STRATEGIC INTERVENTION MATERIAL (SIM) BASED

INSTRUCTION’S EFFECT ON THE MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

OF STUDENTS-AT-RISK-OF-DROPPING-OUT (SARDO)

BEN FERMIN Q. ABUDA, MARIEL CLARISSE D. CABILI, MA.FE ANGEILENE M. MAESTRE,

GLORY FE O. ORALLER, JESTONI C. ORQUE
Eastern Samar Division, benfermin293876@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of a Strategic Intervention Material (SIM) on the achievement of
Grade 11 students at risk of dropping out (SARDO) in General Mathematics. The study used experimental
method of research through a single group pre-test/ posttest design among SARDOs of Dolores National High
School for the School Year 2018-2019. Pretest and posttest questionnaire involving solving rational equations
were used as main instrument for data collection both before and after the experiment periods. Results indicated
that there is highly significant achievement in the level of Grade 11 students’ performance in solving rational
equations applied through a SIM day Self-Paced Intervention Program. The study concluded that teaching
students using SIM in a self-paced manner gives a high effect on students’ learning. Hence, it recommends
among others that a SIM-based instruction should be encouraged in schools and that teachers of all levels and
disciplines be given training-workshop on theories and practice of SIM to address learning gaps in the academe.

Keywords: Strategic Intervention Material; Students-at-risk-of-dropping-out (SARDO); student’ achievement;

SIM day Self-Paced Intervention Program
 I. INTRODUCTION

Mathematics is considered a vital subject in the world today, the navigation towards a more

technological society has been made possible through inventions following mathematical paths, logic

and understanding. Mathematics which is being considered as most hated subject, found to be which

most students fail completing the necessary requirements and get low performances in both academics

and logical reasoning skills, thus creating negative feedback to most students in the secondary level

(Salviejo et.al 2014)

Instructional materials are basic tools that any teacher uses to help him teach his students.

Every teachers needs supplies and resources in order to implement a successful classroom. Over the

years, poor performances are correlated with poor and wrong choice of teaching materials and

methods (Dela Cruz). Lack of classroom instructional materials had always been one of the main

problem, public high schools bear nowadays. This resulted to teachers purchasing materials out of

their own pocket to sustain productivity inside the classroom. With this study, the problem on

developing a contextualized and valid instructional material called Strategic Intervention Material

(SIM) will be highlighted to shade light and understanding towards the maximum utilization of the

said material. Learning is the top edge of every teaching activity, one which can only be attained

when the learner is holistically prepared, the learning tasks are goal oriented and the whole method

are planned out, appropriately. A bundle of literatures has stated that mathematics learning can be best

achieved when a particular concept is presented in the simplest form possible so that the learner can

better understand and recognize it in any way possible. Furthermore, learning can be directly attained

when (a) the information is presented in simple steps, (b) a feedback is directly given, and (c) when

the learner is allowed to work on his own. It is therefore a must that a teacher design learning

pedagogies that can connect learners to the topic thereby empowering them to gain control over the

learning process (Anadia, 2015).

“Learning is always the object of every method of instruction” said Maniable (2003).

However, the success of learning greatly depends on the learner, the task on hand, and the method

used to understand a concept. Hence, feelings, thinking, and acting leads to human empowerment to
commit and become a responsible citizenry. Novaks’ Theory of Constructivism even implies that

when students have the passion to commit meaningful learning, they transgress rote memorization,

thus becoming designers who are looking for the practicality of learning contents in their daily lives.

The acquisition of education is considered highly productive with the availability of learning

materials that address the needs and capture the students’ interest to learn new things. Unfortunately,

uprising problems on shortage of classroom instructional materials and learning equipment, the

teachers are required to produce contextualized and localized materials to use for classroom

instruction. Designing an appropriate learning experience is a major task of every educator, it aims to

interconnect the three major domains of learning. In many years, the evolutions of modules and

learning materials pave ways in catering the best education to the 21st century learners. Salviejo

(2014) gives importance on the consideration of major factors in developing learning packages such

as that of availability of resources, strategies to use and the applicability of such to the very needs of

the students. According to Plenos (2014, as cited by Lazaro 2018), an instructional material like

teacher-made Strategic Intervention Materials deepen learners understanding of competencies in an

interesting and fun way, noting that since the material is made locally, it becomes so personal to the

students making them appreciate cultural facts and heritage of their locals. Every instructional

material that integrate concrete manipulative found to be significant in the improvement of students’

academic achievement. Siemon (2011) as cited by Diaz et al (2017), believed that working with

concrete objects lead to a greater conceptual depth that will help students think and reason out in more

meaningful ways. These benefits are all rooted from Constructivist learning theory wherein a learner

constructs meaning as s/he learns (Siemon, 2011).

A learning material can be developed through an instructional model known as ADDIE

Model wherein, steps and process are both aligned to the nature of the learning material(Dy, 2011).

ADDIE is an abbreviation of processes including (1) analysis, (2) design, (3) development, (4)

implementation, and (5) evaluation phases. In general ADDIE visualizes the overall process by

simply establishing guidelines and managing the developmental procedure. Instructional designers use
ADDIE not only for the benefits mentioned previously but also because it answers specific questions.

Therefore, ADDIE Model is a systematic approach providing clarity among instructional designers.

The Department of Education through its K-12 program dictates that all learning experiences

must be learner-centered. The learner-centered Psychological Principle (LPCs) provide an educative

framework that integrates social constructivism, individual differences theories, and cognitive

learning theories to better cater a classroom of greater thinkers. Since the SIM is prepared in a way

that a learner can do it independently from the presence of a teacher, the strategies must be hinged on

providing opportunities to learn contents in the simpler way possible.

According to Bjork (2007), to effectively implement a self-guided learning approach, the

learner needs to face certain intuitions and have a reasonably good understanding of the processes that

underlie durable learning. However, when students acquire new understanding they do not study each

item just for a single time, but students need to go over the materials multiple times before

terminating study. Many researches, presupposes that SPL promotes self-reliance and independence,

thereby increasing students amount of responsibility to their own learning, since they are self-

motivated. According to Soberano (2009), Self-paced learning (SPL) as a teaching method enables the

learners to move on to another step as soon as competence is reached in the current modality. The said

approach is popular to TVL programs. It is characterized as a diversion from the usual teachers up

front to teachers who should be readily on site to aid learners who encounters problem and issues with

their materials. In many studies, the said approach is made possible through modular encrypted

instruction. SPL promotes continual enrolling to the course/program, topping of classes and increased

in class sizes (Bunagan, 2012). In Self-paced learning the learner controls the pace of the learning

process. The content, learning sequence, pace of learning and possibly even the media are determined

by the individual(Antigua, 2015).

According to (Anadia, 2015), self-paced learning maximizes learners’ academic freedom

thereby lessening incorrect assumptions that all learners learn at the same speed, have access and

control over their lives to march along with a cohort group of learners or are able, despite divergent

life circumstances, to begin and end their study on the same day, self-paced study correctly puts the
learner squarely in control. Henceforth, the said approach enables the learner to make many of the

decisions about when, where, what and how quickly they learn while the trainer functions as a guide

and facilitator of learning. This supports John Dewey’s experiential learning which states that

experience is the best source of learning(Balequia, 2018). For the learners to acquire mathematics

understanding and love for the subject, they should be actively involved in doing mathematics and

should actively do the operations in mathematics. This study is also anchored on the Theory of Self-

Efficacy by Albert Bandura stating that the belief on ones’ necessary capabilities to perform a task,

fulfill role expectations, or meet challenging situations, successfully. When learners believe that they

have the ability to perform learning activities successfully, they are more likely intrinsically motivated

to do such learning activities. Learners are more inclined to engage in a task if their self-efficacy is

high, and avoid it, if it is low (Antigua, 2015).

Under the influence of the self-paced learning approach, this study pursued to ascertain if

there is a difference mastery level of the learners under different teaching strategy, learning

environment and learning materials. Furthermore, Dy (2011) premised in her Strategic Intervention

Theory that learners should be exposed to new modes of teachings, with less teacher dominance and

that students are given the chance to acquire learnings at their own pace and control. Through this,

curriculum developers can create techniques that foster positive performance towards mathematics

which encourages success in learning it.

The researchers’ desired to help students change their attitudes in disliking mathematics is

aided through a Paper-engineered Strategic Intervention Material (SIM). As cited by Aranes (2014) in

the study of Bunagan (2012), a Strategic Intervention Material is meant to reteach the concepts and

skills (least mastered) through a material given to students to help them master competency-based

skills which they were not able to develop during a regular classroom teaching. This intervention

requires posttest, pretest and fun dealing activities.

This academic endeavor differs from the cited studies in terms of the scope of the learning

tool package used in the classroom, scope of the problem, subjects treated and the selection of the
respondents/subjects. However, they are similar because they are all concerned on the approaches

effect on the performance of the learners.

This study validated the effectiveness of a Strategic Intervention Material in General

Mathematics for Grade XI Students in Dolores National High School for the school year 2018-2019.

In particular, it answered the following research questions 1. What is the pretest and posttest

achievement of the Students-at –risk-of-dropping-out (SARDO) taught using the Paper Engineered-

Strategic Intervention Material (SIM)? 2. Is there a significant difference between the mean pre-test

and posttest achievement of the Students-at –risk-of-dropping-out (SARDO) exposed to a Strategic

Intervention Material (SIM)? 3. What is the general effect of the SIM in the achievement level of the

Students-at –risk-of-dropping-out in General Mathematics?

II. METHODOLOGY

In answering the questions posted above, the researchers utilized single group pretest-post test

research design in which selected subjects were pretested prior to the experimental phase, then

posttest followed. This study was conducted at Dolores National High School located at Reynaldo St.

Barangay 09 Dolores, Eastern Samar 6817 Dolores Eastern Samar Philippines among identified

Students at Risk of Dropping out (SARDO) who are currently enrolled in a General Mathematics

class. Furthermore, SARDO refers to those people who need assistance or help to improve their

understanding in a particular thing, they are actually the prior focus of the researcher in this study to

help them improve their skills to understanding the various concepts of mathematics. Pre-coding

sampling method was utilized, and the selected subjects alongside with other students in the class

were taught using SIM-based instruction.

The basis of the developed instructional material employed through SIM-based instruction

was the SMEA report presented last year, the Senior High School teachers handling General

Mathematics found out that Solving Rational Equations is one of the least learned competency an it

was supported with the result of the mathematics Proficiency Test given by the researchers to Grade
11 students for the school year 2017-2018. This paves way for the researcher to focus on the said

competency in crafting the Paper Engineered Strategic Intervention Material.

A twenty-item pre/posttest instruments were used. The said instrument was pilot-tested

among Grade 12 students who have taken the said course in their previous grade level.

The data collected were tallied and computed using t-test for dependent samples. In

interpreting the results for descriptive data, formula for mean scores and Department of Education

Mastery Descriptive Equivalence were used. In analyzing the difference of the two samples, t-test for

paired/dependent samples with unequal variances and in determining the effect of the material on the

performance of the students, Learning Gain Score was utilized.

III. RESULTS

Table/Figure 1. Comparability of the Pretest and Posttest Mean Scores of SARDOs

Data Instrument Mean % Interpretation

Pretest 13.20 33 Low Mastery
Posttest 28.33 71 Moving Towards Mastery

Table 2. Comparison of Pre/Posttest Results through t-test Analysis

Data Instrument Standard Deviation t-value P-value Interpretation

Pretest 4.55
16.43 0.000 Significant
Posttest 2.45

Figure 2. Learning Gains of the Students at Risk of Dropping-out

 IV. DISCUSSIONS

Students-at-risk-of-dropping–out (SARDOs) as the subjects of the study were pretested to

determine their prior knowledge on the learning content before facing with the teachers’ made

innovation in the form of a Strategic Intervention Material. Table 2 shows the results of the pretest

and posttest achievement of the students at risk of dropping out.. Further, the table clarifies the

posttest results of the students is 42% higher compared o their pretest scores and that students were in

low mastery status prior to getting exposed to SIM-based instruction, but was advanced and is

moving towards mastery as their posttest result. In, addition to that, Figure 1, describes the distances

of the pretest and posttest scores of the students in which it can be gleaned that the students has a

greater achievement after getting exposed to the strategic intervention material.

Table 2 illustrates the difference of scores of the students in the pretest and posttest. A greater

dispersed score can be observed in the posttest scores compared to the pretest scores. Thus, the

Strategic Intervention Material, has the ability to enhance a learners performance. Furthermore, the t-

statistics (16.43) is greater that the t-tabular value (1.699) and the computed P-value(0.000) is lesser

than the adopted level of significance(0.05), hence there is a significant difference between the pretest

and posttest scores of students exposed to Strategic Intervention Material. These findings are

confirmed by the study of Lazaro (2018) on the strategic intervention Materials (SIMs) effects on

students’ performance in Grade 10 science class. Such results showed a significant difference between

the students’ academic performance before and after their exposure to SIM. The pre-test yielded a

mean of 14.098 and the posttest mean of 16.698. The p-value associated with the computed t value is

less than the adopted level of significance. The students exposed to SIM demonstrated better

academic performance.

Also, a similar finding was highlighted in the study conducted by Soberano et al. as cited by

Salviejo (2014) that the use of SIM improves students’ academic performance.

The findings imply that both instructions pave way in the increase of mean scores from the

pretesting to post-testing.
 An learning gained is concern, an average learning gain of 56.17% was computed. This is a

bet higher compared to the expected 5% learning gain. This indicates that the SARDOs performed

well after getting exposed on the teachers’ made innovation. This is also an indication that the

Strategic Intervention Material is an effective self-paced instructional approach in teaching students

who are experiencing difficulties in mastering critical concepts. This result conformed with the

statement of Armsden (2011) that instructional material enhances one’s appeal in learning. The SIM

can be a goof avenue for an effective ways of communicating ideas suited to foster love in

mathematics as a discipline.

Results, agreed with the statements of Briggs (2012) that good instructional technologies

increased learning. In the course of the experiment, the researcher observed that in completing tasks

provided in the SIM, the subjects reviewed relevant concepts that help them answer the task of the

day. In this case, the subjects connected the previous lesson which is an indicator of a successful

transfer of learning with the considerable increase in the mean score after the use of the SIM.

V. Conclusions

1. The use of a Strategic Intervention Material enhances the achievement level of the Students-at

–risk-of-dropping-out (SARDO) in General Mathematics.

2. There is a significant difference between the mean pretest and posttest score of the Students-

at –risk-of-dropping-out (SARDO) exposed to Strategic Intervention Material (SIM) based

instruction.

3. The Students-at –risk-of-dropping-out (SARDs) generally have positive achievement level

and learning gained through the use of Strategic Intervention Material (SIM). Furthermore,

students find it more enjoyable, interesting and had contributed to their interest in the

discipline

4. Employ the same instruction wit comparison groups to further test the claims of this study,

5. Develop Strategic Intervention Materials for other disciplines to further test the significance

of the results.
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