The Weakness of Grade 9 Students in Numeracy Skills at the Governor Feliciano Leviste Memorial National High School

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Teachers carefully choose strategies to help meet the needs of students and the objectives they are to learn. There are numerous models of teaching to suit different purposes. But still, students remain weak in numeracy skills. As observed by the researcher, everything will turn into a serious problem if these weaknesses will not be addressed. For that, it is the purpose of the researcher to study the numeracy skills of Grade 9 students and provide alternative ways to develop and improve the skills.

METHODS

The researcher used the descriptive method of research to attain the purpose of the study. Questionnaires were utilized to gather empirical data for the study on the extent of numeracy skills being displayed by Grade 9 students. The questionnaire had two parts; the first part concerned the extent of numeracy skills being displayed by Grade 9 students as regards to problem solving, analysis and creativity. There were five items for each skill. The second part was composed of factors that affected to the development of students in numeracy skills such as attitude, environment and study habits.

RESULTS

Students can be described as beginner, developing, proficient and highly proficient based on the percent of accuracy that they achieved. Students have low level of numeracy since it was least extent displayed in their problem-solving skills, analysis skills and creativity skills. Attitudes of the students often affect the skills of students; however, the environment and study habit sometimes affect them. Attitude of the students affected primarily the numeracy skills of students. The proposed enhancement activities as an output of the study aimed to help learners improve their numeracy skills and teachers in leading them to be high proficient learners.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate that there was a great problem that occurred in developing numeracy skills because of the attitudes of students. Mathematics teachers should provide a remediation program to lessen the problems caused by the attitudes, environment and study habits of the students.