Action Research: ROTATED AND FIXED GROUPINGS: THEIR EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS AT MALINTA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

ROTATED AND FIXED GROUPINGS: THEIR EFFECTS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS AT MALINTA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Fourth year students of Malinta National High School presently taking up Mathematics IV were selected for the study. This was a subject taught in a self-contained classroom. At the beginning of the school year, the students were randomly placed in the class by the committee of enrolment. This committee is made up of two teachers who were in charge of scheduling and sectioning of students. Before the third year students move to fourth year level, they were fully screened by the said committee. The committee ranked the students according to their performance in all subject areas, then they cut-off the number of students for the selection of pilot section. The pilot section contained students who had high performance in all subject areas as compared to other students. Beyond the pilot section, the rest of the students were randomly placed in the remaining seven sections. They were equally and fairly distributed to their respective sections.
From the seven randomly distributed sections, three of them were subject of the study, Amethyst, Pearl, and Emerald.
The researcher wanted to find out the answers to the following questions: (1) What is the mathematical performance of the students before and after the use of fixed and rotated groupings; and the learning unit? (2) Is there a significant difference between and among the students who belong to fixed group, rotated group and traditional setting in their Performance toward Mathematics?
To determine the effects of the fixed and rotated groupings on the performance of the students toward Mathematics, the researcher administered a pretest and posttest (2nd Periodic test) before and after the learning.
Initially the three sections (groups) were pre-tested and they all fall on below average performance. For No grouping set-up, after the learning unit they recorded an average performance in Math. Likewise, students belong to fixed grouping recorded also an average performance after the learning unit. On the other hand, the students belong to rotated grouping recorded above average performance in Mathematics after the learning unit and the application of the intervention itself.
The increased in mathematical performance level of the students belong to rotated group was perhaps due to the fact that they enjoyed to be re-tracked to their classmates weekly. As one of the students said, “I like the rotated grouping because it gives me a chance to be a leader, sometimes a member or a contributor of the group”. Others said that they could share their ideas with their peers and learned from them, as well.
The researcher used the t-test for Independent means to determine the significant difference between and among the three groups.
There is no significant difference between the no-grouping set-up and fixed grouping on mathematical performance of fourth year students of Malinta National High School as revealed by the computed t value. On the contrary, there exists a significant difference between the no grouping set-up and rotated grouping. The conclusion was that rotated grouping is better than no grouping set-up on the mathematical performance of fourth year students in Malinta National High School. This also showed that students in rotated grouping gained more knowledge than no-grouping set-up. The significant difference between the rotated and no groupings implies that the students in rotated group perform well than no grouping set-up. Probably, they triggered their interest to learn mathematics or to help one another and share their own ideas for a certain topic. Unlike the students in rotated group, students in no grouping set-up work individually thus they only relied on their own understanding about the concept in math and from the ideas of their teacher and from their reference books. Likewise, it was found out that there is a significant difference between the fixed grouping and rotated grouping. This further suggested that there was a significant difference in the effect between Rotated grouping and Fixed Grouping on the mathematical performance of fourth year students of Malinta National High School, implying that rotated grouping was more effective intervention in facilitating students’ mathematical performance than fixed grouping. Probably, because the students worked cooperatively and collaboratively in Rotated Grouping than in fixed grouping and they showed much enthusiasm in learning mathematics. The Rotated Grouping enhanced students’ interests and drives to brainstorm topics with their classmates. Thus mathematical performance had been increased.




CONCLUSIONS

Based on the thorough investigations and findings, the researcher arrived at following conclusions:
· Using rotated grouping in fourth year high school increased learning.
· Fixed grouping and rotated grouping engendered more learning in Mathematics than no grouping.
· Fourth year students believed that they learned more by working in rotated groups than in fixed grouping and individual work.
· In using rotated grouping, all students were given a chance to be a leader and a follower.
· Cooperative learning using rotated grouping and fixed grouping was more effective than traditional instruction.

RECOMMENDATIONS

· Based upon the findings of the study, it was recommended that Rotated grouping should be used in cooperative learning.
· Teachers should learn the proper techniques of rotated grouping. He/she should attend seminars related to cooperative learning.
A similar study involving larger groups of respondents be undertaken to further affirm the findings of this study.





Prepared by

MR. RODERICK M. DE LEON
(Teacher III)Malinta National High School