INNOVATING MATHEMATICAL INSTRUCTION ON BASIC OPERATIONS FOR THE

GRADE THREE PUPILS OF METODIO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL THROUGH

PROJECT “CDA”: COLORFUL, DESIGNED AND ATTRACTIVE VISUAL AIDS

An Action Research Proposal

by:

MYRNA CAMPOS

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Context and Rationale

Ensuring quality and effective mathematical instruction especially for school-age

children depends a lot on several factors or aspects. These include the kind and quality

of teachers’ implemented and applied instructional strategies, approaches and

practices. Likewise, it relies on the kind and quality of instructional materials utilized by

the Mathematics teachers. The kind of teaching-learning resources or materials used by

the teacher greatly affects the learners in terms of motivation and interest towards the

instruction. Teachers realize the need to devise and implement instructional materials

that are catchy, visually-appealling and stimulating for the school-age children.

One way to make instructional materials more appealling for the pupils is to

employ colors, design and even animation. Colorful, well-designed and animated visual

aids are highly attractive and inviting for the children. This is because children by nature

are visually-oriented learners. They get easily attracted by colorful and creatively

designed stuffs including teaching-learning materials that they see in the classroom and

during the course of instruction. Colorful charts, textbooks with a lot of pictures and

even animated educational videos, naturally captivate children’s learning interests.

Thus, in view of these, this study will explore on the implementation of the so-

called Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Animated Visual Aids in teaching basic

operations specifically for the grade four pupils of Metodio Elementary School, the

selected locale of this research. This project primarily aims to innovate and enhance

mathematical instructions on basic operations through the production and utilization of

colorful, well-designed and attractive instructional materials. The researcher finds

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motivation on how this project could help improve the early numeracy skills of the pupils

particularly on basic operations.

Related Literature

The concepts of this study are supported by the following related literature and

studies:

Baroody (2010) stated that basic and early numeracy skills and competence

typically emerge even before the child formally enters schooling. Thus, it is improtant to

provide children with high quality early numeracy instruction towards the promotion of

the development and enhancement of the early numeracy competencies among

learners. Early numeracy instruction primarily aims `to establish among children the

basic and early number sense and early mathematical fluency.

The National Council of Teachers in Mathematics (2012) stressed that during

the first six years of children’s schooling, the importance and relevance of early

numeracy learning experiences are highly evident. Early numeracy instruction helps to

develop children’s confidence, competence and ability to understand and use

Mathematics. Teachers face the need and challenge of introducing early mathematical

concepts and skills through a wide range of developmentally-appropriate teaching

practices and approaches. Teachers need to intensively guide children in developing

early mathematical skills and competencies across the curriculum.

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 Powell (2012) claimed that children start their learning journey in basic

education with early encounter with varied mathematical skills. The goal of early

numeracy instruction is to help children understand and master the fundamentals of

numbers and Mathematics. Quality and effective mathematical instruction is vital and

central to the development of pupils’ early numeracy competencies including number

recognition and comparison of numbers.

Lee (2012) stated that early numeracy instruction should be incorporated in as

early as in the childhood education stage. Simple mathematical concepts should be

introduced and taught to children as early as around three years old. Early numeracy

instruction should be set and established driven by the goal of helping pupils

comprehend and master mathematical terminologies and concepts earlier so that they

will be prepared and trained to apply and relate these concepts in classroom-based

mathematical settings.

Smith (2014) mentioned that number sense is the very first and most basic

numeracy skill that is expected to be developed among children. Children must be

taught on how to visualize and recognize the relationship between numbers through the

mastery of basic counting skills. Developing number sense should be well-established

among children. Children must be taught on how to visualize and recognize the

relationship between numbers through the mastery of basic counting skills. Number

sense should be well-established among children before they encounter and learn more

complex numeracy skills.

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 Wilhelm (2014) explained that children are naturally visually-oriented learners.

They can understand relationships between numbers through pictures and other items

that can represent number concepts. The use of representation or pictures is one

effective way of making basic mathematical learning more realistic for these children. It

is a typical and well-established practice among early childhood educators to use visual

aids or materials in teaching instructional concepts and skills on early numeracy.

Action Research Questions

This study will be centered on innovating mathematical instruction on basic

operations for the grade three pupils of Metodio Elementary School through Project

“CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Attractive Visual Aids.

Specifically, it will seek to answer the following questions:

1. What is the level of numeracy skills of the pupils on basic operations before

the implementation of Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Attractive Visual Aids as

revealed by the pre-test?

2. What colorful, well-designed and attractive visual aids can be produced and

utilized by the teachers to innovate mathematical instruction on basic operations?

3. What are the effects of implementing Project “CDA’’ on the numeracy skills of

the pupils on basic operations as revealed by the post-test?

4. What may be recommended to further enhance and innovate the mathematical

instruction on basic operations?

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Proposed Innovation, Intervention and Strategy

As a proposed innovation in this study, Project “CDA’’ will highlight the production

and utilization of multiple visual aids or instructional materials in Mathematics

specifically on basic operations. These include charts, pictures, diagrams, cards,

illustrations, graphs and even educational videos on mathematical lessons about basic

operations. All these visual aids will be highly employed and equipped with colors,

designs and even animation to make it catchy, interesting and stimulating for the grade

three pupils.

As a proposed intervention in this research, the colorful, well-designed and

attractive visual aids can be utilized by the teacher to provide remedial instruction for at

risk pupils or those having severe difficulties in learning basic operations. The use of

these visual aids during the course of remedial instruction or lessons can help the pupils

minimize confusion and difficulties in learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and

division as these coloful visual aids can be used to present concepts in a more

comprehensible and clearer manner.

Finally, as a proposed strategy, Project “CDA” emphasizes the so-called

visualization approach. Visualization is an approach wherein instructional contents and

concepts are presented and conveyed with clarity, with concrete examples and with the

support of visuals to make it more understandable for the learners. Thus, the use of

these colorful, well-designed and attractive visual aids is an instructional strategy to

visualize clearly and effectively the mathematical instructions on basic operations for the

pupils.

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Action Research Method

This study will make use of Descriptive-Survey method of research. Descriptive

research focuses on the description, discussion and analysis of issues, problems,

concepts and phenomena under the different sectors of life including education. In this

study, the Descriptive-Survey method will be applied in the discussion of the innovation

of mathematical instruction through the implementation of Project “CDA” or Colorful,

Designed and Attractive Visual Aids.

Specifically, the Descriptive-Survey method will be utilized in this study for the

discussion and analysis of the following concepts of the study: 1. the level of numeracy

skills of the pupils before the implementation of Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and

Attractive Visual Aids as revealed by the pre-test; 2. the different visual aids utilized by

the teachers to innovate mathematical instruction on basic operations and 3. the effects

of the implementation of Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Attractive Visual Aids

on the numeracy skills of the pupils as revealed by the post-test.

a. Participants and Other Sources of Data and Information

The respondents of this study are the selected 26 grade three pupils of Metodio

Elementary School. They are selected through random sampling method. These pupil-

respondents will be subjected to the intensive utilization of colorful, well-designed and

attractive visual aids in learning the basic operations of addition, subtraction, division

and multiplication.

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b. Data Gathering Procedures

Prior to the formal conduct of this study, there are some ethical considerations

that the researcher needs to focus on. These include the need to seek the approval of

the school head, supervisor, SDS and the division research committee for the formal

conduct of the study. Likewise, it is considered ethically important to orient the

respondents well about their roles and functions in this study and that their responses

will be held with great confidentiality.

There will be three data gathering procedures to be undertaken in this research.

These include the conduct of pre-test and post-test and interviews with the pupil-

respondents. Pre-test will be administered to gather data about the level of numeracy

skills of the pupils on basic operations prior to the implementation of the project. On the

other hand, post-test will be administered to determine the effects and level of

improvements in the numeracy skills of the pupils upon the intensive implementation of

colorful, well-designed and attractive visual aids. Series of interviews will be conducted

with the 29 pupil-respondents to support the results and outcomes of the study.

c. Data Analysis Plan

This study will make use of Descriptive Statistics for the statistical treatment of

data. This includes the use of frequency count, percentage and weighted mean. For

Problem 1 on the level of numeracy skills of the pupils before the implementation of

Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Attractive Visual Aids as revealed by the pre-

test, the data will be treated using frequency count and percentage technique. For

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Problem 2 on the different visual aids utilized by the teachers to innovate mathematical

instruction on basic operations, the researcher will apply frequency count and weighted

mean for data treatment. Finally, for Problem 3 on the effects of the implementation of

Project “CDA” or Colorful, Designed and Attractive Visual Aids on the numeracy skills of

the pupils as revealed by the post-test, the data will be treated using frequency count

and percentage technique.

ACTION RESEARCH WORK PLAN AND TIMELINE

SUCCESS
ACTIVITIES TIME FRAME PERSONS INVOLVED
INDICATOR
Pre-implementation
Phase:

1. Preparation of the Prepared,

Research Proposal submitted
2. Submission of the research
School principal,
Research Proposal . June 2018 proposal for
proponent, PPRD
for approval approval
3. Revision (if any) Revised
4. Implementation of proposal
the Research Implemented the
Proposal research
proposal
Implementation
Phase: Determined or
1. Determining the identified the
final list of the respondents
respondents
2. Orientation to the Oriented the
School Head,
respondents June 2018 respondents
proponent, respondents
3. Formulation of
data gathering Administered
tools pretest &
4. Implementation of posttest
the research study
5. Administration of Implemented the

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 pre-tes and post- research study
test
6. Collection,
tabulation, Collected,
analysis, and tabulated,
interpretation of analyzed, &
data interpreted the
7. Formulation of data
conclusion and
recommendation Formulated
conclusion &
recommendation
Post-
Implementation
Phase:
1. Submission of the June 2018 School Head, Accomplishment
Accomplishment proponent Report of the
Report Research
2. Revision (if any)
3. Submission and
Acceptance of the
Final Report

COST ESTIMATES

TOTAL
ITEM QUANTITY AMOUNT
AMOUNT
1. Preparation and formulation of action P5,000.00 P5,000.00
research proposal

2. Production and Distribution of pre-test and P 2,000 P 2,000

post—test
3.Preparation and Formulation of the
completion report of the action research P5,000.00 P5,000.00
project

4.Documentation P2,000 P2,000

5.Others P1,000.00 P1,000.00

TOTAL P 15,000 P 15,000

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PLANS FOR DISSEMINATION AND UTILIZATION

PERSONS SUCCESS
ACTIVITIES TIME FRAME
INVOLVED INDICATOR

1. Present the action June 2018 Proponent Approved

research proposal Proposal

2.Conduct/implement June 2018

the actual action Proponent Approved Action
research study Research Study

3. Formulate June 2018 Proponent

Findings, Positive Outcomes
conclusions and of the Entire Study
recommendations of
the student through
the completion report

REFERENCES

Baroody, Arthur J. (2010). Fostering Early Numeracy among School-Age Children.

Article. College of Education. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

The National Council of Teachers in Mathematics. (2012). Mathematics in Early

Childhood Learning. Retrieved on March 28, 2018 from www.ntcm.org/standards-and-
positions/position-statements/mathematics-in-early-childhood-learning

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Powell, Sarah R. (2012). Early Numerical Competencies and Students with
Mathematical Difficulty. Retrieved on March 28, 2018 from
https://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3756513

Lee, Audrey. (2012). Simple Mathematical Skills for Pupils. The Beginners’ Journey. pp
100-104.The Brigaders’ Press. Chicago, Usa.

Smith, Wiljohn C. (2014). Developing Number Sense among Primary Pupils. Basic
Mathematics. pp 66-69.People’s Press. New York.

Wilhelm, Arthur Z. (2014). Developing Early Numeracy Skills for Children through
Viualization. The Journey to Early Mathematics. pp 81-83. Liberty Publishings.
Melbourne, Australia.

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