EFFECTS OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN ENHANCING THE

GRADES IN MATHEMATICS OF GRADE 11 STEM STUDENTS

A Quantitative Research
presented to the Senior High School Department
SACRED HEART COLLEGE
Lucena City

in partial fulfillment of the requirements in

PRACTICAL RESEARCH 2

Abanilla, Ehrynne Mae L.

Benzon, Joseph Maverick C.
Cadavez, John Kenzo A.
Capistrano, John David E.
Fontamillas, Katrina D.
Permejo, Eligius Daniel S.
Pornela, Kyla G.
Roxas, Lady Lourdes B.
Sumilang, Bea Andrea P.
Grade 12 - STEM 2

Veronica M. Gusto, MAEd

Research Adviser

November 2020
Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Collaborative learning has a huge impact on students learning, including

the characteristics of students, group composition, and task characteristics

especially for low-achieving students (Lai, 2011). Not only they become proactive

but they retain the information they learned for longer periods of time. Members

can also teach complex concepts they thoroughly understand to other group

members, sharing unique insights that leads to better understanding on difficult

topics. Mathematics has been notoriously known as a complex topic as only the

fundamental parts of the science in numbers can only be applied to most topics

but the rest are rather challenging due to the difference of rules that’s applied.

Group work creates more opportunities for critical thinking and can promote

student learning and achievement (Meier, 2012).

In this day and age, the vast majority are depending on individual learning

to learn information. In spite of the fact that self-learning is a great assistance to

us, students will in general accept the fact that self-learning is still inadequate in

improving the overall grades in Mathematics. Nowadays, students heavily rely

and accept the struggles of individual learning. Specifically when students usually

waste time and procrastinate in self-studying.

The study will be conducted virtually through instruments that can help

attain the objectives of the study. Participants are students from the Senior High

School from Sacred Heart College Lucena City (SHC) that are taking the

academic track in STEM. With these variables, it will simply benefit everyone
that’s participating on the study because they consist of people that are on the

same community and this will make the flow of the study to be as efficient and

convenient as it can.

Recently, the Philippines ranked among the lowest in the subjects:

Reading, Science and Mathematics. Ranking last from 79 countries that were

involved in the study last 2018. This just proves that there must have been

something wrong in the learning system that led to such poor and unsatisfactory

results. According to the secretary the Department of Education, Leonor Briones,

the results were unsurprisingly anticipated due to the nation’s youth scoring

inadequate results on the National Achievement Test in 2018. The school system

is rather focused on honing the skills that are needed and frequently available

right now in the economy, as well as jobs that are attractive abroad. Students

doesn’t get the chance to introspect on the skills they want and that leads to the

apathy on retaining information they have learned (Africa, 2017).

Withal, the primary goal of the researchers is to determine how group

learning can lead to better education, they will assess how this method could

benefit and educate students that lack interest in the traditional method of

learning.

The over-all purpose of this research is for the students to acquire and

comprehend the learning benefits and outcomes of collaborative learning, the

differences and the advantages between individual learning in opposition to

collaborative learning. In spite of that, the researchers will come up with an

 intervention on how the students would come to know better the advantages of

collaborative learning in improving the overall grades in Mathematics.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to discover the effects of collaborative learning in

enhancing the grades in mathematics of Grade 11 STEM students.

Particularly, the study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. What is the demographic profile of the Grade 11 STEM students in terms of:

a. age; and

b. gender?

2. What are the effects on the collaborative learning in enhancing the grades in

Mathematics of Grade 11 STEM students?

3. Is there a difference between the effects on the collaborative learning based on the

demographic profile of Grade 11 STEM students?

Significance of the Study

The data gathered from the study is advantageous to the people who are in

this situation. The study will benefit the following:

 To the students, the study is very effective for the students. The

importance of this study is to evaluate the effect of collaborative learning in

upgrading the grades in mathematics of senior high school students. In addition

the aim of this study is to examine cooperative learning method in students and to

assist them, excel in mathematics.

To the teachers, they can easily determine and penetrate the group’s

positions, reframing ideas, and listen to one viewpoints. In addition to that

instructors will gain a more complete and understand output as a group than they

could as individuals.

To the parents, they can see the achievements and how effectively

collaborative learning can affect their children in a positive way. They can also

have the opportunity to guide more and show them that working together is not a

hindrance to a successful work.

To the future researchers, this study can be a new form of ideas in

getting the point of collaborative learning which approaches not only contribute to

intellectual development of learners but also equally contribute to social and

psychological development of the learner unlike other methods of instruction.

Thus, the cooperative learning approach fulfills the individual and social goals of

education.

Scope and Limitation

 This study focuses only on the effects of collaborative learning in

upgrading the grades in Mathematics particularly the Grade 11 from Senior High

School of Sacred Heart College during the of the School Year 2020-2021.

The researchers will apply Descriptive method as the research design that

aims to describe systematically the facts and characteristics of a given population.

According to McCombes (2019), descriptive research aims to describe a

population, situation or phenomenon in a precise and systematic way. It can

answer which questions, what, when, where and how, but not why. The data

collection will be conducted in Grade 11 within the strand of Science,

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The researchers will choose Grade 11

from the strand STEM since the courses aligned in this strand are more into

mathematics. Survey method will be utilized in order to gather data and the

gathered data will serve as a courtesy for useable information. The Survey method

is the technique of obtaining data by posing questions to people who are believed

to have the knowledge they want. (Juneja, 2015)

Moreover, the study is limited only to Grade 11- STEM students as their

chosen track which is STEM focuses on Mathematics. The other strand which do

not fall as part of the study are not within the scope of this research. By the

strategy of the researchers, they will be able to identify the effects on

collaborative learning in upgrading the grades in Mathematics.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES

 This chapter discusses the significant literatures and studies from several

references that may be relevant and provide support to the study of the

researchers. This also focuses on the pertinent researches that align with the

literature and studies of different authors related to the effects of collaborative

learning in enhancing the grades in Mathematics of grade 11 students.

Related Foreign

Literature

Rivera (2020) stated “Using Cooperative Learning to Teach Mathematics

to Students with Learning Disabilities,” cooperative learning is deemed highly

desirable because of its tendency to reduce peer competition and isolation, and to

promote academic achievement and positive interrelationships.

Cooperative learning is a benefit for students with learning disabilities

(LD), math disabilities and social interaction difficulties. It serves as an

instructional arrangement that fosters the application and practice of mathematics

and collaborative skills within a natural setting (i.e., group activity).

Furthermore, it can also be used to supplement textbook instruction by

providing the students opportunities and by practicing newly introduced or to

review skills and to promote classroom discourse and oral language development.

Moreover, in the article of Swan (2005) entitled “Collaborative Learning

in Mathematics” he stated that he conducted research and development since 1979

with his colleagues at the University of Nottingham using more useful methods of

learning concepts and strategies.

In addition, to his research “Collaborative Learning in Mathematics,” he

stated that collaborative learning in Mathematics has various aims, and one of

those aims is to help students to easily adopt more active approaches towards

learning. In particular, the aim is to cooperate with students by challenging

themselves more, to actively participate in collaborative discussions, to create or

solve each other’s questions and to work collaboratively as a whole to finish each

discussion in Mathematics.

The literature grasped the point with reference that suggests the

enhancement of grades in Mathematics of the students. Therefore, tackling this

method aimed to enhance the grades in Mathematics of students, especially those

who are in grade 11. The literature is also oriented because of the fact that it grips

the importance of collaborative learning and what could possibly be the effect of

this type of learning on the present study’s respondents, which are the grade 11

students.

The above aforementioned research states the good qualities of

collaborative learning which answers statement of the problem no.2

Furthermore (Munir et. al, 2018) reveals in their study that flipping a

classroom in an Engineering course and for including cooperative learning that

could be beneficial for students in the learning process. Their findings concluded
with, cooperative learning improved students’ communication skills and enabled

them to build their teamwork and problem-solving skills.

Related Studies

In the study of Mow (2010) entitled “The Effectiveness of Collaborative

Learning in Teaching Information Systems,” the independent variable was the

learning environment which had two values in its domain, the collaborative

learning and individualized learning. Results showed that although this type of

learning have a positive effect on problem solving, self-esteem, motivation and

enjoyment on majority of the students, the results do not show that they preferred

collaborative learning over individualized learning. From the students’ responses,

they felt that collaborative learning was more effective than individual learning.

The above mentioned study is with accordance to the researcher’s study

for it proves the effectiveness of collaborative learning to many, despite of the

negative responses of some students. It implies that collaborative learning really

helped students to gain further knowledge from others. Moreover, the past study

proves that collaborative learning helps students to build team work that makes

their social interactions better.

 In terms of individual learning, no significant difference was found among

different gender grouping interventions. However, males in mixed-gender groups

performed significantly better than those in single-gender groups. This gender

grouping in group discussions vastly affect the students’ attitudes, but not on their

own performance. It is also stated that having a gender grouping in collaborative

learning does not mainly affect their academic performances, (Zhan, Z., Fong, P.,

Mei, H.)

The aforementioned study depicts how one particular gender is affected by

means of the environment of collaborative learning, thus it contributes to the goal

of the present researchers. It also delineates how males and female are well-

balanced in terms of the different kinds of collaborative learning – how one

gender, either male or female, can cope up with the nature and changes of

collaborative learning on their own academic performance.

Based on the study of Cen, et al. (2016) entitled “Quantitative Approach to

Collaborative Learning: Performance Prediction, Individual Assessment, and

Group Composition,” the researchers used a machine learning technique to

predict group performance based on the members of the group and to identify the

learning patterns and interactions. The model was used to find out the difference

between the individual student grade and group performance to measure the

improvements of collaborative learning. It quantitatively supports the claim that

heterogeneous groups with the diversity of skills and genders benefit more from

collaborative learning than homogeneous groups.. Retrieved from

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11412-016-9234-6

In accordance to the present study, the past study states how the

heterogeneous factor such as gender and different skills have the potential to

influence the outcome and the learning capabilities of each student. Heterogenous

group were greatly benefited for some based on their coping mechanisms and

skills with others than homogenous groups, that will help the present study to be

more focused on the diversity of students in doing collaborative learning.

 In contrast to the present study and to the study stated above, the findings

of (Bennett, Hogarth, Lubben, Campbell, and Robinson, 2010) entitled “Talking

Science: The Research Evidence on the Use of Small Group Discussions in

Science Teaching,” reports that there are two options in executing a collaborative

learning: the use of single-gender collaborative learning and the mixed-group

collaborative learning. More so, they found out that even though individuals excel

and improve understanding in the process of gender composition groups, single-

gender groups are more efficient and productive purposefully than mixed-gender

groups. Lastly, the study suggests that for the single-gender group collaborative

learning to be effective, students need to be given explicit teaching skills

associated with the development of arguments. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/48666380_Talking_Science_The_resear

ch_evidence_on_the_use_of_small_group_discussions_in_science_teaching

The abovementioned study is relevant to the researcher’s study for it is

aligned in the accordance to one of the demographic profiles of the grade 11

students which is the gender. The present study demonstrated that in spite of the

fact that heterogenous groups manifest their excellence in performing

collaborative learning, some study shows that single-gender groups also excel and

improve their understanding. Single-gender groups also have the efficiency and

productivity in learning collaboratively.

Harskamp, Ding, and Suhre (2008) in the study “Group Composition and

Its Effect on Female and Male Problem-Solving in Science Education,” indicate

that distinction in arrangement looking for conduct could clarify a significant

aspect of the distinction in critical thinking execution between the female and

male students in this study. With the purpose of ascertaining whether partner

gender influences female students' learning to solve science problems and the role

female communication style plays in the cooperative learning process, the

experiment was carried out to test the effect of group composition on female and

male students' cooperative problem-solving in science. Consequently, the study

implies that partner gender was a significant factor for female students’ learning

achievement. Within mixed-gender pairs, male students outperformed females

whereas they had a more balanced interactive style than females in the mixed-

gender dyads. Retrieved from

In relation to the study, the mentioned study proves that collaborative type

of learning may improve the level thinking of females in terms problem-solving.

Hence, it is implied that partner gender or pairing up with the opposite gender in

all probability using collaborative learning could influence the level of potency in

apprehension of students, especially for females.

 Apart from this, Asterhan, Schwarz, and Gil (2012) in their study “Small-

Group, Computer-Mediated Argumentation in Middle-School Classrooms: The

Effects of Gender and Different Types of Online Teacher Guidance,” revealed

that discussions of all-young ladies’ groups scored higher on parts of coordinated

effort and argumentative quality, contrasted with all-young men groups. This

study indicated that in female-only groups, group-mates find it easier to exchange

project ideas and reach efficient agreements, which help to improve learning and

attitudes.

The assertions mentioned above are relevant since it conforms to the

statement of the problem of the present study, which is the gender. With the aim

of exploring the potential differences between all-female and all-male discussion

groups, the study have concluded that all-young ladies’ collaborative learning

revealed much higher excellence in executing collaborative learning as a whole

than all-young men groups.

 A research done by by Remillard (2015) in his article “The Effect of

Cooperative Learning on Middle School Math Students,” focuses on the impact of

cooperative learning groups that provided ways to promote a shift in teaching

which moves education from less teaching to more learning for the students,

which prepare students to a world where they are working collaboratively to

solve. Collaborative learning does not only find ways to promote education to

students but it also allows students to collaboratively work together, to learn and

hold each other accountable and ensure that every single one in the group

understand the overall goal and topic. This study supported the importance of

utilizing cooperative learning groups in a classroom, nonetheless, teachers need to

ensure that routines and expectations are set and understood by all students.

The excerpt from the study is that it portrays that even though that

collaborative learning is there to help students, students nowadays does not only

rely on it fully but utilizes by means of its flexibility and to promote the overall

goal of each student within that collaborative group. Despite of the beneficiaries
of collaborative learning, there are still some students who do not conform to use

a collaborative type of learning thoroughly.

In the study of Gamit, et. al (2017) titled “The Effects of Cooperative

Learning in Enhancing the Performance Level of Grade-10 Mathematics Students

in Talavera National High School in the Philippines” it states that

Mathematics is considered by many students as a difficult academic subject, and

thus implemented new strategies and in their findings the method positively

improved the performance in mathematics of the control and experimental groups

is also showed a positive impact on the participants as shown by their positive

perception of the subject mathematics.

The above aforementioned study answers the second question of the

statement of the problem by showing results that would be beneficial to students

in doing collaborative learning.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the methods and procedures to be utilized by the

researchers 

in gathering important facts and needed information in this study. This also

includes the 

research design, research locale, research population and sample, research

instrument, 

data gathering procedure, data analysis, and the ethical consideration. 

Research Design

The researchers will use the quantitative approach to satisfy the

objectives of the study which is to determine the effects of collaborative learning

in enhancing the grades in mathematics of grade 11 STEM students the of Sacred

Heart College. As defined by the SIS International Research (2018), quantitative

research is a structured way of collecting and analyzing data obtained from

different sources. It also involves the use of computational, statistical and

mathematical tools to derive results. This approach is mostly appropriate for

studies like this which has a larger population. Thus, it is conclusive in its purpose

as it quantifies the problem and understands how prevalent it is by looking for the

gathered data and results.

To ensure that the data collection is geared towards the primary intent of

the study, descriptive research design was utilized. According to Koh et al.

(2013), descriptive research is a study of status and is widely used in education,

nutrition, epidemiology and the behavioral sciences. Its value is based on the

premise that problems can be solved and practices improved through observation,

analysis, and description. This design is fitted to the study since it focused on

describing the demographic profile of the respondents. Furthermore, with using

this design, it was more appropriate to utilize survey, which includes

questionnaires. This allowed the researchers to fully observe, describe, explore

and analyze the effects of collaborative learning in enhancing the grades in

mathematics of grade 11 STEM students.

Research Locale 

The study will be conducted at Sacred Heart College, an educational institution in 

Lucena City, Quezon, Philippines. It is a Catholic institution, founded in 1884 by 

Hermana Fausta Labrador. It is not only the first Catholic learning institution in

Quezon 

Province, but it had also been PAASCU (Philippine Accrediting Association of

Schools, 

Colleges, and Universities) Accredited. Sacred Heart College aims to hone girls

and boys 

of character with the teachings of the church and the love of Christ. 

The researchers chose Sacred Heart College due to the fact that it was said that 
there are records of health-related cases associated with mental health issues in

the school 

guidance that may be used as a bridge to the researchers to be interrogated as part

of the 

study. With this study, Sacred Heart College will be able to evaluate the

interventions 

required and promote awareness among researchers and other students. In

addition, this 

study would mean a major contribution to the rising Senior High School

department as 

the K-12 program was adopted four years ago and is yet to be enhanced in the

research 

field.
Population and Sample

The respondents of the study will be coming from Senior High School

students of Sacred Heart College particularly the Grade 11 students from Science,

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) since the courses aligned in

this strand are more into mathematics. The research sample size will be composed

of 70 respondents, 10 students per section for the sake of fair data gathering.

A convenience sampling method will be used in choosing the respondents

of this study. The researchers will use this sampling technique because it will give

them advantage as well as enable them to obtain data concerning the study

without any difficulty, instead of using a randomized sampling method.

Convenience sampling involves sampling from those elements of the population

that are considered the easiest, or most convenient to access. This sampling is

common due to the ease in recruitment of participants (Turner, 2020).

Research Instrument
 The tool of the research that we'll be utilizing is online overview survey. It

makes a difference us to gauge and decide the viability of collaborative learning

in mathematics of the Grade 11 Stem Students. The survey are going to be

divided into two parts: the primary portion carries with it the statistic profile of

the respondents upheld their sexual orientation and age. Portion two, the state of

mind and recognition of students’ towards scientific troubles. A checklist are

drafted to figure out which among the states of mind are done sharp to the four

point scale. The moment portion of the survey are replied utilizing the four point

scale, amid a press discharge of unequivocally concur, concur, oppose this idea,

and emphatically oppose this idea.

The most apparatus of the ponder that we'll be utilizing is online overview

survey. It makes a difference us to gauge and decide the viability of collaborative

learning in mathematics of Grade 12 Stem Students. The survey are going to be

divided into two parts: the primary portion carries with it the statistic profile of

the respondents upheld their sexual orientation and age. Portion two, the state of

mind and recognition of students’ towards scientific troubles. A checklist are

drafted to figure out which among the states of mind are done sharp to the four

point scale. The moment portion of the survey are replied utilizing the four point

scale, amid a press discharge of unequivocally concur, oppose this idea, and

emphatically oppose this idea.

Data Gathering Procedure

The researchers will seek permission from the principal of the SHS

Department of Sacred Heart College to perform the research upon the consent of

the validators and the research adviser. Then, the researchers will ask for the

permission of the chosen students to become the study's respondents. In addition,

the study will be explained to the respondents to have prior knowledge based on

the title and statement of the problem. Survey method will be utilized in order to

gather the data from the respondents through the use of Google forms since it will

be conducted online. The respondents will be having a certain schedule in

answering the survey. The researchers will reach out on the presidents of each

sections and the google forms’ link will be given to them in order to conduct the
survey proper. The researchers will make sure that the respondents are

anonymous. The survey will be conducted within the month of September. Lastly,

the researchers will compile and transcribe the data to get the result.

Data Analysis 

After collecting the required data from the respondents, the researcher will

listen carefully and will review the session.

The recording of the participant and tape for each question after the researcher’s

depth interview session.

The participants will answer each question after they were given adequate time by

the researchers.

Through this, the researchers will be able to organize the data by question and

look through the consistency and discrepancies, integrating the data from the

questions, applying the same method to determine the associations and relations

between the answer to each question.

The researchers will classify the data by creating codes to minimize the data into a

more compact, synthesized classification.

First, they will formulate the predefined codes based on the vastness of

knowledge in the related literature reviews and studies, and through this the

researcher will succeed in creating emerging codes that revealed

consolidation from the collected data.

As stated by (Elliott, 2018), for qualitative research, coding is a fundamental

aspect of the analytical method and the way researchers break down their data in

order to produce something new, it is the process of analyzing qualitative text

data by separating it to see what it yields before the data are reassembled

meaningfully. 

Researchers should arrange it based on how participants intend to respond to

stimulation, answer questions and so on.

An initial attempt, presets are also the foundations for further examination of any

evolution the code undergoes.

Thus new codes are emerging as the study progresses. There are areas of interest

that emerge throughout the research, either from a preset code or through

common occurrences.

The researchers will encode the categorized data, and will make use of the

Microsoft Word as the word processor.

The analysis problems structured the data to give a more condensed but consistent

view of the outcome of the test. 

After the organization process, the researchers reread and scanned the

encrypted data in order to ensure the quality and clarity of the syntax.

The researchers were able to identify meaningful themes and patterns based on

the concise presentation of data.

As the core process of qualitative data analysis, the researchers observed a

number of times the commonalities that aroused from the content presented. Thus

thematic analysis and content analysis will be utilized in the research study. Braun

& Clarke (2012), defined thematic analysis as a form of qualitative data analysis

which is accessible, versatile and increasingly popular.

Furthermore, they explained training to do thematic analysis provides a basis for

the qualitative researcher in the basic skills required to engage with other

approaches to qualitative data analysis.

Moreover, they added that thematic analysis is a method for the identification,

analysis and reporting of data patterns. 

On the other hand, content analysis is defined as a term for a range of

different strategies used for text analysis, and is a systematic coding and

categorization approach used to unsurprisingly explore large amounts of textual

information to determine trends and patterns of words used, their frequency,

relationships and communication structures and discourses (Vaismoradi, Turunen,

& Bondas, 2013).

Using qualitative descriptive approaches such as content analysis, and thematic

analysis is suitable for researchers wishing to use a simple level of interpretation,

as opposed to grounded theory or hermeneutic phenomenology, where a higher

level of interpretive complexity is required (Vaismoradi, Turunen, Bondas,

2013). 

Ethical Consideration 

As implied by Jain et al., (2017), ethics in psychiatric research requires to 

maintain and increase morality in the study for a dominant consideration in

ensuring the 

safekeeping of the identity of the research participants. It involves giving them the

option 
to reveal themselves or not. Also, it includes the participants’ informed consent to

the 

study being conducted. Thus, they are protected from possible harm under the

eyes of the 

law. 

Certain principles are to be followed in this qualitative study to guarantee all 

protection on the confidentiality and anonymity of the subjects. To address the

elephant 

in the room, the privacy and anonymity of the respondents is to be kept in

secrecy. 

Subjects are to be given the choice to answer in their own discretion and have

been fully 
informed regarding the procedures of the research project and any potential risks.

The 

parents were not psychologically or physically harmed to force them into

partaking in the 

study. The voices recorded from them were recorded anonymously and given

respective 

screen titles. 

Furthermore, the confidentiality of the research data from the respondents was 

ensured by the researchers. All participation gathered on this study was kept

anonymous 

and any of the names that were kept and records made by the researchers were

soon 
deleted after necessary data were gathered. Once the respondents agreed to be part

of the 

study, the researchers performed the data collection that is needed for the study.

Intruding 

in the respondents’ personal space was observed by the researchers in a

behavioral 

manner that is appropriate. 

In interpreting the data, any type of analysis in relation to the research was done 

with complete honesty and transparency. Misleading information, as well as 

representation of primary data findings in a biased and subjective way was

avoided. 

Proper document sourcing or referencing of materials were done to ensure and

promote 
Copyright laws so as to give the proper rights to the respected authors. A

communication 

letter was to be presented to the school principal in order to permit the conducting

of the 

study, while another was presented to the research adviser to ask permission to

conduct 

an interview with the target respondents. The research instrument was subjected

to 

validity. The suggestions made by the validators were incorporated in the

instrument.
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group_computer-mediated_argumentation_in_middle-

school_classrooms_The_effects_of_gender_and_different_types_of_online_teach

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https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED565634.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248999301_Group_composition_and_it

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