Small-Group Teaching Intervention (Random and Dominant Learning Style) on Students' Performance in Grade 11 General MAthematics

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Mathematics has been considered as a difficult subject by numerous students. Thus, teachers use various strategies and interventions to resolve this problem. One of the said strategies was the use of the Small-Group Teaching Intervention; this promotes learner-centeredness among the students who are expected to participate in free discussion of a certain topic. Aside from the different strategies a teacher may utilize, teachers may also take into account the students' learning styles to improve their class performance. Learning styles are the different ways how people organize and process information (Hultzman, 2017).

METHODS

Using the quasi-experimental design, this study determined the difference on the performance of two groups of students exposed to Small-Group Teaching Intervention but with different grouping schemes: the Control Group composed of randomly grouped students and the Experimental Group composed of students who were clustered according to their dominant learning style (determined using the VARK Questionnaire). The Control Group was taught using traditional teaching while the Experimental Group was taught using the developed learning plan for the different learning styles. The researcher made use of mean score, standard deviation, and t-test for dependent and independent samples to analyze the data.

RESULTS

Upon analyzing the pretest scores of the Control and Experimental Group, it is revealed that the pre-test scores had no significant difference. This implies that the two groups have generally the same level of prior knowledge before the intervention had been employed to the Experimental Group. On the other hand, the post-test mean score of the Control Group was found to be significantly different from that of the other group; this indicates that there was a variation on the students' performance in the said groups. A higher post-test mean score was also computed from the Experimental Group. Therefore, it can be concluded that usage of the said intervention coupled with knowledge on the students' dominant learning style improved the students' performance.

DISCUSSIONS

There is a need for teachers to devise new and innovative ways on obtaining optimal results in the performance of the students in a given class. Utilization of different strategies such as the Small-Group Teaching Intervention and being cognizant of the students' dominant learning style might offer a way in achieving the aforementioned objective as to what this study had successfully demonstrated.