Problems Affecting Pupils' Mastery of Learning Competencies in Mathematics

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the problems affecting pupils’ mastery of learning competencies in mathematics among 280 pupils and 29 teachers assigned at Dulangan Elementary School, Dulangan Pilar, Capiz. A validated and reliability tested questionnaire adapted from Urion, et al. (2022) was used in data collection. The statistical analyses, including frequency count and percentage, were used to analyze the data. The findings reveal that major difficulties affecting mastery of learning competencies in mathematics as computational difficulties are making errors or misreading signs carrying numbers incorrectly and computing inconsistently. When it comes to difficulties, unable to recall basic math facts; procedures, rules or formulas and very slow to retrieve facts or pursue procedures are the common problem. Difficulty in sequencing multiple steps, entanglement in multiple steps or elements of a problem and losing appreciation of the final goal and over emphasizing individual elements of a problem are problems associated to organizational difficulties. As regards to language difficulties, difficulty with the vocabulary; not knowing when irrelevant information is included or when information is given out of sequence and having trouble learning or recalling abstract terms are the usual problems. Being distracted or uncomfortable during math tasks was a problem associated to attention difficulties. Furthermore, confusing when learning multi-step procedures is a problem attributed to visual, spatial or ordering difficulties. Findings further revealed that both pupils and teachers agreed that peer tutoring and parents-pupils-teachers conference were highly possible solutions to the problems affecting mastery of learning competencies in mathematics.