CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF A SCALE ON

THE DIFFERENT SOURCES OF CONCEPTUAL

UNDERSTANDING OF CONIC SECTIONS

PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL

Volume: 16
Issue 8
Pages: 903-908
Document ID: 2024PEMJ1511
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10571085
Manuscript Accepted: 01-06-2024
 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Construction and Validation of a Scale on the Different Sources of Conceptual

Understanding of Conic Sections
Janwin C. Magas,* Dominga C. Valtoribio
For affiliations and correspondence, see the last page.
Abstract
A conceptual understanding of mathematics will aid students in solving mathematical problems and is their starting
point. The study's findings provide necessary information on the different sources such as teachers, the internet,
modules, parents, and students’ own metacognition in developing students’ conceptual understanding of conic
sections. As a result, this study is a quantitative study that aims to construct and validate an instrument that can be
used to determine the extent to which the different sources help develop students’ conceptual understanding. The study
included 107 high school students and 2 mathematics content specialists. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was
conducted for data reduction. The result of the exploratory factor analysis resulted in the removal of 14 items. Four
items (19, 20, 24, and 48) failed to load on any dimension significantly, while 10 items (13, 16, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42,
45, and 49) loaded onto factors other than their underlying factors. The final form of the instrument has 35 statements
that are designed to determine the extent of different sources of conceptual understanding such as teacher, module,
internet, parents, and own metacognition in learning conic sections. 10 statements under “teacher” as a source of
conceptual understanding, 6 for the module, 9 under the internet, 6 under parents, and 4 statements under own
metacognition. The scale has an overall Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.93.
Keywords: conceptual understanding, conic sections, own metacognition, exploratory factor analysis

Introduction
Studying mathematics requires in-depth knowledge to be able to solve problems. Students often regard it as one of the most difficult
subjects to deal with and unfortunately, only a few are interested in studying it. To understand mathematics, one should be able to
understand patterns either logically or geometrically. Conceptual understanding is a must to be able to establish the required steps to
be able to solve certain problems. One example is in terms of studying conic sections. For the students to understand any of the conic
sections, they must be able to understand the different patterns such as translating the center (0,0) to (h,k). They must have enough
conceptual understanding to be able to see relationships or patterns and be able to represent, estimate, and apply them in real-life
situations.
On the other hand, teachers play a very important role in developing and enhancing the conceptual understanding of the students in
Mathematics. They must possess in-depth knowledge of the discipline and show mastery of the lesson to be able to meet the needs and
demands of the students.
In developing the conceptual understanding of the students especially in dealing with the conic sections, teachers’ mastery of the subject
matter and ability to effectively impact the knowledge of the students are the major rudiments expected from them. Hence, teachers
can be the source of conceptual understanding for the students in dealing with Mathematics, particularly in Pre-Calculus because those
topics require students and even the teachers to think analytically or even logically to better understand the concepts.
Conic sections were chosen as the study's topic anchor because students found it difficult to solve issues involving circles, parabolas,
ellipses, and hyperbolas. A study conducted by Edillo (2021) among Grade 11 students at Linao National High School found that the
students knew very little about conic sections. The researchers chose the competency based on the students' poor performance in
previous years.
Furthermore, even overseas students have had difficulty dealing with conic sections. According to Sudihartinih and Purniati (2019),
the students were unable to determine the description of a simple parabola equation, the equations of the conic, the length of the latus
rectum of an ellipse, and a simple equation of asymptote of hyperbola, despite knowing its vertices points.
With the aforementioned studies, it is critical to conduct this study to provide teachers, curriculum developers, and other stakeholders
with in-depth analysis and possible solutions to the long-standing concern about student performance in conic sections, as well as other
topics under mathematics as the discipline that is always included in national and international assessments.

Research Objectives
The study aimed to construct and validate an instrument on the different sources of conceptual understanding such as teachers, modules,
the internet, parents, and students’ own metacognition using exploratory factor analysis to determine the extent of these sources in

Magas & Valtoribio 903/908

 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

developing students’ conceptual understanding of conic sections.

Literature Review
Students show conceptual understanding in mathematics when they can recognize, label, and generate examples of concepts; use and
interrelate models, diagrams, manipulatives, and various representations of concepts; identify and apply principles; know and apply
facts and definitions; compare, contrast, and integrate related concepts and principles; recognize, interpret, and apply the signs, symbols,
and terms used to represent concepts. Conceptual understanding measures a student's ability to reason in situations that require the
careful application of concept definitions, relations, or representations of either (Al-Mutawah et al., 2019).
Conceptual understanding can come from a variety of sources. The materials used by teachers, the availability of the internet, the extent
to which parents assist their children in dealing with mathematics, the significant roles of teachers in developing students' conceptual
understanding, and students' metacognition in the discipline are all covered in this study. Furthermore, the figure illustrates the
importance of teachers, modules, the internet, parents, and students' metacognition in assisting students in becoming conceptually
equipped so that they can become more proficient in dealing with Pre-Calculus, particularly Conic Sections.
According to an OECD study, "of those variables, potentially open to policy influence, factors related to teachers and teaching are the
most important influences on student learning." International evidence suggests that a succession of good teachers can offset the
deficiencies associated with poor school preparation. Other research has found that teacher education quality and instruction are more
strongly associated with student accomplishment than class size, overall spending levels, or teacher salaries (Ambussaidi & Yang,
2019).
According to Magas (2022), students exhibit low conic section competency because they are unfamiliar with the concepts covered.
However, he indicated that employing modules can help students increase their competency in the topic, as long as the module is
correctly created based on the student's capacity to understand Mathematics, particularly conic sections.
Internet access can impact a variety of talents, including academic accomplishments and cognitive abilities. If children do not have
access to educational resources, an internet connection may help them acquire academic skills by giving them access to educational
websites with subject-specific content and exercises (e.g., Khan Academy). Furthermore, youngsters have access to e-books as well as
other reading resources such as newspapers, blogs, and online encyclopedias (for example, Wikipedia). On the other hand, internet
access may reduce learning if youngsters spend more time doing activities that are not conducive to academic skill development, such
as playing online games, and less time reading and doing homework. Finally, internet access may have an impact on cognitive abilities
by exposing children to online activities that modify cognitive processes (Mills, 2014, quoted in Malamud, Cueto, & Cristia, 2018).
Several studies have found a link between parental participation and academic attainment. Parental engagement refers to the
circumstance in which parents are directly active in their children's education. However, there are many various elements to parental
engagement, such as the sense of support, organization, enthusiasm in the educational process, expectations, school relationships, and
time for homework assistance (Veas et al., 2018).
In the case of mathematics, teachers may suggest to parents how to handle their children's challenges during homework to build their
self-regulation performance and perseverance in dealing with mathematical tasks (Panaoura, 2017). According to Güner and Erbay
(2021), pupils with strong metacognitive abilities are more likely to answer problems successfully by employing appropriate
techniques, mathematical notations, and logical reasoning. The findings also demonstrated that students with low metacognitive skills
struggle to understand the problem, choose acceptable techniques, and locate the proper answer.
According to Meyer (2018), conceptual understanding refers to an integrated and functional grasp of mathematical ideas. Students with
conceptual understanding know more than isolated facts and methods. They understand why a mathematical idea is important and the
kinds of context in which is it useful. They have organized their knowledge into a coherent whole, which enables them to learn new
ideas by connecting those ideas to what they already know. Conceptual understanding also supports retention. Because facts and
methods learned with understanding are connected, they are easier to remember and use, and they can be reconstructed when forgotten.
In connection with the aforementioned literature, studying Pre-Calculus requires students to have prerequisite knowledge in geometry
and even algebra. They must be able to see relationships or patterns to be able to understand the conic sections. Moreover, teachers are
challenged to help the students develop their conceptual understanding not just in pre-calculus but even in other disciplines. It is through
them that the students can gain knowledge on how to deal with the discipline and eventually become good at it. Soyke (2016) stated
that conceptual understanding refers to the notion that a student is not just taught how to do math but also the why behind it.
Students are encouraged to see the bigger framework that underlies all math topics and to think fluidly so that they can apply their math
skills to a wide variety of problems. According to Sbar (2018), conceptual understanding in mathematics is the creation of a robust
framework representing the numerous and interwoven relationships between mathematical ideas, patterns, and procedures. This
framework can be used to coherently integrate new knowledge and solve unfamiliar problems.

Magas & Valtoribio 904/908

 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

If the students possess conceptual understanding, especially in mathematics, they can understand even concepts that require deeper
understanding. It is simply because conceptual understanding will allow students to investigate and analyze problems to be able to
establish the proper procedures to solve the problem.
According to Minarti and Wahyudin (2019), a conceptual understanding of mathematics will help and is the initial capital of students
in solving mathematical problems.It goes to say that for students to be able to solve problems, they must develop their conceptual
understanding. This implies as well that conceptual understanding is the foundation of mathematical reasoning for the students. As
such, teachers in mathematics should think of ways to develop the conceptual understanding of the students.
As cited by Malatjie and Machaba (2019), Kharatmal (2009) refers to conceptual understanding as connections of mathematics ideas
that are not disconnected from one another. This implies that a learner has a conceptual understanding when he or she can explain,
describe, and apply the same concept in different ways and different situations. This further refers to a situation where a learner can
see the integration of concepts understanding takes place when mathematical concepts are not isolated. The different literature above
suggests that when it comes to studying mathematics, one should not just focus on the “how” but on the “what” of the problem. This
means that for the students to solve problems, they must be able to analyze, see patterns, and think logically.

Methodology
This quantitative study attempts to investigate the relationship between the variables included. It is appropriate to use since the
exploratory factor analysis considers determining the relationships among variables. Creswell (2014) defines quantitative research as
a method for testing objective theories by examining the relationship between variables.
Participants
The study was conducted in Cauayan City, Philippines. A total of one hundred seven (107) selected high school students and two (2)
Mathematics content specialists participated in the study.
Instruments
This study did not use any instrument but rather developed a scale on the different sources of conceptual understanding of conic
sections. However, as a first step towards the development of a scale on the different sources of conceptual understanding among
students in learning conic sections, 10 statements in each source namely teacher, module, internet, parents, and own metacognition, on
a 4-point Likert scale were written after a careful study of related literature and studies. A total of 50 statements were constructed for
the first trial of the scale which was administered among the high school students of a school in Cauayan City, Isabela, Philippines.

Procedure
The researchers were guided by the following procedures: (1) Asked for approval from the school heads to conduct this study. (2) The
Mathematics content specialists were asked to evaluate the scale and give their comments and suggestions for content validity purposes.
After collecting all the data, it was tallied, analyzed, and interpreted. (3) After constructing a total number of 50 statements, the scale
was submitted to the experts for content validation. Two Mathematics experts gave their comments and suggestions on the scale
constructed. Although it is not included in the context of this study the classifications or qualifications of experts who will validate the
scale, those two Mathematics teachers can be considered experts because they are actively involved in conducting studies in
Mathematics and they have been teaching the discipline for a long time. The first expert has been teaching Mathematics for 20 years
and the second expert has been teaching Mathematics and other subjects related to education for 30 years. After editing the instrument
based on the comments and suggestions of the experts, it was administered among one hundred seven (107) high school students.
After collecting the responses of the students included in this study, EFA was performed using the principal component analysis and
varimax rotation. The minimum factor loading criteria were set to 0.50. The communality of the scale, which indicates the amount of
variance in each factor, was also determined to ensure an appropriate level of explanation.
Another important step that needs to be done is to determine if the assumptions for EFA were satisfied. In this case, Bartlett’s test of
sphericity, which provides a measure of the statistical probability that the correlation matrix has a significant correlation among some
of its components, was determined. The results were significant, , which indicates the appropriateness of the data for factor analysis.
Furthermore, the Keiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (MSA), which indicates the appropriateness of the data for factor
analysis, was 0.827. in this case, it is considered appropriate for factor analysis since it is greater than 0.800.
The result of the initial EFA resulted in the removal of 14 items. Four items (19, 20, 24, and 48) failed to load on any dimension
significantly, while 10 items (13, 16, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 45, and 49) loaded onto factors other than their underlying factors.

Magas & Valtoribio 905/908

 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

Ethical Considerations

The research participants were not in any way harmed during the study. Their dignity was respected, so no names were mentioned in
the exam results table or during the subsequent discussion. Data confidentiality was ensured.

Results and Discussion

The Final Form of the Instrument

The final form of the instrument has 35 statements that are designed to determine the extent of different sources of conceptual
understanding such as teacher, module, internet, parents, and own metacognition in learning Pre-Calculus. 10 statements under
“teacher” as a source of conceptual understanding, 6 for the module, 9 under the internet, 6 under parents, and 4 statements under own
metacognition. The scale has an overall Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.93.

After the initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) where 14 items were removed, the researchers repeated the EFA without including
those items. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin MSA was 0.873. Bartlett’s Test of sphericity proved to be significant and all communalities were
over the required value of 0.500. Factor 1 includes items Q1-Q10, referring to a teacher as a source of conceptual understanding. Factor
2 includes items Q11, Q13-Q15, and Q17- Q18, referring to module. Factor 3 includes items Q21-Q23, and Q25-Q30, referring to the
internet. Factor 4 gathers items Q31-Q36. Factor 5 includes items Q43, Q44, Q46, and Q47. Factor loadings are presented in Table 1.

Magas & Valtoribio 906/908

 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

The reliability of the scale was also determined using Cronbach’s Alpha. The overall reliability of the instrument was 0.93 indicating
an excellent; high to very high; or adequate value for individual measurement and diagnosis, which is acceptable (Hedden, 1997).
Furthermore, the reliability of each factor is presented in Table 2.

The table shows Cronbach’s alpha of each source and the corresponding interpretation. The reliability of the scale was determined after
the EFA, and as stipulated in the table, the reliability of each source is acceptable. Hence, the scale can be used as an instrument for
gathering the necessary information that can help improve the performance of the students, especially in conic sections. See the
appendix for the final statements of each factor.

Conclusion

Students require conceptual comprehension skills as essential learning to solve problems and develop information from varied
experiences or prior understanding. To learn mathematics successfully, each learner must be mathematically conversant (Ningrum et
al., 2022). However, other issues arise when considering students’ performance, notably in Mathematics, particularly in the Philippines,
where poor academic achievement is always a major worry. Therefore, this research was carried out to provide information on how
students’ conceptual comprehension, particularly of conic sections, might be developed. The study’s findings show that the scale,
which consists of multiple items, can be used as an instrument to assess the extent to which teachers, the internet, modules, parents,
and students’ own metacognition aid in the development of students’ conceptual grasp of conic sections. The instrument or scale is
supposed to alleviate the long-standing worry of low academic achievement, particularly in conic parts.

References
Al-Mutawah, M. A., Thomas, R., Eid, A., Mahmoud, E. Y., & Fateel, M. J. (2019). Conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge
and problem-solving skills in mathematics: High school graduates work analysis and standpoints. International Journal of Education
and Practice, 7(3), 258–273. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.61.2019.73.258.273

Ambussaidi, I., & Yang, Y.-F. (2019). The Impact of Mathematics Teacher Quality on Student Achievement in Oman and Taiwan.
International Journal of Education and Learning, 1(2), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.31763/ijele.v1i2.39

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (4 th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
E. D. Minarti and Wahyudin, Conceptual understanding and mathematical disposition of college student through concrete-
representational-abstract approach (CRA), Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1157: 042124, 2019.

Edillo, G. L. (2021). IMPROVING STUDENTS PERFORMANCE IN SOLVING PROBLEMS ON EQUATION OF CONIC

SECTIONS THROUGH POLYA’S APPROACH. 10(7). www.garph.co.uk

Güner, P., & Erbay, H. N. (2021). Metacognitive Skills and Problem-Solving. International Journal of Research in Education and
Science, 715–734. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijres.1594

Magas, J. C. (2022). The Impact of Personalized Module to the Grade 10 Students in Learning Pre-Calculus: A Case Study of a School
in Cauayan City, Philippines. Journal of Science and Mathematics Education in Southeast, 45.

Malamud, O., Cueto, S., & Cristia, J. (2018). Do Children Benefit from Internet Access? Experimental Evidence from a Developing
Country.

Malatjie, F., & Machaba, F. (2019). Exploring mathematics learners’ conceptual understanding of coordinates and transformation
geometry through concept mapping. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15(12), 1–16.

Magas & Valtoribio 907/908

 Psych Educ, 2024, 16(8): 903-908, Document ID:2024PEMJ1511, doi:10.5281/zenodo.10571085, ISSN 2822-4353
Research Article

https://doi.org/10.29333/EJMSTE/110784.

Meyer, D. (2018). What is conceptual understanding? Retrieved 2022 from https://davidwees.com/content/what-is-conceptual

understanding/#:~:text=According%20to%20Adding%20It%20Up,in%20which%20is%2 0it%20useful.

Rita Panaoura. (2020). Parental Involvement in Children’s Mathematics Learning Before and During the Period of the COVID-19.
Social Education Research, 65–74. https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021547

Sbar, E. (2018). Schemas are key to deep conceptual understanding. Retrieved 2022 from https://blog.mindresearch.org/blog/schemas-
deep-conceptual-understanding

Soyke, J. (2016). Conceptual understanding in math. Retrieved 2022 from https://demmelearning.com/blog/conceptual-understanding/

Sudihartinih, E., Indonesia, U. P., Purniati, T., & Indonesia, U. P. (2020). Students’ Mistakes and Misconceptions on the Subject of
Conics. International Journal of Education, 12(2), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.17509/ije.v12i2.19130

Affiliations and Corresponding Information

Janwin C. Magas, PhD(c)

Saint Mary’s University – Philippines
Dominga C. Valtoribio, PhD
Saint Mary’s University – Philippines

Magas & Valtoribio 908/908