Students’ Performance in Context – Based Lessons in Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

This study aimed at developing contextualized lesson plans integrating writing in mathematics using the pupil’s mother tongue. It also aimed at determining pupil’s improvement in the writing math activities for a period of one month. A Grade 3 class with 31 pupils was purposively selected because of its heterogeneous composition. Using a comparative-descriptive design, this study utilized both quantitative and qualitative data from pupils’ weekly writing outputs, pretest, posttest and transcripts of classroom observations and interviews. Five lesson plans were developed using the backward curriculum design based on the K to 12 curriculum standard. The data revealed that the pupils made significant improvement in their writing math performance irrespective of ability group. However, the high-performing pupils made significant learning gains compared to the developing pupils. In-depth analysis of outputs showed improvements in pupils’ writing mathematics skills. Most pupils organized their ideas even after the question prompts have been removed on the last week of implementation. This study claimed that the use of scaffolding, contextualization, and mother tongue helped pupils in their writing and improved mathematical reasoning.