by Ronalyn T. Langam and Rosie G. Tan
Original Research
Every Mathematics educator has undertaken the challenge of developing students' mathematical creativity. However, this has been a more difficult task in flexible learning amidst the transition to the new normal. Hence, this study aimed to determine the efficacy of an Assess-Practice-Present-Reflect (APPR) e-module in flexible learning on students’ mathematical creativity in tertiary education. The study used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent control group design. The experimental group is exposed to APPR e-module while the control group is exposed to the conventional method. Multiple solution problems were used to assess students’ mathematical creativity. Mean, standard deviation, and MANCOVA were used to analyze the data. According to the findings, there was a similar effect in the mathematical creativity between students exposed to the APPR e-module in flexible learning and students exposed to the conventional method. Furthermore, mathematical fluency and elaboration show good gains in the indicators of mathematical creativity using the APPR e-module, but flexibility and originality require further development in the approaches.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 262-267. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-16
Pub. Date: April 26, 2022
by Michael Gr. Voskoglou
Review Article
A common principle of all the traditional theories of learning, which developed in a time when learning was not taking place through technology, is that learning occurs inside a person. In today’s digital environment, however, we frequently need to act by drawing information which is stored within a database or an organization and is manipulated by technology. The traditional learning theories do not address this kind of learning, defined as actionable knowledge and occurring outside of people. The need to bridge this gap led to the development of connectivism, a new theory for understanding learning in our digital era. The paper outlines the headlines of connectivism, which is based on an integration of principles related to chaos, networks, and self-organization theories, and exposes briefly the reported criticisms for it and the recently developed teaching approaches related to it. The paper presents also a framework due to Siemens for organizing the primary learning theories. From the analysis performed, our conclusion is that none of the existing theories can stand alone as a complete theory for learning. The combination of them, however, seems to provide an adequate framework to study and understand the process of learning.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 257-261. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-15
Pub. Date: April 23, 2022
by Peter Mpiso Ssenkusu, Cornelius Ssempala and John Mary Vianney Mitana
Original Research
The two-year lockdown of education institutions inevitably impacted on society invariably. In order for education institutions to be more productive, there is a need to take into account the most significant impact so that the identified gaps can be addressed as well as incorporating the lessons learnt into the school system. This article gives a snap shot on the government intervention to ensure learning as well as documenting the heavy toll Covid-19 had on the children, teachers and parents as well as the infrastructure.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 253-256. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-14
Pub. Date: April 22, 2022
by Joanne Hood, Yuchun Chen, Lorraine Jacques and Dustin Hebert
Original Research
Previous research has conducted on the sense of community, effectiveness, and learning experience in the face-to-face, hybrid, and online classes. Student preference on any of the delivery methods has not been extensively studied and none was a comparison study of all three delivery methods. This study investigated the perceived course delivery methods of graduate students and faculty at a southeastern university in the United States. Data were collected using a survey modified from Shantakumari and Sajith’s (2015) work. Principal component analysis was used to analyze the survey, yielding three factors (i.e., learning experience, self-efficacy, and ease of use) explaining 73.8% of the variance. Internal reliability was then calculated using Cronbach’s alpha for the entire instrument and for each factor. An overall reliability was above .94 and most of the factors were above .8. Repeated measures ANOVAs were used to determine if there was any significant difference in how the participants rated each delivery method. The overall sample showed interaction effects between the students and faculty on learning experience and self-efficacy, but not on ease of use. Students preferred learning experience in face-to-face and hybrid over online courses. Student sample indicated no significant difference in preferred delivery method regarding self-efficacy or ease of use. Faculty preferred face-to-face, followed by hybrid, followed by online delivery in the learning experience factor, and face-to-face over hybrid and online delivery in the self-efficacy and ease of use factors. The findings provide insight that could support decision-making on course offerings, delivery methods, and faculty workload assignments.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 245-252. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-13
Pub. Date: April 21, 2022
by Do Thi Hong Ngat
These days, Learning through Play is a very attractive teaching approach and has attracted the attention of many school experts, administrators and teachers. When organizing Learning through Play activities, teachers need to create opportunities for students to explore and learn new concepts through experiential activities, research, repeating hypotheses to find satisfying answers, so that students can discover and understand the content of the lesson more deeply. However, the effectiveness of organizing Learning through Play towards creating iteration for primary students is not high due to various reasons. The article presents the results of a survey analysis on 80 teachers and 382 students at Ly Thai To Primary School and Nguyen Tat Thanh Primary School on the situation of organization of Learning through Play activities towards creating iteration for primary school. Research results show the current situation as a scientific basis to propose measures to develop iterations in Learning through Play for primary students.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 238-244. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-12
Pub. Date: April 18, 2022
by Edsel P. Baba and Laila S. Lomibao
Original Research
Traditionally, practice exercises, activities, and assessments were organized in blocks in many textbooks and learning materials. That is, each practice exercise contains only its assigned topic. This type of practice was referred to as block practice. In contrast, interleave practice involves alternating assignments, activities, and assessments. This research aimed to investigate the effect of interleaved practice incorporated into a learning module on the problem-solving fluency of students officially enrolled in Mathematics in the Modern World (MMW) at St. Michael's College, Iligan City. To further investigate the effectiveness of interleave practice in enhancing students' problem-solving fluency, the study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control design. Two intact sections composed of 54 participants were used: one experimental group (n = 28) was exposed to an interleaved practice-learning module, whereas the control group (n = 26) was exposed to a traditional (block practice) learning module. To analyze the result of the data, the researcher utilizes mean, standard deviation, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The data analysis resulted in interleave practice significantly increased students' Problem-Solving Fluency test scores compared to conventional practice. It is recommended that interleave practice be incorporated into assignments, activities, and evaluations. A large scale of the responder is studied, including other institutions, to maximize the intervention's effectiveness.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 233-237. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-11
Pub. Date: April 15, 2022
by Charles Darwin O. Godinez and Laila S. Lomibao
Original Research
The abrupt shift of learning venue from face-to-face to online distance learning actually instigated many pedagogical problems such as students’ tendencies to procrastinate on tasks and assignments required as learners take on independent and active role. Delayed and unsubmitted tasks then result to poor academic performance. In this paper, a method for the early detection of academic procrastination tendencies in online mathematics learning was explored using educational data mining methods. Thirty-five (35) input features were retrieved from a repository of student data from St. Rita’s College of Balingasag, Philippines. K-modes clustering was used for output label clustering, the Boruta Algorithm for feature selection, and a Gaussian-Bernoulli mixed Naïve Bayes algorithm for model building, all implemented in RStudio. Focus Group Discussions were also performed to triangulate results of the model as well as suggest actions for mathematics’ educators based on students’ experiences. The results revealed that only 14 features out of the 35 identified features are relevant in predicting students’ procrastination tendencies and our Gaussian-Bernoulli Mixed Naïve Bayes model can successfully predict students’ later procrastination behaviors – whether they are Non Procrastinators, Low, Moderate, or High Procrastinators – with a testing accuracy of 89% and Kappa Score of 84%. Mathematics’ educators can utilize this model to forecast and take actions to prevent the adverse effects of students’ procrastination.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 223-232. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-10
Pub. Date: April 15, 2022
by Francis Xavier Lubega, Gyaviira Musoke Genza and Jessica Norah Aguti
Original Research
The difficulty of finding an appropriate teacher reward system which can sustainably promote quality education prompted the study from which this article arises. This article focuses on two objectives: i) to examine the relationship between prevalent school-level teacher reward practices and students’ academic performance and ii) to examine the relationship between prevalent school-level teacher reward practices and teachers’ ratings of students’ academic performance. Hinged on the philosophical paradigm of pragmatism, the study was conducted in 23 secondary schools through a cross-sectional concurrent mixed methods research design, over a sample of 368 participants, using stratified random and purposive sampling. Data collected using questionnaires, interviews and documentary review was analysed using themes, frequency distribution, and Chi-square test of independence. The study discovered that the practices of involving teachers in reward-related decision making and espousing performance-based reward programs as well as making effort to achieve attractive salaries promise to support teacher-facilitated learning. It was then concluded that improved remuneration mainly in form of higher and more prompt salaries as well as greater participation of teachers especially in the management of school-level reward-for-performance schemes can more effectively promote quality teaching leading to students’ gains in learning achievement. It was therefore recommended that reward managers at school level should cherish practices which, on the one hand, enable teachers to receive competitive and more prompt remuneration and, on the other hand, attach special value to teachers’ direct or representative participation in major decision making at least concerning merit-based rewards.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 212-222. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-9
Pub. Date: April 15, 2022
by Almaha Radha Alruwaili and Mark Templin
Review Article
There are many new ideas and themes from existing literature that talk about cooperative learning approaches. It gives an even broader aspect to thinking about the cooperative learning approach and its implementation in the educational system. There are three main themes that I would like to discuss in this paper; (1) the importance of implementing a cooperative learning approach in science classrooms; (2) teachers’ understanding towards a new learning approach that involves practical activities; and (3) science students’ social and behavioral response towards the cooperative learning approach. Before exploring a topic, I believe it is necessary to have relevant and adequate information about it and to know all the factors that may affect it. Existing literature has explored many directions and knowledge, but the most appealing themes to me are the three listed. I think the further exploration of these themes would help me continue the research in this area.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 208-211. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-8
Pub. Date: April 15, 2022
by Lailyn S. Lopez, Lovely Vanessa T. Agustin, Rubie A. Bag-oyen, Alpha B. Calado and Romiro G. Bautista
Original Research
The rapid and unprecedented transition from face-to-face to online teaching at the onslaught of CoViD-19 was very challenging due to a very short timeframe for teachers to refresh and to acquire advanced technical skills and know-how in going online. This study is designed to determine the readiness of teachers in going online from select localities in the Philippines. A total of 120 teacher-respondents were used as subjects of the study. The descriptive-inferential method was employed in the study in gathering the needed data vis-à-vis the research problems. It is discovered that teachers in private schools can perform Basic Technical Skills better than those who are in the public schools. It was also found out that teachers aged 21-30 can perform better in technical skills and can use LMS efficiently. Moreover, the respondents were found to be highly skilled on course planning, time-management and communication: both teacher-respondents from public and private institutions are equipped with vast knowledge on course design. However, it is noticeable that older teachers are less comfortable in designing online learning activities that would allow students to interact with their peers and teachers. Therefore, it is concluded that the teacher-respondents are ready to go online. Appositely, teachers from the private sector are better in managing online learning than their counterparts in the public schools from the parameters of the study.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 201-207. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-7
Pub. Date: April 12, 2022
by Jenny C. Cano and Laila S. Lomibao
Original Research
Todays’ educational landscape is continuously changing and becoming more complex. Thus, educators, who are in the frontline in coping up to this ever-changing landscape of education, should also continuously innovate new pedagogy to improve the quality of learning and produce globally competitive individuals. The goal of this research is to design, develop, and validate the phenomenon-based learning videos in Calculus for asynchronous remote instruction. Descriptive research design and a validated researcher-made instrument were used in this study. Thirty mathematics experts in mathematics or mathematics education evaluated the phenomenon-based learning videos based on three categories: subject, content, and technical aspect. Results showed that every indicator under each category is highly acceptable. This implies that the overall design and development of the phenomenon-based learning videos are highly acceptable. Hence, these videos are recommended to be used in Calculus especially in asynchronous remote instruction.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 194-200. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-6
Pub. Date: April 12, 2022
by Evelyn Agyei, Dennis Cornelius Agamah and Gideon Entsie
Original Research
One of the many strategies by which students can bring meaning to abstract mathematical ideas is through the use of manipulatives. Manipulatives have the ability to help students learn new concepts and relate new concepts to what they have already learned. However, students’ ability to use them depends on their availability in schools. This study therefore examine the availability of manipulatives in Colleges of Education in Northern Ghana. By doing so 291 pre-service teachers who were randomly selected were presented with checklist to complete, while 8 college staff were interviewed of which 2 were the Heads of the mathematics and ICT department. The results revealed that concrete non-geometry manipulatives were available to pre-service teachers than the concrete geometry manipulatives. Geogebra emerged as the common virtual manipulatives readily available to pre-service teachers. The results further indicated that even though some concrete manipulatives were available, they were inadequate to enhance pre-service teachers’ learning of mathematics. In concluding, the paper suggests that pre-service teachers’ knowledge in mathematics can be enhanced if efforts are made by school authorities and other stakeholders to acquire concrete manipulatives while students are encouraged to purchase virtual manipulatives on their own.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 188-193. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-5
Pub. Date: April 12, 2022
by Ken Rozen C. Meniano and Rosie G. Tan
Original Research
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has altered educational systems globally, particularly in the Philippines. The Department of Education utilizes printed self-learning modules (SLMs) to facilitate modular distance learning (MDL). This abrupt shift resulted in students' difficulty learning amid crisis, especially in mathematics. This situation is alarming as it is becoming rampant in public schools wherein several students have difficulty. This study explored students' challenges in learning mathematics using printed self-learning modules. The study took place in December 2021 at the Alfonso Ang Militante Integrated School (AAMIS) in Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental, Mindanao. The study employed a phenomenological research design, with ten (10) randomly selected grade 9 students participating in semi-structured in-depth interviews. The interviews were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis to analyze and interpret the findings. The study's findings yielded six (6) central themes: difficult lessons and activities, distractions in learning, difficulty understanding English instruction, absence of assistance from people, poor quality of modules, and lack of time management. This study has implications for the Department of Education (DepEd) alternative learning modality in new normal education, parents and teachers' student support, and students' independent learning and capability.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 182-187. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-4
Pub. Date: April 05, 2022
by Kintu Godfrey, Musiime Joseline, Muweesi Charles, Mugabo Augustine, Disan Kuteesa Mugyenyi and Achan Nancy
Original Research
The purpose of this review was to establish the relevancy of social radar in the day to day work as underpinned from Goleman book working with emotional Intelligence Chapter three (3), which prorogates that Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a more important factor than Intelligent Quotient (IQ) to enjoying a successful life and maintaining fruitful and secure relationships with others. After a review, it was found out that lack of a social radar leads to social awkwardness, that a person can have the best training in the world, possess an incisive and analytical mind or even the supply of endless ideas, but still would not make a good leader without empathy (social radar). Arising out of the review, it concluded that empathic leaders more so in schools with good people skills (social radar) know intuitively how to build bridges to others so that relationship bonds are robust. It recommends that for leaders to have the best social radar, should strive to listen well, gain perspective of others and give help to others.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 179-181. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-3
Pub. Date: April 05, 2022
by Noemi P. Gallardo, Camille Z. Carpio, Leonel C. Mendoza and Ma. Arlyn M. Redublo
Original Research
This paper is situational research that aimed to determine the current state, changes, and struggles of different school publications due to the pandemic caused by the Corona Virus-2019 and develop a development plan for online journalism. The data were collected from six respondents composed of different student journalists and school paper advisers from different college campuses with semi-structured interview guides and data collected subjected to context analysis. The data shows the changes that the publication body encountered and the struggles they faced during the pandemic. These two factors lead how the publications address these challenges by engaging and shifting to online journalism.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 174-178. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-2
Pub. Date: April 05, 2022
by Enya Marie D. Apostol
Original Research
The advent of technology ushers major educational changes through the integration of digital learning tools in the classroom. This strategic and relevant practice can become an integral tool for achieving significant learning experience. Thus, this study aimed to determine the effectiveness of mathematics software Bagatrix Solved! in teaching and learning Algebra. This study employed a quasi-experimental design specifically a pretest-posttest control group design wherein the control group (n=30) were taught the conventional way while the experimental group (n=30) were taught using the Bagatrix Solved! software. The instruments used in this study were the pretest and posttest and an 8-item self-made questionnaire using 5-point Likert scale. Results showed that on the first stage of the research process, both groups has similar level of understanding on the topics based primarily on their foreknowledge about the topic Linear equations. However, towards the final stage, both groups showed improvement on their test performance after two weeks of teaching and learning Linear equations and both approaches resulted to effective learning of mathematical concepts. Furthermore, it also showed that the students were interested in the software since it was their first time experience and it was found helpful as evident in the motivation and involvement of the students in the teaching-learning activities. With this, the use of mathematics software Bagatrix Solved! in teaching Algebra as supplement to the conventional approach is highly recommended. Lastly, the combination of both approaches in teaching Algebra was also suggested to ensure higher impact to the performance of students in Algebra.
American Journal of Educational Research. 2022, 10(4), 168-173. DOI: 10.12691/education-10-4-1
Pub. Date: April 05, 2022