Effects on 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 the ligan City East High School were the subjects of this study. These students composed the four sections of Math 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 the 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 were given the Otis Lennon Ability Test the scores of which matched the learners between the experimental and control groups. At the same time, 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. The quantitative findings of the study revealed no significant difference in the achievement of learners taught Algebra and Trigonometry with history of mathematics and those learners who were not taught with history of mathematics across ability and gender. However, high ability learners exposed to the integration of history of mathematics perceived mathematics more useful than those taught Algebra and Trigonometry without history. The learners' attitude towards mathematics, confidence in learning mathematics, mathematics anxiety and beliefs towards mathematics did not differ among different ability levels and gender before and after the experiment. Furthermore. the integration of history to the teaching of mathematics was more beneficial to high ability students. The achievement and affective learnings were interrelated such that: A learner who has a high achievement in mathematics has a positive attitude towards mathematics, less anxious, perceived mathematics to be useful in real-life situation, has improved beliefs about mathematics and is confident to learn mathematics. The qualitative results yielded improved learners' attitude and views about mathematics, positive perception of the usefulness and beliefs about mathematics, made students more confident to learn mathematics and lessened anxiety because of the integration of mathematics in the teaching of Algebra and Trigonometry.