Improving the Numeracy Skills of Grade Five Pupils through Differentiated Instruction in Duhat Elementary School S. Y. 2017-2018

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Young people nowadays are characterized as dynamic and unique individuals that they possess individual differences in terms of cultural background, cognitive skills, and physical abilities. Students of the same age differ in the extent to which they need instruction and support during learning. It is important that teachers know their specific needs and take these needs into account in their teaching. On the other hand, many teachers express frustration over high-quality standards. They acknowledge pressure to acquire 100% passing grade from the learning areas being taught. Diversity of learners in this generation, of what we called millennials, are really evident because of rapid changes and a lot of innovations in technologies and social lifestyle. Young people like our students learn in different ways and they must be provided an instruction that may address their different skills and capabilities. The quarterly result in Mathematics was an authentic evident that students must be taught not only in a single way of teaching strategy but because of students' diversity, they must engage in different ways of learning and teaching as well. This action research is a great help to improve the numeracy skills of Grade five pupils as well as improving the teaching and learning strategies of Mathematics teachers.

METHODS

The study used a quasi-experimental design in comparing two variables, the control and the experimental group using pre-test and post-test. This is to determine the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in terms of improving the numeracy skills mathematics performance of the students in the experimental group.

RESULTS

The study showed that the students' performance in Mathematics was greatly affected by the use of differentiated instruction. Both the control group and the experimental group has almost the same level of performance in terms of readiness, interest, and learning profile. On the other hand, the experimental group performed better than the control group when they were exposed to differentiated instruction. Under the differentiated instruction, the most effective strategy employed by the teacher among the experimental group was the used of flexible grouping. This shows that collaborating with peers or among fellow students with the same level give a good impact on the improvement of learners' skills in mathematics.

DISCUSSIONS

Using the four teaching strategies under differentiated instruction such as flexible grouping, tiered assignments, and contracts and compacting, it was proven that there is a significant difference between the differentiated instruction strategies used by the teacher. However, the experimental group in the post-test had shown a higher level of performance compared to the control group. This means that using differentiated instruction is an effective method better than the traditional approach of teaching. Teachers are encouraged to utilize differentiated instruction in mathematics since it was proven that differentiated instruction has a significant effect on the improvement of numeracy skills of the students. It would be helpful also if they intensify the use of 2C2IR ( Collaborative, Constructivist, Inquiry-Based, Integrative and Reflective) in the implementation of the K to 12 curricula. For the future researchers who will be interested to conduct a study that will investigate the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in learning mathematics, it is advised that more comprehensive research design and methodology should be used in order to avoid discrepancies in the responses and to ensure more objective and more accurate findings.