CONTEXT AND RATIONALE

The research on instruction in mathematical problem-solving has progressed

considerably during recent decades. Yet, there is still a need to advance our knowledge
on how teachers can support their students in carrying out this complex activity (Lester
and Cai, 2016). Problem-solving in mathematics is an important aspect of learning
mathematics and developing critical thinking in everyday life. Today’s students are
facing a lot of difficulties in solving mathematics problems. Most students find it difficult
to solve since it is tricky and require deep understanding about the problem. The
students who learn mathematics are facing common problems not only in the
mathematical content but also how they will engage themselves and get interest
knowing that they are fear of being judge by others if they cannot perform well
individually solving math problems that results in negative emotions. Student could
overcome math anxiety if they could manage their stress by improving mathematical
skills that would help students to develop their performance in the class (Ruff &
Boes,2014). With this evidence, it is important to have an action on how to solve this
existing concern that would make the teaching effective.
There are variety of such pedagogical approaches, including group work and
brainstorming, collaborative and cooperative work (Campisi & Finn, 2011). Collaborative
work refers broadly to work that students do together, to explore a solution to a
problem or to prepare a project, and may refer to a variety of strategies in which
students interact with each other (Osman, Duffy, Chang & Lee, 2011). This approach
invokes in the way of problem solving, communication and enhancing brainstorming for
effective teaching and learning. The students will collaborate in small groups of two or
more people responsible for completing a specific task in order to achieve a specific
objective. The members of groups will receive sufficient reinforcement based on the
group’s result (Al-Tarawneh, 2012). With this approach, students are highly active
inside the learning environment to create a specific task involving solving mathematics
problems.
The specific goal of this action research aims to contribute to previous research
by investigating the effect of collaborative learning intervention on mathematics major
students’ mathematical problem-solving. This will improve the teaching by means of
selecting an appropriate method and strategy to enhance collaborative learning and
students’ ability to get more correct answers to problems. The Researchers want to
determine if collaborative learning is more essential to improve students’ willingness to
solve problems and have perseverance all the time. This is also to determine if students
will not be afraid if they will be given problems to be done in group or pair. Group work
has great potential and encourages to develop brainstorming. With this, students will be
an active participant rather than passive learners.
The Researchers will utilize survey questioners to ask the mathematics majors in
Sibonga Community College for their thoughts and feelings about collaborative
teaching. The purpose is to determine if students see collaborative teaching as
beneficial to their learning, homework completion and performance on tests. This will
also aim to know if students can easily understand mathematics problems with the help
of their groupmates’ understanding and mastery.
As stated by (Suryatin, 2020), also found the benefits of collaborative learning in
developing the mathematical problem-solving skills of college students in Indonesia.
Likewise, (Wismath and Orr ,2015) discovered that collaborative learning helps students
to solve problems as a group. The discussion between peers also assisted students in
assuming responsibility for their own learning and conceiving acceptable solutions to
problems.
In detail, (Adolphus et al. ,2013) found that collaborative learning was beneficial
in teaching problem solving and the concepts of harmonic motion to senior secondary
students.
In previous research, collaborative learning has shown to be a promising
approach in teaching and learning mathematics but fewer studies have been conducted
in whole-class approaches in general (Capar and Tarim, 2015). The number of reviewed
studies was limited. In this case,The Researchers believe that mathematics major
students also in need of collaborative learning despite the fact that others would think
that they can work independently in solving math problems as they are always
encounter mathematics in their major. This study focuses on the mathematics group of
students. This will be done through survey and observation in the intervention process
to test if the method would help math majors in Sibonga Community College in dealing
word problems.
In the current study, the researchers focus on the specific area of mathematics
which is problem solving. This study contains method to improve participation in
problem solving in mathematics and the strategies to be use. In this study, the
researchers will try to explain their strength of observation in the classroom. Data will
be collected and interventions will be applied to seventy-one mathematics major
students from first year to fourth year. The researchers will collect pre data and post
data out from their experiences in solving the problems will be given by using survey
questionnaire and baseline observation. Furthermore, they will present the data in
graphical form to give the comparison of the improvement of the students in solving the
problems. This will include qualitative method and quantitative method in analyzing the
data.

INNOVATION, INTERVENTION or STRATEGY

The intervention using the collaborative approach will be done in three weeks
and the researchers will administer the said intervention at least two to three activities
per week. The researchers will focus mainly on examining the methods and applicable
strategies in teaching mathematics that would enhance the engagement and problem-
solving abilities of mathematics majors in Sibonga Community College. By working
together, students can share their knowledge, skills, and perspectives, which can help
them to approach problems from different angles and develop a deeper understanding
of the subject matter. There will be word problem questions provided for individual
solving, by pair and group work. The collaborative teaching survey will be given before
and after the intervention to compare the data of pre and post survey results. The
following are the methods that the researchers want to apply.
1. Stay friendly with students.
2. Encourage students to clarify their doubt about mathematics.
3. Let them solve problems by individually, pair and group.
 4. Read the questions three to five times and most if doesn’t understand
5. Pair the student to other who will get the most of the problem.
6. Be open for different ways of solving the problem.
7. Let the group frame their own questions and exchange with the other group and
solve.
8. Encourage creative reporting

In the first week after the researchers will collect the pre data, they will start their
intervention process and will use a lot of strategies to enhance participation in solving
word problems. They will start to ask students and stay friendly so that they get
encourage clarifying their doubts in and out of the class. During that the same week,
the researchers will give three math word problems to be solve every year level. With
this, when it comes to solving problems, students will be given 10 minutes to solve the
problem individually. The students who will get at least two or three of the problems
will be pair to student who only get one and below of number of items and encourage
to use think-pair-share and timed pair share strategies. This is to ensure that no one
will be left behind during the problem-solving part of the lesson. They will also
administer three problems to be solve in group with members of five and most and will
encourage to apply brainstorming. The researchers will also incorporate method to
read the problem three to five times and most if still they cannot understand the
problem.
On the second week of intervention, the researchers will let the mathematics
major students to frame their own at least three questions and exchange among the
group and solve and encourage to use peer review and feedbacking. In this part,
students will be guided to write problems base on their prior knowledge and let the
students to use different skills and strategies in solving. The researchers also will call a
volunteer per group for creative reporting for the answers and to check if they got the
correct answers. They will observe on how students practically solve the problems by
individually, pair and group. On the last day of the week, the researchers will give the
same collaborative learning survey questionnaire to students to gather the results for
the post data.

ACTION RESEARCH QUESTION/S

How effective is collaborative learning strategies in the development of
mathematics major students’ abilities mathematical problem- solving?

ACTION RESEARCH METHODS

RESEARCH DESIGN
Designs
Research design to be used in this study is a mixed method to ensure that the
data is valid and reliable. Mixed method is when you integrate quantitative method and
qualitative method to gather data for analysis and interpretation.
The researchers will compare the results of pre data and post data to be
administer to the same group of respondents to determine the effectiveness of the
intervention. The survey questionnaire will also be used to gather the students’
thoughts and feelings about collaborative learning. The researchers will collect both
quantitative and qualitative data to provide a comprehensive analysis of the
effectiveness of the intervention.
Steps:
1. Define the research question and objectives.
2. Determine the appropriate research design.
3. Select participants.
4. Administer the survey questionnaire to gather pre data.
5. Implement the intervention to the same group.
6. Administer post data measures to the same group.
7. Analyze the data collected from the pre data and post data measures and also the
baseline observation.
8. Analyze pre data and post data results.
10. Compare the results to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.

Data Collection
Data collection method to be used in this study is a combination of survey
questionnaire and observation. The survey questionnaire will be used to gather
quantitative data on students’ thoughts and feelings about collaborative learning, as
well as their perceptions of its benefits on their learning, homework completion, and
performance on tests. The survey will be administered before and after the intervention
to compare the results of the pre and post data. The data collected from the survey will
be analyzed using statistical analysis to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.
Observation will also be used to collect qualitative data on how the students
practically solve the problems to obtain the answer during the intervention process. The
researchers will observe the students’ interactions during individual solving, pair work,
and group work to determine the effectiveness of each approach in improving their
problem-solving skills. The observations will be recorded and analyzed to provide a
comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of the intervention.

Steps:
1. Determine the research question and objectives.
2. Identify the appropriate data collection methods.
3. Develop a survey questionnaire to gather quantitative data on students’ thoughts and
feelings.
4. Administer the survey questionnaire before and after the intervention.
5. Analyze the data collected from the survey using statistical analysis.
6. Conduct observations during the intervention process to gather qualitative data on
how the students practically solve the problems to obtain the answer.
7. Record the observations and analyze the data to provide a comprehensive analysis of
the effectiveness of the intervention.
8. Use the combined data to determine the effectiveness of the collaborative learning
approach in improving the mathematics major students’ problem-solving abilities.
Participants
The respondents of this study are the students taking Bachelor of Secondary
Education major in mathematics in Sibonga Community College. Based on the data
gathered from each class, there are twenty-six students in first year with 8 males and
18 females with ages ranging from 18-23 years old, sixteen students in second year
with 11 males and 5 females with ages ranging from 20-24 years old, and eleven
students in fourth year with 2 males and 9 females with ages ranging from 22-30 years
old, for a total of fifty-three mathematics students. They will be the subject for the
intervention prepared by the researchers.
Sibonga Community College is a college school in municipality of Sibonga District
I, it is located near the TESDA facility with approximately 5 meters away, East side of
Sibonga Public Market with approximately 3 minutes motorcycle ride and 15 minutes
tricycle ride from Sibonga Church (Our Lady of Pilar Parish).

Data Gathering
Data gathering is done by first asking approval to the acting school administrator
of Sibonga Community College, the research coordinator, and the Department Head
Mrs. Ceferina L. Rodriguez through a letter of request. It is followed by gathering data
by first finalizing a research questionnaire that is administered through standardized
questionnaire. The researchers ensure that the sub-problems stated in the statement of
the problem are measured with the survey statements that are formulated. After the
formulation of the survey questionnaire, the researchers choose the respondents using
universal sampling where in the researchers choose BSED Mathematics students of
Sibonga Community College. Then, the standardized questionnaire is given to the
respondents and the respondents answer the survey honestly. The respondents have
enough time to answer the questionnaire and they have assistance also if ever they
need it.
As soon as all respondents responds to the questionnaire, the researchers will
consolidate all the responses and it will be tallied using frequency count and simple
percentage as well as weighted mean, and t-test. The researchers will interpret the
data and will discuss the results.
Then, after interpreting the data and discussing the results, researchers will
present the findings, conclusions, and as well as recommendations of the study which
will serve as a guide for future researchers that will conduct parallel study.

Data Collection

The researchers will administer a survey questionnaire to gather pre-data and post-data
from the students taking Bachelor of Secondary Education major in mathematics in
Sibonga Community College. The questionnaire will be used to gather the students’
thoughts and feelings about collaborative learning, as well as their ability to solve
mathematical problems. The researchers will also conduct baseline observation to see
the current problem-solving abilities of the students. The intervention will be done in
three weeks, and the researchers will administer the intervention at least two to three
activities per week. The researchers will use a lot of strategies to enhance participation
in solving word problems, such as individual solving, pair and group work, and creative
reporting. The researchers will also observe how the students practically solve the
problems by individually, pair, and group. The data collected will be analyzed using both
quantitative and qualitative methods to provide a comprehensive analysis of the
effectiveness of the intervention. The researchers will compare the results of pre-data
and post-data to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. In conduction of the
study, the following procedures are followed for the collection of data.

Preliminary Preparation: Letter Request to the School Administrator of Sibonga

Community College for the permission of the conduction of the study.

Orientation of the Nature and Process of the Intervention: The learners are oriented
about the Effectiveness of Collaborative Learning in the problem-solving skills of BSED-
MATH majors in Sibonga Community College and they need to master the method and
the applicable strategies in teaching mathematics that would enhance the engagement
and problem-solving abilities of mathematics majors in Sibonga Community College.
Then, the respondents are oriented that the data gathered are confidential.

Ethical Considerations

The researchers will guarantee that the study practices ethical considerations all
throughout the conduction of the study, thus, the participants are informed about the
ethical considerations through discussion.

1. Informed Consent

It is made clear to the respondents/participants that their participation in this study is

voluntary and that they are not compelled to participate should they believe detrimental
to their interest. Furthermore, the respondents/participants will be informed that the
research is conducted solely for academic purposes and the data gathered from them
shall be exclusively used for such purpose.

2. Confidentiality Pledge

The researcher ensures the confidentiality of the gathered data relative to the personal
information of the respondents/participants of this study and shall not be disclosed to
the public at any cause. This can be guaranteed by the following activities:

• The names of the respondents will be replaced by codes.

• The sheet containing the name of the respondents shall be removed and
be kept or destroyed when no longer needed for the research.
 • The researcher shall have the sole access to the code’s master list.

• Files containing research data shall be password protected and encrypted

to keep the data safe.

3. Authorization to Access Private Information

The interest of the respondents or participants is protected by Republic Act 10173 also
known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012, henceforth, any pertinent data or information of
the respondents/participants of this study shall not be accessed, transported, or copied
without the approval and consent of the Regional Research Committee.

V. TIME TABLE/GHANT CHART

ACTIVITIES OBJECTIVES TIME FRAME NUMBER OF DAYS

Presentation of Present the research June 15-19, 2023 5 days
Research to the proposal to the SDS for
SDS Approval
Collection of Pre- Administering survey June 20-27, 2023 1 week
Data standardized
questionnaires.
Implement Apply the effective June 28 – July 5, 1 week
Interventions to strategies and methods 2023
address the that would enhance the
Problem engagement of the
BSED-MATH students to
problem-solving.
Collection of Post- Administering survey July 6-13, 2023 1 week
Data standardized
questionnaires.
Finalization of Finalize and revise July 14-21, 2023 1 week
Action Research suggestions.
Proposal
COST ESTIMATES

ACTIVITIES RESOURCE MATERIALS ESTIMATED COST

FIRST TRANCHE
Validation of Research Bond paper 150
Instrument

Reproduction of materials Bond paper 150

Ink
Administration of Research Fare 500
Instrument Snack/Meal

Consolidation of Snack 600

Responses

Production of Action Bond paper 500

Research Proposal Folder
Pen
Fastener
SUB-TOTAL 1,900

SECOND TRANCHE
Statistical Treatment and Snack/Token
Interpretation of Responses
Plagiarism Check Fare
Plagiarism Fee

Presentation of Results Fare

Snacks
Submission and Publication Fare
of Output and Results Snacks
SUB-TOTAL

TOTAL 1,900