EFFECTIVENESS OF EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION Keywords: Explicit Instruction, Math Learning, Conceptual and

TO IMPROVE MATH LEARNING OF Computational Knowledge

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
IN NON-ACADEMIC TRACKS
Introduction
Reymond G. Tugadi, M.A.Ed Many high school students particularly those who are not
Rodolfo M. Policarpio, Ph.D. inclined to take courses in science and engineering find learning
mathematics difficult. A number of researches have been conducted to
Abstract determine factors and possible ways to improve student learning in
mathematics. According to Hanushek (2002) the academic performance
This study aimed to identify the conceptual and computational of students relies on various factors like student participation in class,
knowledge of the students in simple and compound interest before and family income, student-teacher ratio, presence of qualified teachers, and
after explicit instruction was applied as a teaching strategy. The study student attitudes towards the subject.
also determined if there was a significant difference between the pretest
and posttest of the students to identify the effectiveness of explicit Moreover, local and foreign studies that focus on the impact and
instruction to math learning among senior high school students in non- effect of student attitudes to learning have been conducted. Studies, thus
academic tracks. show that most students have low interest in doing math, have math
anxiety or may be suffering from Dyscalculia that results to low
A teacher-made test was used to measure the conceptual and performance in mathematics.
computational and knowledge of the students in simple and compound
interest.In data treatment, means, standard deviations, and t-test for two Many students who suffer from mathematics anxiety have little
sample means were used. confidence in their ability to do mathematics and tend to take the
The findings showed that the performance of the students in minimum number of required mathematics courses, greatly limiting
pretest and posttest scores both in the conceptual and computational their career choice options.
knowledge have significant differences. Explicit instruction have
There is scarcity on math related programs in the Philippines
improved students’ performance in conceptual knowledge from low
specifically engineers and doctors (Icamina, 2010). This is unfortunate,
mastery to ‘moving’ towards mastery and from no mastery to ‘moving’
towards mastery in computational knowledge.This means that explicit especially as our society becomes more reliant on mathematical literacy
instruction was effective in improving learning in simple and compound (Scarpello, 2005). He reported that students did not enjoy performing
interest. the career related mathematics required by their vocational-technical
Math teachers should always consider the diverse learning education curriculum. There was an increase in the number of students
enrolled in below level courses because of the low interest of the
preference of students especially those who have math difficulty.
Moreover, they should monitor students with math difficulty and guide students in mathematics. Students who demonstrated low mathematics
them regularly, clarify their confusions, provide assistance, and anxiety tended to be enrolled in vocational-technical education labs
requiring higher mathematical ability.
gradually lessen it until the students have mastered the concepts. Aside
from explicit instructions, teachers should continuouly seek for better In the United States, students who suffer from math anxiety are
teaching strategies that will advance students’ math learning. being taught using Explicit Instruction. This instruction is characterized
by a series of supports or scaffolds, whereby students are guided through
 3

the learning process with clear statements about the purpose and performance in these academic subjects particularly in math and science
rationale for learning the new skill, clear explanations and is still lacking. The problem should not only be addressed by the
demonstrations of the instructional target, and through supported Philippine Government but also and most important, it should be solved
practice with feedback until independent mastery is achieved. by the teachers who have direct hand in aiding student learning. Explicit
Rosenshine (1987, retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com 2015) instruction would be one of the strategies that may help math teachers
described this form of instruction as “a systematic method of teaching in aiding or even enhancing students’ learning and competency in math.
with emphasis on proceeding in small steps, checking for student
understanding, and achieving active and successful participation by all Dunn (as cited in Fulton, 2013) Director of International Styles
students”. Network noted that students are not failing because of the curriculum,
students can learn any subject matter when they are taught with methods
In addition, Wadlington (2013) emphasized that explicit and approaches responsive to their learning styles, needs and strengths.
instruction is helpful for all students including those with mild In this regard, explicit instruction, a teaching strategy and as also guided
disabilities and low interest in mathematics because it allows the by the principles of scaffolding, will enable students to learn
students to take the time they need to fully understand the concepts. mathematics effectively since this subject matter is aimed at developing
Therefore, students with math disabilities or those who have low interest not only quantitative skills but also scientific thinking. Thus, if teachers
in learning mathematics as well as those who may take more time would employ strategies that can help the students to learn how to
understanding mathematical problems will not be left behind in Explicit acquire skills such as in doing mathematics, their performance in math
Instruction, as such strategy provides the learners with the means to examinations will improve and such success in learning consequently
develop the skills necessary to do the learning tasks. heighten their interest in quantitative methods.

Explicit instruction is said also to be an effective strategy As mathematics teachers we are confronted with the problem of
compared to student-centered learning in improving the learning of adapting or even creating teaching strategies to improve on the math
students who suffered from anxiety or has had mathematical disability. learning of his students. With this, the researchers would like to
In addition, Explicit instruction has been proven to improve self-esteem investigate on the effectiveness of an instructional strategy called
and cognitive competence of students (Lindsay, 2012). In the study of explicit instruction to improve the lesson presentation and provide
Din (2000), students’ scores in math examinations increased intentional support and assistance to students in order to improve math
significantly after receiving explicit instruction. 4
learning and enhance the skills as well of those who have already
acquired them to sustain their interest in quantitative methods.
With the current emphasis on adapting K-12 curriculum in the
Philippines, it is essential that students with difficulties in learning math Thus, this study is focused on determining the effectiveness of
be prepared to meet with success on these newly articulated grade explicit instruction in the improvement of senior high school students’
expectations in mathematics. Math teachers particularly those in senior performance in general mathematics particularly among those who are
high school need to acquire and to practice new strategies in teaching to in the Technical-Vocational track.
help students who struggle in learning mathematics to gain access to the
general education curriculum later in college and to meet success in the Theoretical/Conceptual Framework
learning areas of math.
A schema is a generalized description or a conceptual system for
The Philippines remains poorly performing in mathematics and understanding knowledge- how knowledge is represented and how it is
science for over a decade now. Despite the Philippine government’s used. A schema represent knowledge about concepts, objects, and the
efforts to reform, provide assistance, and execute rules in education, the
relationships they have with other objects, situations, events, sequences lesson in math and the students would gain understanding of how they
of events, actions, and sequences of actions. learn the subject matter.
Scaffolding was first introduced in the late 1950s by Methodology
psychologist Jerome Bruner. He used the term to describe young
children's oral language acquisition. As helped by their parents when This study utilized the quasi-experimental design, specifically it
they were beginning to learn how to speak. Young children are provided employed the pre-test and post-test design. The pre-test scores of the
with informal instructional formats within which their learning is students in both the conceptual and computational knowledge were
facilitated. Scaffolding is inspired by Lev Vygotsky's concept of “an compared to the learning of the students’ post-test scores after exposure
expert assisting a novice, or an apprentice.” Scaffolding is changing the explicit instruction. The respondents were 80 students enrolled in non-
level of support to suit the cognitive potential of the student. Over the academic tracks of the senior high school.
course of a teaching session, one can adjust the amount of guidance to A quasi-experimental method is a type of evaluation which aims
fit the student’s potential level of performance. More support, i.e. to determine the effectiveness of a program or intervention on the
scaffolding is offered or provided when a student is having difficulty participants; in this study, the effectiveness of explicit instruction was
with a particular task and, over time, less support is given as the student applied as a teaching strategy through intervention to two sections of 40
makes gains on the task. (Belland, Glazewski, & Richardson, 2008) students with a total of 80 senior high school students. To measure the
learning of the students in math, a teacher-made test was used to
In the Constructivist view, Bruner explains that learning is an compare the scores in the pre/post-exposure to Explicit Instruction.
active process in which a student constructs new ideas or concepts based
upon his/her current/past knowledge. The student selects and transforms Locale of the Study
information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a
cognitive structure to do so. Cognitive structure (i.e., schema, mental The 80 respondents of the study were chosen from the 174 Grade
models) provides meaning and organization to experiences and allows 11 senior high school students enrolled in the Technical-Vocational and
the individual to "go beyond the information given" Livelihood Tracks. Specifically, there were 51 students in Home
(http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/constructivist.html). Economics- Culinary Arts, 41 were taking Tourism Operations, 50 were
students in Information and Technology, Mobile Application and Web
In explicit instruction, as a teaching strategy in mathematics Development, 11 students were in Digital Arts and 21 were enrolled in
learning, the teacher observes three stages: (1) I do it, (2) we do it, and Restaurant and Bar Operations. All of the respondents have low scores
(3) you do it. In I do it, the teacher will use the schema or the prior in the pre-test in both the conceptual and computational knowledge in
knowledge about the prerequisites of the subject which will play a vital simple and compound interest. The respondents were chosen using the
role in the learning process. Hence the teacher conducts a review on the purposive sampling technique.
prerequisites of the topic. After the teacher modelled and demonstrated
the concepts, in the “We do it” stage the teacher will give guided The data gathered in the pretest and posttest were analyzed using
practices utilizing scaffolding to ensure mastery of the concepts or the means, standard deviations, and the two-tailed paired sample t-test
skills. When the students have mastered the concepts, they will be to determine if there is a significant difference between the pretest and
proceeding to “I do it” stage. In the “I do it” stage, the teacher may give posttest scores of the students.. In the interpretation of the test
group instruction or activities using the constructivist’s view on performance scores in the conceptual and computational knowledge in
individual activity or group activity, thus students learning math will be the pre-test and post-test, the scale applied is as follows:
engaged even more. Thus, the teachers will effectively implement the
For Conceptual Knowledge
 Range of Scores Achievement Level Number
Verbal
7-8 Mastered of Mean Standard
Interpretation
5-6 Moving Towards Mastery Items Deviation
4 Average Mastery Conceptual
2-3 Low Mastery Knowledge 8 2.79 1.27 Low Mastery
1 No Mastery Computational
Knowledge 42 2.43 2.03 No Mastery
Over-all Test
For Computational Knowledge Performance 50 5.21 2.41 No Mastery

Range of Scores Achievement Level

37-42 Mastered From the results of the test before intervention, majority of the
28-36 Moving Towards Mastery students have low mastery in almost all of the test items that measure
19-27 Average Mastery their conceptual knowledge in General Mathematics of simple and
10-18 Low Mastery compound interest. Students exhibited low mastery on the test because
1-9 No Mastery they are unable to determine the terms being defined or described in
each test item. They are also unfamiliar with the terms used in
Results and Discussion understanding the concepts used in learning the mathematics of simple
and compound interest.
Table 1 shows the students’ test performance scores in the As can be seen also in Table 1, the students show no mastery in
conceptual and computational knowledge prior to intervention. In the the computational knowledge in General Mathematics on simple and
conceptual knowledge test items, the average students’ performance compound interest. It is evident that majority of the students failed to
score is 2.79 or that they all have low mastery in all of the 8 items in answer the problem-solving items of the test. The researchers in this
this test of 50 items. In the computational knowledge test items, the study observed that when the students saw the word problem part of the
average students’ performance score is 2.43 which show that they also test, their immediate reaction was to pass the answer sheets leaving
have no mastery. In the over-all test performance of the students, an these parts of the test blank. Such indicated their unfavorable regard for
average score of 5.21 indicated too, no mastery. In addition, the standard learning mathematics. The results was supported by the finding of
deviation shows the dispersion of the students’ scores. The standard Scarpello (2005) that students from technical-vocational courses have
deviations of 1.27, 2.03, and 2.41 for conceptual, computational and mild to high level of mathematics anxiety and do not enjoy mathematics
over-all test performance respectively show homogeneity of students’ courses in their curriculum.
scores. This shows that the scores of the students fall around the mean
thus they all lack mastery of conceptual and computational knowledge The failure of the students to perform in the computational
on simple and compound interest. knowledge part of the test indicates also their anxiety in doing
computations specifically in finding solutions to word problems in
Table 1: Senior High School Students’ Test Performance Scores math. The students’ failure is due to their inability to identify the terms
Prior to Intervention used in understanding the mathematics of simple and compound
n=80 interest. They also did not complete the test as they did not work on the
word problems anymore when these items were presented to them. This test. This finding of the study is supported by Wadlington (2013) who
observation is similar to what Star, Schneider, and Johnson (2011) emphasized that explicit instruction is helpful for all students including
reported in their study on the relations among conceptual knowledge those with mild disabilities because it allows the students to take the
and computational knowledge in mathematics. The results of their study time they needed to fully understand the concepts.
show that conceptual knowledge and computational knowledge in
mathematics have stable relation and inseparable in which both support The results have shown that there is an increase in the
the development of knowledge in math. They noted that a student with mathematics interest of the technical-vocational students when they
low conceptual knowledge was predicted to have low computational satisfactorily finish the test.
knowledge. The three stages of explicit instruction – (1) I do it, (2) we do it,
Table 2: Senior High School Students’ Test Performance Scores in and (3) you do it, did help the students to understand the lessosn on
Explicit Instruction simple and compound interest. In the ‘I do it Stage’ – the students were
n=80 identified as having low conceptual knowledge of the terminologies and
formula used in simple and compound interest. However, the teacher
Number Standard Verbal was able to optimize their low knowledge on the subject, and taught the
Mean lessons on simple and compound interest using explicit instruction.
of Items Deviation Interpretation
Also, in ‘I do it Stage,’ the teacher directed the students to
Moving employ the techniques in doing computations following the strategies
Conceptual suggested in explicit instruction. The teacher used group activity to
8 4.51 1.49 Towards
Knowledge introduce the topic on simple and compound interest. The students were
Mastery
divided into groups and asked to perform contextualized tasks.
Computational Moving Moreover, the teacher had the vital role in ‘I do it Stage.’ He
Knowledge 42 29.47 7.76 Towards demonstrated competency which was learned by his students.
Mastery
During the intervention, the teachers provided series of
Moving
Over-all Test examples in different levels: easy, average, and difficult to enable
50 33.99 8.61 Towards
Performance students to gradually grasp the skills in computing simple and
Mastery
compound interest. The teachers applied explicit instruction in problem
solving. Explicit instruction in problem solving as noted is defined by
observing strictly the step-by-step procedure in learning..
Table 2 shows the senior high school students’ test performance
scores after exposure to the intervention. The Grade 11 students who In ‘We do it Stage,’ the students were asked to answer math
were taught using explicit instruction as a teaching strategy had shown problems with the help of the teachers following the explicit instruction
remarkable improvements in their learning of mathematics. These in problem solving. As an observation, the students are becoming more
students obtained higher scores in the post-test measures. interested and participative during class discussions. It was evident that
It is important to note that the test performance of the students during the ‘You do it Stage,’ the students have had increased their
before the intervention shows no mastery in both the conceptual and knowledge in simple and compound interest.
computational knowledge in the lessons on simple and compound
interest in General Mathematics. Such manifests their fear in taking the
 The results of this study was also supported by Eilers and knowledge was rejected. There were improvements in the test
Pinkley (2006) that examined the effects of explicit instruction on the performance and math interest of the technical-vocational students who
comprehension of first graders in understanding a story selection. had been taught using explicit instruction.
According to them, prior knowledge (schema) and sequencing are
important elements of explicit instruction to increase students’ The findings of this study are supported by the study of Abana
knowledge. (2005) who found evidence that a significant difference in the problem-
solving performance gain scores among students who were taught using
explicit problem-solving strategy compared to those who were given
Table 3: Comparison of Test Performance Scores in the Conceptual instruction in the traditional problem-solving strategy. Similar findings
and Computational Knowledge of the Senior High School Students: in this study is related to Abana’s research results that a significant
Pre and Post Exposure to Explicit Instruction difference in the conceptual understanding gain scores between students
n=80 exposed to explicit problem-solving strategy and textbook problem-
solving strategy.
Computed Critical
Components Pre-test Post-test
t Value
Decision Interpretation As Hughes (2011) argued explicit instruction is the most
effective and efficient approach in teaching basic skills. Teacher-led
Mean SD Mean SD group instruction has had positive impact on achievement because it
increases such effective teaching elements as in providing clear
Conceptual 2.79 1.27 4.51 1.49 Reject Significant
Knowledge
9.35 1.99
Ho
explanations, modelling, practice, feedback, and frequent responding.

Reject Significant
Conclusion
Computationa 2.43 2.03 29.47 7.76 29.06 1.99
l Knowledge Ho
Based on the findings, the following conclusions are drawn:
Overall 5.21 2.41 33.99 8.61 Reject Significant
29.79 1.99
Performance Ho 1. In terms of the performance of the students in the technical-
vocational track of the Senior High School in pre-test, most of
the students received low mastery in conceptual knowledge and
very low mastery in computational knowledge.
Table 3 shows the results of the test of significance. The 2. In terms of the students’ performance in the test after being
statistical test of difference within group signifies that with a level of taught using explicit instruction as a teaching strategy, their
confidence at .05 > 95 %, students taught using explicit instruction have scores increased.
acquired higher scores in both the conceptual and computational 3. It can be concluded that explicit instruction effectively improved
knowledge in General Mathematics. the math interest and learning of senior high school students in
As can be gleaned from Table 3, it is notable that the obtained t- the technical-vocational track.
values of each test part is greater than the critical value using the 5%
level of significance. This indicates that significant differences existed Recommendations
between the pre-test and post-test scores of the students. Hence, the null
hypothesis that there are no significant differences between the pre-test
and post-test scores of the groups both in conceptual and computational
 Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the Eilers, L. H., & Pinkley, C. (2006). Metacognitive strategies help
students to comprehend all text. Reading Improvement.
following recommendations were given: Fulton, David (2013). Ways of Learning: Learning theories and
learning styles in the classroom 3rd Edition.Hanushek, Eric
(2015). Education and Economic Growth. Stanford University
1. For students to gain improvement both in conceptual and
computational knowledge in mathematics, they must help Hanushek, Eric (2002). Education and Economic Growth. Stanford
themselves through scaffolding process, through continuous University
practice in solving math problems. They must also ask the Icamina, Paul M. (2010). The Philippine Lack of Engineers and
Doctors.
assistance of their teachers if they find difficulty in learning the
Lindsay, J. (2012). What the data really show: Direct instruction really
concepts and solving math problems. works! Jefflindsay.com. Retrieved January 5, 2018
2. Math teacher considers the diverse learning preferences of from http://www.jefflindsay.com/EducData.shtml.
students especially those who have math difficulty. Moreover, Rosenshine A., (2015). Effectiveness of Explicit Instruction. Retrieved
they monitor students with math difficulty and guide them often, from http://journals.sagepub.com
clarify their confusions and queries, provide assistance and
gradually lessen it until the students have reached the mastery of Scarpello, Gary (2005). The Effect of Mathematics Anxiety on the
the concepts. Aside from explicit instruction, teachers Course and Career Choice of High School Vocational-Technical
continuously seek for better teaching strategies that will improve Education Students
students’ math learning.
3. A similar study in the future involving students with math Star, J., Schneider, M., and Johnson, B. (2011). Relations Among
anxiety be undertaken using explicit instruction. Furthermore, Conceptual Knowledge and Computational Knowledge in
future researchers may explore on other teaching strategies that Mathematics
can enhance students’ math learning in more challenging tasks Wadlington, Elizabeth and Wadlington, Patrick (2008). Helping
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