Enhancing the Students' Numeracy Skills through Strategic Intervention Materials on Mathematics

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Mathematics educators regularly develop programs and innovations that target the enhancement of the students' numeracy skills. Based on previous studies, it was found that Junior High School students have difficulties in coping up with more complex Mathematics due to poor basic computation skills on integers. In this study, the researcher developed a strategic intervention material (SIM on Integers) that sought to enhance the skills and academic performance of the students in Mathematics.

METHODS

A Quasi-Experimental research design was used in this study. The subjects of this study were 201 Grade 9 students, identified through purposive sampling. The respondents took a pre-test before they underwent instructional intervention. Afterwards, the respondents were given a post-test after the whole instructional intervention was administered.

RESULTS

After the intervention was employed, it was found out that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the respondents. This implied that the SIM on Integers was deemed effective.

DISCUSSIONS

The results of the study established that there is a great need for a constant development of different strategic intervention materials in enhancing the skills and academic achievement of the students in Mathematics. One of these materials is a learning module like the SIM on Integers. Since the mastery of the basic concepts of integers is a pre-requisite in learning complex Mathematics, this learning tool guides students in their deeper understanding of the simpler concepts of integers and in turn prepare students in learning more complex ones. Thus, the profound gap in the field of Mathematics may be bridged and in turn may make learning Mathematics successful in many ways.