Enhancing Problem Solving Skills in Mathematics through Problem-Solving Activities

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

One of the most important means in saving money is storing them in banks. It is the safest mode of keeping money so that no one can steal it. Aside from this, once the money is kept in banks, it gains interests. Interests pertain to money paid regularly at a particular rate for the use of money lent. Interests are categorized into simple and compound interests. This subject matter is important for students to learn. Students in Business Mathematics are expected to display competencies such as distinguish simple and compound interests. In addition, compute interest, maturity value, future value, and present value in simple and compound interest environment. Moreover, learners should be able to solve problems involving simple and compound interests (Curriculum Guide in Business Mathematics).

METHODS

To determine the effectiveness of the problem-solving activities, a Randomized Pretest Posttest Only Control Group Design was used. In this design, two groups of respondents were used. These are the control and experimental groups. Each group had twenty-five (25) randomly selected members. The members of the control group were selected from the learners from the TVL track class and the experimental group was selected from the GAS strand class.

RESULTS

Results show that the mean score of the learners in the experimental group in posttest is higher than the mean score of the learners in the control group. There was a significant difference between the mean scores in the pretest and posttest of the experimental group. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the score in posttest of the learners in the experimental and control groups.

DISCUSSIONS

The study found that problem-solving activities are helpful in enhancing the problem-solving skills of the learners as stated in the result of the post test. But this study can still be subject for verification and application to other topics in Business Mathematics due to its limits on the topics covered. As for now, with the topics Simple and Compound Interest, it is strongly suggested that this method should be adopted to help the learners improve their skills in word problem-solving.