Effects of Integrating History of Mathematics on High School Students Cognitive and Affective Learnings

Abstract

The study looked into the relative effects of integrating History of Mathematics in the teaching of Algebra and Trigonometry on the cognitive and affective learnings of fourth year high school students. Furthermore, it tried to find out the relative contribution of ability level and gender on their mathematics achievement, attitude towards mathematics, perception of the usefulness of mathematics, confidence in learning mathematics, mathematics anxiety and beliefs about mathematics.

Some 118 fourth year high school students enrolled in the Secondary Education Development Program of a public high school located in Iligan City were the subjects of this study. These students composed the four sections of Mathematics IV (Algebra and Trigonometry) which were taught by one teacher. Two groups composed of one high ability section and one low ability section, randomly chosen as the experimental group, were taught Algebra and Trigonometry with the integration of History of Mathematics while other two groups were taught Algebra and Trigonometry the traditional way. Fifteen lessons for each group were prepared by the researcher.

At the beginning of the second semester, the learners have given the Otis Lennon School Ability Test the scores of which matched the learners between the experimental and control groups. At the same time, the Mathematics Achievement test, Attitude towards Mathematics Inventory, Perception of the Usefulness of Mathematics Scale, Confidence in learning Mathematics Inventory, Mathematics Anxiety Scale and Inventory on Beliefs about Mathematics were also administered. These instruments were also used as posttests.