Action Research
on
Using Tailor-made Worksheet to Improve Students’ Learning in Mathematics
Cheung Chui Yee Charissa
Background to the action research
Students are lack of motivation in learning mathematics due to their failure learning experiences. Student cannot follow the lessons due to the lack of basic knowledge in mathematics. Some students do not pay attention in class and affect those students who want to learn. So that I am concerning with learning atmosphere in the class.
Expectancy-value theory states that if anyone is to engage in an activity, they need to expect some valued outcome (Feather, 1982). So if students are to be brought to want to learn, they will need to develop the expectation that something worthwhile will emerge from their learning. So, tailor-made worksheet will be designed to give students a reasonable expectation of success in completing the task. Complex skills will be broken down into simple skills so that students can master the simple skill independently. This report describes one cycle of the implementation of tailor-made worksheet. The methodology and the results of the action research cycle are presented in the form of four stages – reflection, planning, action and observation. Conclusion and recommendations will be drawn for future steps.
Methodology
The action research starts from the initial reflection. Explanation of using tailor-made worksheet will be discussed.
Initial Reflection
Before planning the first cycle action, some reflections of the class had been investigated. Firstly, some students do not bring along their textbooks and class practice books for the lessons. Thesestudents do not attempt to solve any problem even in class. Worksheet can give them some tasks to complete.
Secondly, some students do not pay attention because examples in textbook are explained in class. Students think that they can read and understand the examples in the textbook by themselves but they cannot. They cannot follow the steps in the textbook.
Thirdly, there are too many vocabularies in the textbooks for the students because students are using Chinese Media Instruction in F1-F3. Some students found that it is difficult to understand the content of the textbook.
Fourthly, limitation of the textbook is also a factor of this action cycle. Most of the students are weak in mathematics in this class. Students need to have more practice in the simple and basic questions before they attempt the higher level questions. However, the textbook does not provide enough simple and basic questions for our students. Students may feel frustrated when they are failing to complete the higher-level exercises properly.
Due to the above reflections, research on using tailor-made worksheet to improve students’ learning in mathematics is implemented. The aim of using tailor-made worksheet is to draw the students’ attention in class, give simple tasks for students so that they can complete the tasks independently. Students can develop the expectation of success in completing the simple and basic tasks during the lessons.
Plan
Tailor-made worksheet is based on the outline of the textbook. Examples and exercises of the textbook will be used in the worksheet. Further revisions and basic exercises on the related topic will be added. Students are expected to recall and practice what they had learned in the lower forms.
Based on the exercises and the examples of the textbook, the orders of the exercises will be rearranged so that students can follow the exercise as well as the examples. Complex skills can be broken down into simple skills. Students can do more basic exercises for learning each simple skill before attempting the harder problems. Spaces are provided after each question so that every student can do their own worksheets during the lessons.
The challenging problems will be included at the end of each section.Those able students can try these problems after they completed the worksheets. This arrangement can help the high-achiever students studying independently.
In each lesson, only 3-5 pages of worksheet will be given. Students are willing to complete the worksheet after the lessons.
Act
I have undertaken this research for one chapter. Before each lesson, I have prepared the tailor-made worksheet for students. According to the abilities of students in mathematics, I have tailored the content of the worksheet. For each lesson, I will start with some simple and basic examples and exercises.
In each lesson, I will use half of the lesson for explaining and discussing the mathematics theory by examples and half of the lesson for students to attempt the exercises in the worksheet.
For those able students, they can do the worksheet independently. After completing the tasks in the worksheet, they can follow the instructions in the worksheet and attempting the high-level problems independently.
Observe
The observation of using worksheet will be examined by means of field notes and supporting documents, questionnaires and interviews. The students’ feedback on using tailor-made worksheet will also be collected by means of questionnaires and interviews.
Diary
I have recorded the effects of the actions after each lesson. The general impression of using worksheet in class will be recorded and discussed in the reflection.
Supporting documents
Students have taken the second uniform test after the first action cycle. According to the exam marks of last semester, each student has an expected mark for the second uniform test. Compared the results of the second uniform test with the last exam results, 28 out of 39 got higher marks than the expected marks in the second uniform test.
Questionnaires
A closed questionnaire was used to collect the feedback from the students. It consisted of five statements on the preferences and effectiveness of using worksheet in class. Students respond to the statement with five-point Likert-type scale ranging from ‘definitely disagree’ to ‘definitely agree’. The questionnaire also included an open-ended question about the further comments and suggestions for the tailor-made worksheet.
Interviews
Ten students were interviewed to share their views on using worksheet. Suggestions have also been obtained for improvement.
Reflect
Diary
The effects of using worksheet have been recorded after each lesson. The general impression of using worksheet in class is as follows.
Learning atmosphere is better than the lesson without worksheet. Students are really learned during the lessons. Students can handle the simple and basic questions by themselves. They looked more confident doing mathematics compared with situation in the first semester.
In the lesson of the using worksheet, most of the students pay attention during the illustration of the mathematics techniques of calculations compared with only half class of students before. Over 70% of students are doing the worksheet during the lessons compared with less than 40% of students attempted before.
Students are willing to try the harder problems unconsciously. For the same level questions, students will think that it is too difficult for them when they are looking at the questions in the textbook. May be there are too many English words in one page of the textbook. Student tended to complete all the worksheets distributed to them. For those low-level students will ask which level they are doing when they are doing the harder problems.
Supporting documents
The second uniform test results reflect that students have pay effort for the revision before the test. 70% of students in this class have shown improvement in the test compared with their results in last semester. It shows that worksheet can increase the tendency on revision mathematics before the test.
Questionnaires
The overall return of the questionnaire was 38 out of 39 (97.4%) in the first cycle.
Analysis of the data showed that overall students preferred using worksheet in the lesson. Worksheet can help them apply the mathematics formula appropriately and increase their interest in learning mathematics. Half of the class give positive views to worksheet or give recommendations to the open-ended question for improving the worksheet.
Interviews
The interviews held with the students provided their views on using worksheet. The majority of the students have agreed in using worksheet. They found that the mathematics questions are much easier that those in the textbook. Some able students found that they could finish the task much faster than before. Some students claimed that they are willing to do worksheet rather than the questions in the textbook.(even though the question in the worksheet is the same as those in the textbook) Some students mentioned that they prefer doing worksheet rather than using textbook. Some students said that the materials in worksheet is much easier that those textbook.
Conclusion and Discussion
After the implementation of the first cycle of using worksheet, it is overall successful. Students were found to be in favor of using worksheet. However, it is time-consuming for preparing worksheet for each lesson. For using worksheet with selected materials, supplementary lessons are required for the able students so that high-level questions can be further discussed. Students suggested that some key point and the important formulas should be highlighted. Students also suggested that some working examples should be added. Students’ feedback is still collected for further improvement.
Reference
Biggs, J. B. and Moore, P.J. (1993). The Outcomes of Learning. The Process of Learning. London: Prentice Hall International, Inc. (pp. 375 – 442)
Sivan, A. (2002). Lecture Notes of the course EDUC4180 Classroom Research, Hong Kong: Hong Kong Baptist University.
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