Students' Mathematical Readiness and Challenges Encountered in Calculus: Basis for Developing School-Based Intervention Program

The purpose of this research was to determine the mathematical preparedness and difficulties of studying Calculus among Grade 12 students in four Camalaniugan and Lal-lo, Cagayan public senior high schools with an eventual goal to design a school-based interventional program. The subjects were largely 17-year-old males (65) with low-income families of 10,000 and below (45) with an average GWA of 91.12 and Calculus grade of 88.57. The results showed that students were right at Approaching Proficiency level in conceptual understanding (6.11) and problem solving (11.61) but were at a significant disadvantage in applying Calculus to engineering problems (1.87) with a Partial Credit level. On the other hand, they were rated high (3.47) in terms of their confidence, motivation and attitude. Nevertheless, students were subjected to challenges (2.79). The one-way ANOVA and Pearson-r statistical results showed that mathematical readiness did significantly differ depending on age and academic grades in General Mathematics, Pre-Calculus and Calculus, but not sex and socio-economic status. Surprisingly, there were no considerable correlations between student description and the problems that they faced, which indicated that the problem with Calculus is a shared experience, independent of the demographic profile. Although academic performance had positive correlation with conceptual understanding and affective readiness, they did not have a positive correlation with problem-solving and application skills and pointed out a vital difference between theory and practical situations in the real world. In order to fill this gap, the intervention program was created, project BRIDGE STEM (Bridging Readiness through Integrated Drills and Guided Engineering). This is with the intention of narrowing the divide between the high affective readiness of students with little capability to implement Calculus concepts to engineering problems, and the ultimate objective of the K-12 system in equipping STEM students with the tertiary engineering education.