verifying trigonometric identity; solving exponential and logarithmic equations; and finding determinants and inverses as well performing operations on matrices. Thirty (30) sets of TI 84 plus will be brought to this workshop so as to have 30 participants.

Conference Paper

This study determined the effectiveness of MathXL and its relationship to performance in introductory statistics at NORSU in a preliminary level. Quantitative research design specifically survey method was used in the study. Cluster sampling was utilized and a total of 141 Introductory Statistics students of NORSU during the second semester of school year 2012-2013 participated the study. A researcher made instrument was developed and validated. Cronbach alpha was further used to determine the internal consistency of the items in the instrument. It was found that MathXL is effective in teaching introductory statistics and at 5% level of significance, MathXL effectiveness has a positive large or high relationship to the introductory statistics performance.

In this paper, I investigated the different Geometry teachers' teaching practices in a culturally diverse Geometry classes in the Science and Technology (S&T) curriculum of Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS), Maryland USA and established relationship towards Geometry achievement. Six Geometry classes participated in this study and these classes constituted a total of 198 students and three Geometry teachers including myself. My actual Geometry teaching practices and the formal class observations as well as interviews that I have conducted in other S&T Geometry classes were used as the data in this study. Documentary analysis was used in determining the students' achievement in Geometry. The following are the cultural backgrounds of the S&T students: Blacks/African-Americans; Asians; Hispanics/Latinos and Whites/Caucasians. The study revealed the following teaching practices that recognized the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of teaching and learning (Moll, 2008): Positive perspectives on parents and families; Teaching within the context of culture; Culturally-mediated instruction; Communication of high expectations; Student-centered instruction; Reshaping curriculum; and Teacher as facilitator. This paper further explains each of the teaching practices in detail and provides some concrete examples. It was found out that teaching practices of the S&T Geometry teachers as effectively implemented in a culturally diverse Geometry classes had a significant relationship towards Geometry achievement at 5% level of significance. It is concluded that culture is central to teaching and learning and it shapes the thinking process of students. Moreover, teaching practices that acknowledge and respond fundamental cultures offer equitable access to mathematics education for students from all cultures. Introduction It is a known fact that culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information but also in shaping the different thinking processes of various groups and individuals. Bills (2005) stated that a pedagogy that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full and equitable access to education for all students from all cultures. Gay (2000) defined culturally relevant teaching practice as the practice of using prior experiences, cultural knowledge and performance styles of diverse learners to make the curriculum more appropriate and effective. Moreover, Hatfields (2007) also defined culturally relevant teaching practice as the specific methods that a teacher brings into the classroom that effectively teach students based on their culture.

The intention of this study is to determine the latent factors that affect the extent of using innovations among public and private mathematics teachers in the division of Dumaguete City using exploratory factor analysis. Female respondents constitute 75.17% (109) of the respondents while 24.83% (36) of the respondents were males. This showed that majority of those teaching math in the Division of Dumaguete were females. Most of the respondents were of age bracket 31-35 which composed 33respondents, closely followed by 28 respondents whose ages ranged from 41-45. The majority of the teachers in Dumaguete City division (68.85 0f 1450 are bachelor's degree holders. However, this might imply that most math teachers did not finish their master's degree. In terms of years of experience, the majority of the respondents were in five to ten years of their service to teaching and molding the young. Many of the respondents had spent two to five days in seminars and were equipping themselves with the new trends of teaching mathematics. The study started with 33 items in four perceived factors, namely teaching strategies (TS), teaching materials (TM), teacher's enhancement (TE) and teaching attitude (TA). The first factor (TS) had ten items, the second factor (TM) had eight items, the third factor (TE) had six items and the fourth factor (TA) had nine items. The study was then conducted to 180 teachers, but only 145 responded. The exploratory factor analysis was run using the 145 responses in 33 items. Using the necessary statistical tool, some items were eliminated. Four construct factors were identified-S3, S5 and S10 for the first factor; S14, S15, and S16for the second construct factor; S22, S23 and S24 for the third construct factor; and S26, S27, S28 and S29 for the fourth construct factor. These four factors were now renamed as stimulating strategies, designing teaching materials, positive teaching attitude and constructivism. The perceived and construct factors have made significant and non-significant association with the respondent's profile.

This study investigated the multiple regression between metacognition and mathematics performance of the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and the Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Mathematics of Negros Oriental State University, Main Campus 1, Dumaguete City. Mathematics performance was the criterion variable and was measured as the general average of all major and minor mathematics courses which have been taken already by the respondents while metacognition was the predictor and was categorized in terms of: motivation; organizing and planning one’s work; working with others/utilizing resources and feedback; managing school work stress; note-taking and reading; and preparing an assignment or project. Multiple correlation revealed that there was insufficient evidence that mathematics performance was explained by all of the six predictor variables. Through the standardized beta coefficients, there was a sufficient evidence that the six predictors had overlapping effects to mathematics performance.

This study was conducted to the randomly selected freshman college students of Negros Oriental State University, Main Campus 1, Dumaguete City and sought to let students graph inequalities and system of inequalities using the Texas Instrument (TI 84) after learning the paper and pencil way of graphing those inequalities with an endview of letting students understand the connections between technology and mathematical concepts. Results showed that students understood that it is good, many times necessary to graph inequalities/system of inequalities through TI 84 and that most of the time TI 84 does not "find" answer" but merely helps to find appropriate solutions to the problem. It is further showed by the students that if one does not understand how to interpret the information that TI 84 provides, then it is of no use at all.

This paper is conceptualized based on a number of literature that I have read related to cultural diversity in a Mathematics classroom while teaching in the United States of America public high school. Gay (2000) defined culturally relevant teaching practice as the practice of using prior experiences, cultural knowledge and performance styles of diverse learners to make the curriculum more appropriate and effective. Moreover, Hatfields (2007) also defined culturally relevant teaching practice as the specific methods that a teacher brings into the classroom that effectively teach students based on their culture. In this paper, I investigated the different Geometry teachers’ teaching practices in a culturally diverse Geometry classes in the Science and Technology curriculum of Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS), Maryland USA and established relationship towards Geometry achievement. Six Geometry classes participated in this study and these classes constituted a total of 198 students and three Geometry teachers including myself. My actual Geometry teaching practices and formal class observations as well as interviews about Geometry teaching practices in other Science and Technology Geometry classes were used as the data in this study. Documentary analysis was used in determining the students’ achievement in Geometry. Frequencies, percentages and ranking were used in determining the teaching practices and students’ achievement as well as the students’ ethnicity and Chi-Square at 5% level of significance was used in establishing the relationship between the teaching practices and Geometry achievement. It was found out that teaching practices of Geometry teachers as effectively implemented in a culturally diverse Geometry classes had a significant relationship towards Geometry achievement at 5% l