Improving Students’ Competency in Operation on Integers Through the “5-10-10 Drill” Strategy

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Mastery of the students in the operation of signed numbers is very essential to understand the topics in Mathematics 9. Several strategies are implemented by math teachers to improve the students' competency on the operation of integers. The "5 -10 -10 Drill" strategy was used by the researcher as the intervention in the poor performance of the students in solving problems involving integers. In this study, the researcher explores the effect of a 5 -10 -10 drill strategy on students' competency in the operation of integers.

METHODS

The researcher used 30-item pre-assessment and post-assessment tools which were validated and checked by the member of the Division's Learning Resource Management and Development System (LRMDS). The researcher also used flash cards for the implementation of the "5 -10 -10 Drill" strategy. The data were tallied, coded and tabulated to facilitate the presentation and interpretation of results using the percentage, mean, standard deviation and t-test.

RESULTS

The study found out that fifty percent (50%) of the students passed the 30-item pre-assessment in operation on integers. The students (N = 44) got 13. 75 mean on pre-assessment in operation on integers which is below the passing rate of 15 points. Seventy percent (70%) of the students (N = 44) passed the post-assessment with mean of 18. 39 which is above the passing rate of 15 points. This shows that there was an improvement on the students' performance on operation on integers after the implementation of the "5 -10 -10 Drill" strategy. And there was a significant statistically difference between the pre-assessment (M = 13.75, SD= 6.154) and post-assessment (M = 18.39, SD = 6.311), t(43) = -7.248 p 0.05, CI95 -5.926, -3.346. Therefore, there was a significant difference between the pre-assessment and post-assessment of the students after the implementation of the "5 -10 -10 Drill" strategy.

DISCUSSIONS

The results demonstrate that daily use of "5 -10 -10 Drill" strategy have positive influence on the students' competency in operation on integers. The use of the drill strategy enables the students to focus on the rules in operations of integers. It was also shown that student participation in mathematics class increased.