Promoting Students? Achievement and Mathematical Flexibility Through Pre-Within-Post Problem Posing Tasks

This study investigated the effect of utilizing pre-within-post problem posing activities in enhancing students achievement and mathematical flexibility in Differential Calculus. This study was conducted in two semesters composed of 75 regular third year BSEd Mathematics students during the first semester of school year 2017-2018 and 57 irregular engineering students enrolled in special class in Differential Calculus during the second semester of school year 2016-2017 at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines-CDO campus. Using quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design in gathering quantitative data, a 16-item achievement test and a 4-item Multiple Solutions Tasks (MST) test intended to measure students level of mathematical flexibility were given to the participants before and after the experiment. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results of the analysis revealed that the use of pre-within-post problem posing activities helped students improve their achievement and flexibility scores in Differential Calculus. The students level of achievement and mathematical flexibility increased as influenced by their exposure to activities using problem posing activities. Hence, the researcher recommended that mathematics teachers may use pre-within-post problem posing activities in teaching mathematics to help improve students mathematical flexibility. Furthermore, similar studies may be conducted to show associations between students mental ability and levels of mathematical flexibility and study how technology rich classroom environment can effectively foster mathematical flexibility.