Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.

6994920, ISSN 2822-4353

Research Article

Trending Motivational Activities and Mathematics Performance of Grade 7 Students

Gretchen D. Abañera*
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.

Abstract
This quasi-experimental study aimed at determining whether or not Trending Motivational Activities had
an effect on the mathematics performance of the students. Fifty-three Grade 7 students from each of two
intact sections of Sara National High School were matched based on their pretest results. One group
was exposed to Trending Motivational Activities while the other group was exposed to traditional
motivational activities. The assignment of the groups to trending or traditional motivational activities was
made through toss coin. The intervention period lasted for eight (8) weeks. An observation- checklist was
provided to the teacher- observers as guide in assessing students’ reactions or performance during the
conduct of classes. The sources of data were the 30- item multiple choice researcher- made pretest and
posttest. The topics included were: Basic Concepts and Terms in Geometry, Angle, Basic Constructions,
Polygons, Triangles, Quadrilaterals, and Circles. After the intervention, the students were asked about
their reaction to the given motivational activities. Mean and standard deviation were used for descriptive
data analysis, and t-test for independent samples at 0.05 alpha were used for inferential analysis. The
results revealed that the levels of mathematics performance of the Grade 7 students before exposure to
Trending Motivational Activities and Traditional Activities were “low”. After the intervention, the
students exposed to Trending Motivational Activities improved from “low” to “high”; likewise, the
students exposed to Traditional Motivational Activities. The students’ mathematics performance in the
two groups was comparable prior to the intervention. There was no significant difference in their pretest
score. After exposure to different motivational activities, both groups showed a significant difference in
their performance. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference in the mean gain scores of the
students in the two groups; students exposed to Trending Motivational Activities became more active and
participative, and maintained their enthusiasm and interest in mathematics throughout the conduct of the
study.

Keywords: Trending Motivational Activities, Mathematics Performance, Grade 7

Introduction cope with the subject and learn meaningfully (Joquiňo,

2014).
Amidst the significant technological changes that are
happening in the society, especially in the educational Wentzel (1998; in Braza, 2014), stated that interest in
system, students sometimes lose enthusiasm and activities tends to increase the likelihood that
become passive in learning mathematics. The process individuals formulate goals relating to that activity and
of learning mathematics is a very complex cognitive invest time and effort to achieve them. Moreover,
task that requires much understanding of principles to individual characteristics such as intelligence,
fully understand the concepts. Williamson (2003; in cognitive styles, and personality play an important role
Halat, 2007), says “declines in positive attitudes in learning and instruction as does the context of
toward mathematics are common among students in learning. Other research findings have shown that
the middle school year and high school” (p.281). It is individual student characteristic variables such as
therefore important to know what causes students’ low motivational orientation, self-esteem, and learning
performances in mathematics. approaches are important factors influencing academic
achievement. In an effort to improve students’
According to Ashcraft (2002; in Sobrevega, 2014), a cognition and affective outcomes in mathematics
negative attitude towards mathematics is a growing and/or school learning, educational psychologists and
barrier for many students in learning mathematics. The mathematics educators have continued to search for
feeling of tension and anxiety interferes with the variables (personal and environmental) that could be
manipulation of numbers and solving of mathematical manipulated in favor of academic gains. Of all the
problems. According to him, appreciation and personal and psychological variables that have
enjoyment of mathematics in the teaching- learning attracted researchers in this area of educational
process should be given emphasis so that mathematics achievement, motivation seems to be gaining more
anxiety will be m in imized or er ad icated . popularity and leading other variables (Tella, 2007).
Consequently, the students need much motivation to
When students’ interest is sparked, their curiosity level

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Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6994920, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

is increased and they are motivated to learn. The

question of how to motivate students in the classroom
has become a leading concern for teachers of all
questions:
disciplines. The impact of motivation on education of
mathematics of a child cannot be undermined. That is 1. What is the pretest and posttest mathematics
why Hall (in Braza, 2014) believes that there is a need performance of the students exposed to trending
to motivate students so as to arouse and sustain their motivational activities?
interest in learning mathematics. The use of 2. What is the pretest and posttest mathematics
motivational activities in teaching mathematics in the performance of the students exposed to traditional
form of games, puzzles, wordles, pick-up lines, motivational activities?
brainteasers, guessing, and others will further arouse 3. Is there a significant difference in the pretest and
the interest of students in learning mathematics. posttest mathematics performance of the students
Experiences which they will enjoy are easily exposed to trending motivational activities?
remembered; thus, students are helped in mastering 4. Is there a significant difference in the pretest and
their lessons. posttest mathematics performance of the students
exposed to traditional motivational activities?
Learning can be enjoyable and meaningful if the
5. Is there a significant difference in the pretest
students are motivated. Students’ academic
mathematics performance of the students exposed to
achievement requires coordination and interaction
trending motivational activities and the traditional
between different aspects of motivation; hence, a
ones?
teacher has a big role in sustaining students’ interest. It
6. Is there a significant difference in the mean gain
is within the creativity of a teacher to use different
scores in the mathematics performance of the students
motivational activities in teaching.
exposed to trending motivational activities and the
In the school under study, the mathematics traditional ones?
performance of the students was noted to be low as 7. How do trending activities motivate students to
reflected in the results of the National Achievement learn mathematics?
Test. It was observed that students are highly
motivated to learn when motivational activities are
Methodology
given prior to the discussion; however, their interest is
not sustained all throughout the teaching–learning
process and eventually their attention is diverted or This study was conducted to ascertain whether or not,
redirected into something else which hampers the use of trending motivational activities in teaching
learning. The researcher believes that once the need to mathematics has an effect on students’ mathematics
know more comes from within, the student’s learning performance. It employed Quasi-Experimental
becomes easy, teaching gets to be challenging, and Approach. A quasi-experiment is an empirical study
students perform better. The ideal- teaching learning used to estimate the causal impact of an intervention
process is interactive–where the learners, teachers and on its target population. Quasi- experimental design
instructional materials reciprocally interact with one allows the researcher to control the assignment to the
another (Gamutea, 2012). It is the teachers’ initiative treatment condition, but using some criteria other than
and innovativeness to produce the necessary materials random assignment. In some cases, the researcher may
or activities needed to improve teaching instruction. have control over assignment to treatment. Quasi-
Driven by the need to substantiate the claim that experiments are subject to concerns regarding internal
exposing students to different trending motivational validity, because the treatment and control groups may
activities not only before instruction is given but not be comparable at baseline. With random
during and even after the lessons can facilitate assignment, study participants have the same chance of
desirable learning outcomes, this study was conducted. being assigned to the intervention group or the
comparison group (Fraenkel, 2006).
Research Questions
The participants in the study were the two intact
This study aimed at determining whether or not the use sections handled by the researcher. A coin was tossed
of trending motivational activities in teaching to determine which group would be assigned to
mathematics has an effect on the mathematics
performance of the Grade 7 high school students.
Specifically, the study sought answers to the following

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Research Article

mathematics performance posttest score (M =20.132,

teaching with trending motivational activities and SD = 5.657) of students exposed to trending
teaching with traditional activities. A pretest was motivational activities. The result is interpreted as
administered to both groups. One of the two sections “low” mathematics performance in the pretest and
was exposed to teaching with trending motivational “high” mathematics performance in the posttest.
activities and the other section, to traditional approach
in teaching. Lesson plans with corresponding The results imply that students enjoyed the use of the
motivational activities (activity sheets) in each method Trending Motivational activities. Probably, this may
were validated by expert validators. The study was be attributed to the fact that these motivational
conducted on the second quarter of the School Year activities were something new and appealing to them
2016-2017. without being aware that these motivational activities
opened their minds and concretized their mathematical
The scores of the students in their pretest and posttest concepts as they constructed their own pick-up lines
were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the and other trending activities. Further, these activities
Social Sciences (SPSS) software. For descriptive were appealing because these trending motivational
analyses, mean and standard deviation were used. activities were constructed in media but are now
Means of the pre-test and post-test of each group were applied in the teaching and learning of mathematics.
used to determine the level of the students’
mathematics performance. Table 2. Pretest and Posttest Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Exposed to Traditional Motivational
For inferential statistics, t- test for independent Activities
samples using the 0.05 level of significance was
utilized to find out if there would be any significant
differences in students’ mathematics performance
between the two groups. Furthermore, the paired-
samples t-test with p = 0.05 was used to detect
significant mean differences between pretest and
posttest scores of students in each group separately
based on the performance test. Grade 7 students have “low” mathematics performance
(M =9.962, SD = 6.887) in the pretest and appreciably
increased to “high” (M =19.854, SD =5.553) after
Results and Discussion exposure to traditional motivational activities. It is
clear that there is a drastic increase in the mathematics
Mathematics Performance in the Pretest and performance of Grade 7 students after exposure to
Posttest of the Students Exposed to Trending traditional motivational activities.
Motivational Activities and Traditional
The dispersion from the mean of the pretest scores (SD
Motivational Activities
=6.887) and that of the posttest scores (SD =5.553) are
Table 1. Pretest and Posttest Scores in Mathematics nearly the same, which probably would mean that the
students had varied impressions on the use of the
Performance of Students Exposed to Trending
traditional motivational activities.
Motivational Activities
The results imply that any activity employed by the
teachers that could catch students’ curiosity and
concentration and help “open” the students’ minds and
improved performance in mathematics.

Mathematics Performance of the Students in the

There is a considerable increase in the mathematics Pretest and Posttest between groups
performance pretest score (M=9.660, SD = 2.808) to

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Research Article

Table 3. T-test for Paired Samples to Show Significant

Difference between the Pretest and Posttest Scores in
for them to enjoy and engage in. Psychologists suggest
Mathematics Performance of Students Exposed to Trending
that increased motivation may lead to personal
Motivational Activities satisfaction and a feeling of challenge. Furthermore,
the result supports the claim that students receive
higher test scores and show favorable attitudes when
motivated (Cinco, 2014).

Table 5. t-test for Independent Samples to Show Significant

There is a significant difference in the pretest and Difference between the Pretest Scores in Mathematics
posttest scores in mathematics performance test of Performance of Students Before Exposure to
Grade 7 students as shown by t (52) =15.862 at p Motivational Activities
=.000. This implies that the performance of Grade 7
students in mathematics was meaningfully diverse
after they were exposed to trending motivational
activities.

The result of the present study is in agreement with The table shows that there is no significant difference
that in the study of Broussard & Garrison, (2004) in the pre-treatment mathematics performance between
which revealed that motivation is related to the students exposed to trending motivational activities
achievement and IQ. Further, the study disclosed that and those exposed to traditional motivational activities
there is a relatively consistent relationship between as shown by t (52) = .510 at p =.612. This indicates
motivation and achievement in reading and that both groups had more or less the same
mathematics. mathematics performance at the start of the
experimental period and were therefore comparable in
Table 4. T-test for Paired Samples to Show Significant terms of mathematics performance. Both groups had a
Difference between the Pretest and Posttest Scores in pretest mean score of 9.960 and 9.962, respectively,
Mathematics Performance of Students Exposed to Traditional somewhat in favor of the traditional motivational
Motivational Activities group.

Table 6. T-test for Independent Samples to Show Significant

Difference in Mean Gain Scores in Mathematics
Performance of Students Exposed to Trending and
Traditional Motivational Activities

There is a significant difference in the pretest and

posttest scores in the mathematics performance test of
Grade 7 students as shown by t (52)) = 14.146 at p
=.000. This suggests that the performance of the Grade
7 students in mathematics was somehow diverse after
they were exposed to traditional motivational It shows that there is no significant difference in the
activities. The result can also be interpreted that the mean gain scores between the students exposed to
students had low pretest mathematics performance and trending motivational activities and those exposed to
increased to high mathematics performance in the traditional motivational activities t (52) =.374, p =.710.
posttest. It further implies that when students’ interest This suggests that there was no significant difference
is sparked, their curiosity level is increased, they are in the mathematics performance of the students in the
motivated to learn, and their performance increases. two groups after the experimental period.
This result affirms Tobias’ study (1994; in Farillon, However, it is important to note that students exposed
2008) which revealed that the degree to which students to trending motivational activities have a greater mean
like school subjects and find them interesting is related gain than those exposed in the traditional ones. This
to their willingness to become engaged in school and
in learning. Students are excited to attend their
mathematics class when the teacher prepares activities

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Psych Educ, Document ID: PEMJ0, doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6994920, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

mean gain difference may be attributed to the trending to trending motivational were more active,
activities that elicit students’ interest in the lesson and participative, and enthusiastic and interested in
improved more their performance, although the eight mathematics throughout the conduct of the study. This
week experimental period mean gain is not significant implies that the use of trending motivational activities
at 0.05 level. Perhaps, the eight week actual teaching needs to be improved in the future or that students
might not have been enough to cause big difference in need longer immersion in this type of activities.
the students’ mathematics performance. The researcher believes that the teacher has a great
influence on students’ motivation. Aside from the
Another reason may be attributed to the disruption of activities teacher prepares, she/he has to be lively and
classes during experiment period. The experiment humorous in dealing with the students to sustain their
process was not done continuously because of some eagerness to learn. Furthermore, careful planning of
school activities. Furthermore, class size is quite big the motivational activities and teacher’s creativity
enough to manage. Students are interested in the must be given due attention.
activities yet, not all are given the chance to perform
the task due to the number of members in the groups.
References

Conclusion Braza, M. (2014). Trending motivational strategies and mathematics

performance of Grade 9 students. Unpublished Action Research.
West Visayas State University, Iloilo City, Philippines.
In view of the findings of the study, the following
Cinco, J. (May 2014). Computer- assisted instruction (CAI) and
conclusions were made.
comprehension on fraction of pupils with learning difficulties.
Unpublished Master’s Thesis. West Visayas State University, Iloilo
The mathematics performance of the students in the City, Philippines
two groups was at par with each other before trending
and traditional motivational activities were introduced. Farillon, S. (2008). Chinese school pupil’s self efficacy and attitudes
It shows that neither group had a disadvantage over the towards mathematics: Their relationship to mathematics
achievement. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. West Visayas State
other.
University, Iloilo City, Philippines.

The Grade 7 students had “low” mathematics Gamutea,M. ( 2012). The use of worksheets on the students’
performance prior to the intervention. Their poor performance in geometry.
background on the topics included in the pretest was
Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Iloilo, Iloilo City,
probably due to their limited knowledge they had Philippines.
about geometry.
Halat, E. (2007). Reform –based curriculum and motivation in
After exposure to trending motivational activities, the geometry.
students’ mathematics performance greatly improved
Sobrevega, L.(2014). Emotional quotient, mental toughness,
to “high” level. This implies that since the trending mathematics anxiety, and performance: Bases for enhanced general
motivational activities introduced were new and education mathematics curriculum. Unpublished Doctoral
appealing to students, these activities caught their Dissertation. West Visayas State University, Iloilo City, Philippines.
curiosity and concentration and helped open their
minds and thus improved their performance. Affiliations and Corresponding Information

Students would normally increase their performance

with the use of traditional motivational activities. This Gretchen D. Abañera
sheds some light on and gives clues to the natural Sara National High School
learning curve of the students. Schools Division of Iloilo, Philippines

Although the results show no significant differences in

the performance of the two groups, students exposed

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