METACOGNITIVE-FOCUSED LEARNING STRATEGIES ON DIFFERENTIATION

TO ELEVATE MATEMATICAL REASONING SKILLS

Abstract

Mathematical reasoning (PM) is one of many important skills required by students to succeed
in learning analytical mathematics topics such as Differentiation. Nevertheless, many studies
have reported that the overall levels of PM among students were still below par. Several studies
and scientific debates have suggested that there exists a connection between mastering PM and
the metacognitive processes practiced by individual when learning mathematics. This study was
conducted to address two main objectives, namely (i) to design and develop a metacognitive-
focused learning strategy (called SPPBM) that assists students in elevating PM in the learning
of Differentiation (ii) to study the effects of SPPBM on students’ levels of PM in the learning
of Differentiation. The first objective was addressed using Marzano’s model of Dimension of
Expanding and Enhancing Knowledge on four essential components of PM (i.e. comparing and
contrasting, classifying, inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning) to provide a theoretical
framework of study. In addition, the design, development and integration of metacognitive-
focused learning activities were made in accordance with Wilson’s model of metacognition.
The second research objective was investigated using a pre-test versus post-test of a single group
repeated time series approach. This design and development type of study was conducted in two
stages according to ADDIE model. The first stage involved five phases beginning with analyzing
of fundamental information of PM skills, metacognitive-focused learning strategies to assist
students in elevating PM, selection of relevant mathematical contents and the compatibility
between the adopted models. The results of analyses were then used to provide a foundation for
designing and developing SPPBM. The design phase involved the structuring and arrangement
of learning activities with detailed attention given on the integration of metacognitive-focused
activities onto each PM activity prescribed by Marzano’s model. The development phase
involved constructing and integrating suitable learning activities with respect to the PM and each
of its four components. A small scale pilot study was first conducted to check for obvious flaws
and deficiencies of SPPBM as well as to help researcher to get familiar with the intervention
activities during the real field work. The SPPBM was given to six expert mathematics educators
to validate and evaluate its suitability in terms of the metacognitive-focused learning strategies
as well as its function to assist students in elevating PM. In the second stage, the SPPBM was
tried out to 31 students in a common classroom setting. Before the intervention, these students
(who have learnt the topic of Differentiation using traditional approach earlier) were given a
Differentiation Reasoning Test (UPP) to measure the level of PM (TPM) as well as the level of
each of the four essential PM components of compare and contrast (TPMMB), classify
(TPMMK), inductive reasoning (TPMI) and deductive reasoning (TPMD). Following to that,
the students were directed to re-learn Differention using SPPBM for a period of six weeks.
During this period, a three series of tests were conducted using smaller scale of similar version
of UPP. At the end of intervention period, the TPM and each of the TPMMB, TPMMK, TPMI
and TPMD were measured again using a similar version of UPP post-test. The data were
analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired t-test and one-way ANOVA. The results from the
paired t-test revealed a significant increase of PM mean after the learning of Differentiation
using SPPBM (t=-27.47; p < 0.05). Similar findings were also found in each of levels of
components TKPM where the paired t-test results showed the following: TPMMB [(31)=-
22.097, p<0.05], TPMMK [(31)=-32.416, p<0.05], TPMI [(31)=-38.325, p<0.05] and TPMD
[(31)=-26.843, p<0.05]. The findings from the one-way ANOVA test appeared to have
confirmed the existence of significant mean increases (at level 0.05) of TPM and each of the
levels of PM components after the learning using SPPBM. These findings suggested that the
SPPBM appereared to have positive effects in assisting the students to elevate the PM especially
in the learning of Differentiation.