Poor Academic Performance in Mathematics

The study sought to determine the effects of Math Enrichment Approach and Math Trail Activity Approach as interventions to solve the respondents’ poor academic performance in Mathematics IV as a result of the following causes: negative attitudes towards mathematics, parents’ socio-economic status and difficulty of the subject.
The study further sought to compare the respondents’ pre-test as affected by their negative attitudes towards mathematics and post-test as influenced by the interventions.The study adapted the studies of Beaton & Dwyer (2002), Kellaghan&Madaus (2002) on the causes of poor academic performance in mathematics. The instruments used were the teacher-made pre-test and post-test, Aiken (1994) Mathematics Attitudes, Survey Questionnaire for the Respondents and the Socio-Economic Status Indicators by Liberatos et. al. (1998) & Simich & Dugeon & Weinstein-shr (2005).
This action research has a statistical treatment of mean, standard deviation and T – Test for the significant difference. Results revealed that the major cause of the respondents’ poor academic performance in Mathematics 1V was their negative attitudes towards mathematics. This was confirmed by Broussard & Garrison (2004) on his study.

Math enrichment and Math trail approaches were effective interventions to poor academic performance in Mathematics IV.
Introduction
Mathematics is a changing body of knowledge rather than a set of rules to be learned and practice. Learning mathematics is an active process where a student’s gathers, discovers or creates knowledge through a purposeful activity. An integral part of this learning process is the use of concrete models and manipulative to learn concepts. (NCTM, 2008.)
Felipe (1990) as cited by Foronda (1995) said that every person must have corresponding growth in desirable degrees and types of mathematical concepts in order to orient himself satisfactorily during the changing times.
Performance in mathematics offers a valuable lens for analyzing the quality of the mathematics teaching and learning experiences. Rodd (2003.) Poor academic performance results in the child having a negative attitudes and less motivated.(Karande & Kulkarni 2005.) Identification of the causes of poor academic performance in mathematics and execution of the interventions must beproperlyaddressed so that the respondents can perform up to their full potential prior to their entrance to tertiary level.
In Gingoog City Comprehensive National High School (GCCNHS) poor academic performance in Mathematics was noticed by the researcher. In National Achievement Test (NAT) conducted recently,Mathematics mean scores were the lowest among other areas. Hence this study sought to find the causes of this problem.