Republic of the Philippines

BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division are the four fundamental

operations that serve as the basic tools in solving Mathematical problems. It is necessary

to learn these operations in order to solve Mathematical equations like in Algebra,

Geometry, Trigonometry and Calculus.

These Operations are not just important in Mathematical subjects, but also

applicable in our daily lives. We use these operations when we purchase something in the

store, in computing the expenses when we go travelling and in paying our bills. Without

these operations, moneys talks will be so difficult.

Shakuntala Devi, an Indian writer and mental calculator, popularly known as the

“human computer” once said, “Without Mathematics, there’s nothing you can do.

Everything around you is Mathematics. Everything around you is numbers. She really

believes that all things include Mathematics.

The four fundamental operations are the basic tools to solve Mathematical

problems. However, they are also the weaknesses of every student because they are not

that interested in numbers. To bring back their interest in Mathematics, we conducted a

research in teaching the four fundamental operations using a Card Game.

 Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

In 2015, Kitty Rutherford, an instructional systems specialist from North

Carolina, posted an article about the use of games in teaching Mathematics. He believed

that people of all ages love to play games that are fun and motivating. In addition, he also

thinks that games give students opportunities to explore fundamental number concepts,

such as the counting sequence, one-to-one correspondence, and computation strategies. In

that way, the interest of the students to study Mathematics will be boosted.

Furthermore, Shannon Duncan, the associate director of Columbia Business

School, discovered that the best kind of game-based math learning will actually boost

students’ and teachers’ ability to reason, understand underlying concepts and find

solutions to complex Math problems.

In addition, digital games are used as carriers of educational content because they

are intrinsically or basically motivating as mentioned by Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo, a

professor in Ateneo de Manila University, on her study in 2015. She also added that

educators hypothesize that the interactivity, fantasy, challenge, and competition that are

inherent to games will promote greater engagement, time-on-task, focus, and therefore

achievement than educational strategies.

Mathematics is indeed one of the most difficult subjects. It is why students are

having a hard time focusing on studying it. Teaching it is really a great challenge to

educators for they need to know the things they should do to maintain the focus of each
 Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

student while they are learning inside the classroom. This struggle is the reason why

teachers should keep on looking for various strategies to be used in order to make the

learning process more efficiently.

 Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

Statement of the Problem

We all know that Mathematics is one of the hardest subjects in high school.

Through our experience during practice teaching we observed that one of the problem of

Grade 7 students in Muzon National High School (MNHS) in mathematics are the four

fundamental operations. Since, the four fundamental operations are used in our everyday

life, we focused on how important and how we can help to improve their thinking in

Mathematics using the four fundamental operations.

This research is guided by the following question:

1. Do the students in Grade 7 find difficult the four fundamental operations?

2. What do the teachers need to guide their students to enjoy studying Mathematics

that involve the four fundamental operations?

3. What strategies in teaching the four fundamental operations should the teachers

apply to make the learning easier?

 Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

Significance of the Study

The findings of this research would be helpful to those who are concerned in

using different strategies in teaching the four fundamental operations in Grade 7 students

at Muzon National High School such as using interactive games in improving students’

computation skill.

To the Students

The result of this research will help the students to improve their computation

skill using the four fundamental operations.

To the Teachers

The research will help the teachers to have new idea in teaching four fundamental

operations that make the students more interested.

To the Researchers

The finding of this research will be valuable to the future researchers for them to

have an insight on where Grade 7 students having difficulty in four fundamental

operations and have ideas on strategies that may use to improve their computation skill.
 Republic of the Philippines
BULACAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Sarmiento Campus
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
San Jose del Monte City

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The respondents of the study are the selected Grade 7 students of Muzon National

High School (MNHS) this school year 2018-2019. The researchers select forty (40)

Grade 7 students.

The purpose of the study is to determine the difficulties of Grade 7 students in

four fundamental operations and enhance the speed of answering in four fundamental

operations using a Card Game.