Reason Master, an Application on How to Solve Triangle Congruence

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Proving Congruence of Triangles is a lesson in geometry involved with proving that two triangles and their corresponding parts are congruent. It is being taught in the Philippines to Grade 8 students. However, they aren't familiar yet to proving, let alone formal proving using two-column proofs, resulting to failure to achieve passing score. In this study, a mobile application, Reason Master, was introduced to students as a tool for aiding the students to understand the lesson.

METHODS

Reason Master was made by the researchers using MIT App Inventor 2. Forty (40) Grade 8 students from CaviteNational Science High School were the participants of this study. They were divided into two groups: the control group and the test group. They were all given a pre-test before introducing Reason Master to the test group. After a month, they were all given a post-test and the effectivity of Reason Master was assessed by comparing the post-test mean score of the test group to their pre-test mean score using dependent t-test, and the post-test mean score of the control group using independent t-test.

RESULTS

All participants got zero on the pre-test due to not being familiar with Proving Congruence of Triangles. After a month, the test group got a mean score of 8.4 against the control group's mean score of zero in the post-test. However, even if it seems that Reason Master has a positive impact on students' scores, it failed to make students pass the test. In their school, it is essential to achieve scores around 80-85 percent. Whether to understand Proving Congruence of Triangles or not has a huge impact on their grade in Mathematics of Quarter 3. Reason Master is still yet far from being an effective tool of teaching Proving Congruence of Triangles.

DISCUSSIONS

The results indicate that Reason Master is not yet an effective tool on teaching Proving Congruence of Triangles. It does not portray any step-by-step lesson so that the student can have the required knowledge to understand the lesson. It is better if Reason Master was based on van Hieles' levels of geometrical thinking to teach the students.