Learning Mathematics and Differentiated Instruction in the Philippines: A Phenomenographical Study on Struggles and Successes of Grade 7 Students

Year 2016, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 1 - 14, 01.09.2016

Victoria C. Magayon Emily B. Tan

Abstract

Differentiated Instruction (DI) has been found to be effective in catering to the individuality of students and at the same time helping students to have positive attitudes about school, increased engagement in learning, and improved achievement. In the Philippines, 16 Focus Groups from Grade 7 students were interviewed regarding their experiences on the differentiation of instruction provided by their Mathematics teachers, which in this study the most observed differentiations by the respondents are relating real-life situations to the lessons, modified learning activities, learning activities according to students’ preference, teachers’ assistance during learning activities, and grouping students based on projects and choice of students. Their verbalized experiences were transcribed as is with no re-statement to conform with Marton’s Phenomenographical principles in characterizing the variations of experiences. Using thematic analysis, a dendrogram is used to cluster the conceptions of the experiences of the respondents in this study. A frequency table and a bar graph present the similarities and variations of the Grade 7 Filipino students’ conceptions of their experiences on DI. Hence, this study argued that DI motivates students’ interest, makes learning mathematics easier, and challenges students to learn and do more. However, the study also argued that students have difficulties in learning and doing mathematical tasks. The findings suggest that considering activities based on students’ preference, modified learning activities, variety of assistance provided to students during activities, and variety of relating real-life situations, and creating different groupings are not enough to ensure that differentiation results to an effective instruction

Keywords

Learning Mathematics, Differentiated Instruction, Filipino Students, Phenomenographical Study