development and evaluation of modules

Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction Mathematics is a very important subject. The effect of Mathematics in our daily struggles in life is very evident. Everything involves Mathematics that is why Mathematics is very important on the part of the students to study. Over the years, schools have always been concerned with the development of effective learning experience for the learners. It is generally accepted that the quality of education students get largely dependent upon the quality of instruction they are given. There is then a necessity to use better teaching strategies in all levels of learning especially in Mathematics. A Mathematics teacher must be very creative in his methods and approaches in teaching. He is expected to possess a thorough knowledge of the criteria of good teaching and the subject matter to be taught, a broad knowledge of various methods and strategies of teaching different kinds of students with the aid of the appropriate visual aids and techniques (Aquino, 1998). Innovative strategies and other interventions should be applied inside the classroom to help the students deal with the difficult learning areas in Mathematics. Modules, drills and other purposeful activities should be employed to motivate and let students enjoy and learn the hard topics (Muir 2005). Aside from the utilization of the different strategies, Mathematics educators should continually search for new approaches and techniques to cope with the profession’s challenge to teach, to help and to improve the students, academic performance in Mathematics. One of these newly explored techniques is the use of modules in teaching the different learning areas of the subjects (Ariola, 2004). Modular instruction develops the learner’s competence to learn by himself with the aim of reaching achievement that approaches the limit of the individual’s capacity. It provides closer interaction between the learner and the subject matter. With the use of modules, students would personally and deeply involved in the learning process, thus, his commitment to the task is likely to enhance the effectiveness of the learning activities. It provides more practice exercises for the slow learners, additional developmental exercises for the average students and enrichment exercises for the fast learners. It may serve as a basic textbook as well. With the positive attributes of modular instruction on the students, the researcher, a Mathematics teacher, embarked on the development of instructional modules in teaching polynomial functions. The researcher will develop a module that is simple, clear, easy to understand, and students can read and study it even without the presence of the teacher. It is hoped that these developed modules would enable the students to learn, explore, enrich and later on master the mathematical skills involved in the study of polynomial functions. May the Mathematics teachers find the modules as useful and effective instructional aid in promoting better learning experience.

Statement of the Problem
The study aims to develop and validate modules in teaching Mathematics for fourth year high school students of Victoria National High School during the school year 2013-2014.
Specifically, this study seeks to attain the following objectives:
1. Develop instructional modules in teaching polynomial functions.
2. Validate the instructional modules in teaching polynomial functions in terms of:
2.1 mathematics experts’ evaluation
2.2 students’ performance

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses will be tested at 0.05 level of significance.
1. There is no significant difference between the pre-test mean scores of the experimental and control group.
2. There is no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental and control groups.
3. The post-test mean scores of the experimental and control groups are the same.

Significance of the Study
The findings of the study will help the curriculum writers, book writers, school administrators, teachers, parents and students to continually work for a better quality of mathematics education.
To the school administrators, the development of modules like this will help them be informed and knowledgeable of its effectiveness to the learning of the students. These modules will be a great help in promoting education and enhancement learning. It will also help in solving the problem with regards to lack of instructional materials. If modular instruction is found effective in instruction and in improving the performance of the students they can offer technical and material support for the production of the modules. With their supervisory capacity, they can inform, guide, plan with their teachers on how they could overcome the problems they may encounter in teaching by applying the appropriate methods and techniques to affect teaching and improve the performance of the students in math.
To the teacher, the modules will serve as references regarding the tackled topics on polynomial functions. The findings of the study will also provide them information regarding the levels of performance of the students, where they are weak or strong. From there, the teacher will be able to determine the appropriate teaching strategies and techniques so as to suit them to the minds of the students. Furthermore, the findings will provide them the ideas on how students perform in an instruction using modules. The effects of modules in instruction might inspire them to prepare and produce more modules on other topics in mathematics.
The students will be properly guided in learning the modularized sub-topics since the module is a self-contained and self-sufficient unit of instruction that consists of a set of instructional materials and procedures. In this manner of instruction, a step by step mode, from simpler to complex presentation and simple language of the module, the students’ positive attitude in learning mathematics is developed. Moreover, the modules, hopefully, they can help minimize the level of difficulty and maximize the performance of the students.
To the parents, the developed modules will enable them to tutor their children at home and do follow up in their studies.
To the future researchers, this study will give them inspiration to pursue further studies in the field of mathematics and that it may serve as their secondary data.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study
The study will attempt to develop and validate instructional modules in teaching polynomial functions to fourth year students of Victoria National High School during the school year 2013-2014. The modules will be validated to the acceptability of content, scope and procedure as well as its effectiveness as an instructional material.
To validate the content of the modules, experts’ evaluations will be gathered from the questionnaire distributed to module experts and Mathematics teachers. The module expert and mathematics teachers will be chosen based on their qualification and their specialization in the field of Mathematics.
To validate the effectiveness of the materials, students’ achievement in the pretest-posttest will be used. Two sections were taken among the 16 sections of Victoria High School. They will be chosen at random for the experimental and control group. Each group consist of 40 fourth year students. One section will receive the module as means of instruction herein referred as experimental group and the other section will receive the usual classroom instruction referred to as the control group.

Definition of Terms
The following terms are defined operationally for clarity and common understanding of the research study:
Achievement. This refers to the difference in the pre-test and post-test of the respondents.
Control Group. This refer to the group of students who undergoes the traditional approach of teaching.
Experimental Group. This refers to the group of students who undergoes the modular approach of instruction.
Traditional Approach. It is the usual classroom setting in the school where the teacher discusses the lesson and the students listen and talk less.
Modular Approach. It refers to the method of instruction wherein students were given a set of modules to work on with little or no assistance from the teacher.
Performance. It refers to the scores of the experimental and control groups in the pretest and posttest.
Pre-test. It is the test given to the control and experimental and control groups to determine their behavior before the traditional or modular approach of teaching.
Post-test. It refers to a test given to the two groups to evaluate their performance after the traditional or modular approach of instruction.
Validation. It is the process of evaluating the developed instructional modules based on experts’ judgment and students’ performance.