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National Achievement Test Essay This study tried to analyze the Mathematics achievement of the second year high school students of Hermano Miguel Integrated School as revealed in the National Achievement Test (NAT). The relationship between the achievement in Mathematics and their profile was also determined. The results were utilized in developing and evaluating the proposed expanded remediation module. What is the profile of the students as regards age and gender? Gender. In terms of age, it can be seen from table 1 that out of 37 second year high school students used in the study, nine or 24. 32 percent are males and 28 or 75. 8 percent are females. It can be deduce that majority of the students are females. It may also be inferred that there is one male student for every 3 females as the males represents almost 1/3 of the population. Age. As can be viewed in table 2, there are 21 or 56. 76 percent who are 13 years old while 15 or 40. 54 percent are 14 years old. The mean age is 13. 38. this implies that generally, the students are in the normal age range of a second year high school student. How did the second year high school students perform in the National Achievement Test (NAT) in Mathematics? The National Achievement Test (NAT) is an examination given by the Department of Education to all second year high school students in the country. For school year 2009-2010, it was given last March 2010. In Hermano Miguel Integrated School. There were 37 all in all who took the said achievement test in Mathematics. Mathematics is divided into seven topics or areas. There are seven levels of mastery based on the raw scores that were set by the Department of Education. Performance as Regards Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities. Most of the students numbering to 17 or 45. 5 percent had low mastery while two of them were described to have absolutely no mastery of the Linear Equations and Inequalities. Only 13 or 35. 14 percent scored 35 – 65 having received average mastery level. The mean score of the students in this area is 30. 22 equivalents to low mastery level. These data tend to show that generally, the students failed to master the necessary skills in solving linear equations and inequalities. When interviewed, the students said that they really have difficulties in understanding this particular lesson especially inequalities where symbols oftentimes confuse them. They also could not formulate accurately the required equations to the given word problems. The teachers also said that there are times when the students can solve equations but when a word problem is given, they could not make the appropriate equations. Performance as Regards Systems of Quadratic Equations. The students have low master in quadratic equations. This is revealed by the mean score of 33. 62. This means that the students have difficulties understanding this particular topic in Mathematics II. Analyzing further the result will reveal that three or 8. 1 percent have some understanding of this topic as they were described to be moving towards mastery. However, three of them were found to be absolutely no knowledge of quadratic equations. Most of the students obtained scores between 35 – 65 which indicates that they have average mastery. This means that some of them may have the ability to cope up with the lesson on quadratic equations. Performance as Regards Systems of Rational Algebraic Expressions. The students got a mean of 29. 73 in the area of Rational Algebraic Expressions. This indicates that generally they are of low mastery. This implies that the students could not understand well the lesson on rational algebraic expressions which is quite difficult since it involves letters that tend to be abstract to the students. More than half of the students or 51. 35 percent have low mastery level while three of them are totally ignorant of the topic since they scored only 0-4 equivalent to absolutely no mastery. Apparently, the students failed to master the skills in simplifying rational algebraic equations, performing operations on rational algebraic expressions, solving rational expressions and in solving problems involving ational algebraic expressions. As the students said, they are confused when symbols and not numbers are involved in the equation. Some of them believed that Algebra is too abstract. This is a challenge to the teachers to make problems real life so that the students could relate with it and see its importance to their life. With this, the students may become interested to learn Algebra. Performance as Regards Variations. It can be observed that the students are generally average learners in this topic as their scores fall in the average mastery level. This implies that a lot of them could understand the lesson on variations. It may also be inferred that they have averagely developed the competency on identifying relationship between two quantities in real life that are direct, direct square, inverse and joint; represent the relationship as equations that varies directly as the square of a given value; and solving problems on variations: direct, and inverse. It reveals that 16 or 43. 24 percent have average mastery of this topic while no one was found to have absolutely no knowledge of variations. The lowest score was between 5 – 14 which means very low mastery. Performance as Regards Integral Exponents. It is revealed also in this particular lesson the students’ mean score is 23. 49 which indicates that they have low master of integral exponents. This may mean that generally, the students could not perform well the operations of exponential expressions where the exponents are whole numbers and fractions that may be positive or negative. The students said that they could hardly understand integral exponents especially when it is applied in a word problem. There are 16 or 43. 24 percent who showed, low mastery while 13 or 35. 14 percent were found to be possessing absolutely no mastery as their scores fall between 0 – 4. On the other hand, two of them or 5. 41 percent are moving towards mastery as their scores belonged to 66 – 85 bracket. As displayed in the table, the average score is 19. 80 implying that generally the students showed low mastery of this lesson. More than majority (62. 16 percent) exhibited low mastery with six of them or 16. 22 percent showing absolutely no mastery. It may be inferred that the students are likely to fail in the test on radical expressions as they claimed that they tend to be confused when numbers and letters are involved in the equation. Some of them admitted that they do not favor much Mathematics especially Algebra that appears to be so abstract to them. Impliedly the students have not mastered fully the competencies on simplifying radical expressions, perform operations on radical expressions and solving radical equations that were tested in the National Achievement Test. Performance as Regards Searching for Patterns and Sequences. It can be seen in table 9 that the mean score of the students in this lesson or topic is 30. 30 that is tantamount to low mastery level. This implies that generally, the students have not developed the skills required in searching for patterns and sequences. The table also reveals that most of them showed average mastery and low mastery but one of them has absolutely no knowledge on how to solve a problem where patterns and sequences have to be identified. This may mean that the students failed to master the skills on finding the common differences and the nth term arithmetic geometry and in solving arithmetic and geometric problems. Comparison of Students’ Performance in the Areas of Mathematics 2. Table 10 presents that the students are generally of low mastery level in Mathematics as their over-all mean is 29. 88. This means that out of 100 items in the test, the students could only get almost 30 correct answers. This also implies that most of the students find it difficult to understand Algebra. This gives the teachers some challenges to make the learning of Algebra enjoyable by applying it to real life situations so that it will not appear to be too abstract to the learners. According to the recent Basic Education Review prepared by the Department of Education, the mean percentage scores revealed in the National Achievement Test from School year 2004-2008 is 59. 53% and the weakest among the five core subjects taken in the tests was Mathematics, with a 4-year average of 52. 59% (DepEd, 2009). Looking closely at the table, it can be observed that the students scored highest on the topic on â€Å"Variations†. This is the only topic where students may find it understandable to them as they were found to have average mastery level. On the other hand, they were found to be of low mastery level in all the other six areas of Mathematics 2. They scored lowest on the topics â€Å"Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents, and Rational Algebraic Expressions. † These are the topics that need to be given so much emphasis by the teacher when discussing them to the class. They need to make use of varied teaching strategies, varied exercises and detailed explanation. These are also the topics that were included in the proposed remediation module prepared by the researcher. What significant relationship exists between the students’ Mathematics achievement and their profile? Using Yates Correction Formula, the coefficient of correlation was determined. This helped in identifying the relationship between Mathematics achievement and profile that includes age and gender. The data are provided in table 11. Since the computed values of 1. 88 and 0. 00 are both less than the tabular value of 3. 841 then it can be said that at 0. 5 level no significant relationship exists between the students’ Mathematics achievement and age as well as gender. This means that the Mathematics performance of the students is independent of the age and gender. The null hypothesis therefore is accepted. This implies that regardless of age and gender, the students may or may not perform well in the class. It can also be said that the learning Mathematics is not due to age or gender but maybe due to other factors not covered in the study such as interest, teaching competency of the teachers and availability of instructional materials. What remediation module can be proposed? Based from the results of the two examinations, the researcher came up with the remediation module whose main objective is to help the students master the necessary Mathematics skills. The topics covered in the module were â€Å"Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents, and Rational Algebraic Expressions† as these are the ones where the students scored lower compared to other topics. The remediation module was then subjected to evaluation of the five Mathematics teachers form the same school. The complete module can be found in the succeeding pages. According to Liban (2006) school administration should provide supplementary materials for the teachers that would help enrich their socio-technological needs of the present time. Castanos-Agpaoa (2006) said that a module is a new teaching strategy for arranging learning experiences in education and it has been receiving much attention. The strategy of learning modules has become a part of all level of teaching. A learning module is a self-learning package dealing with one specific subject matter unit. It can be used in any setting convenient to the learner and may be completed at the learner’s own pace. It may be used individually or in small groups What is the assessment of the teachers of the proposed remediation module? As can be seen in table, the over-all rating given by the evaluators is 4. 95 which indicates that the proposed remediation module is an excellent material that can help the students improve their Mathematics performance. The evaluators rated the remediation module as excellent in all the criteria except on the criterion related to inclusion of objectives that are of psychomotor domain that was rated as very satisfactory. Conclusions In the light of the findings, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. In the second year, there are 3 females for every one male student. 2. The students are in the normal age of a second year high school. 3. The students can get only 30 correct answers out of 100 items. They are seemingly low in understanding Mathematics. 4. The students need to improve in the areas of Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents and in Rational Algebraic Expressions. 5. In the preparation of the remediation module topics on Radical Expressions, Integral Exponents and in Rational Algebraic Expressions. 6. The students’ ability to learn Mathematics is not directly affected by their age and gender. 7. The proposed remediation module meets excellently the evaluation criteria and therefore it can be used in the classroom. Recommendations Based from the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are hereby offered: 1. The home environment and parents are still important for the behaviors and choices of adolescents. Adolescents  who have a good relationship with their parents are less likely to engage in various risk behaviors, and on top of all there is a need for the respondents for closer guidance in terms of study habits by making follow-ups on daily lessons, accomplishing project and the like. 2. The respondents should be exposed to interesting and challenging learning activities in Mathematics to sustain their interest and momentum in studying Mathematics. 3. Mathematics teachers may use the proposed remediation module in order to help the students improve their Mathematics achievement. However, the module needs to be evaluated periodically to see its functionality and effectiveness. 4. The teachers may give more exercises in every lesson so that students can master the necessary compe tencies required in a particular topic or lesson. 5. Varied teaching strategies may be adapted by the teacher to see which one may work better in helping the students improve their Mathematics performance. 6. Topics for further study.