Impact of Interactive Teaching Techniques on Mathematics Comprehension Skills Among Junior High School Students at Sulu State College

Abstract. This study was carried out to measure the impact of the use of interactive teaching techniques on math’s comprehension skills of junior high school students at Sulu State College Laboratory High School. A descriptive correlational design of research was used and involved 116 purposively chosen students from Grades 7 to 10 in School Year 2025-2026. The study aimed to scrutinize the impact of interactive teaching techniques in terms of critical thinking skills, interest, and anxiety and stress level in the light of demographic profiles of the respondents (age, gender, grade, educational background of the parents and average monthly income of the parents). Findings indicated that most respondents were in 13-14 years old, female students slightly outnumbering their male counterparts, and the respondents were almost evenly distributed across grade level. Most of the students were from families with college to post-graduate educational backgrounds, however, a sizeable proportion came from low-to-middle income households. Results revealed that students agreed that interactive teaching techniques had positive impact on critical thinking skills and interest in mathematics and induced manageable levels of anxiety and stress while learning in an interactive learning activity. There were no significant differences in responses to the questions when respondents were categorized based on age, gender, educational attainment of parents and average monthly income of parents; however, there were significant differences in responses between grade level, pointing to differences in the experience of the form of interactions when students move up through the grades and become more advanced academically. Moreover, a strong positive correlation between critical thinking skills and interest was found; however, significant relationship between anxiety and stress level and the other dimensions were not found. Based on the findings, it is suggested that school administrators of Sulu State College may lead to strengthening the professional development programs on the effective use of interactive teaching techniques in all grade levels. Mathematics educators can possibly still integrate collaborative, hands-on and student-centered learning strategies to foster comprehension and engagement and learner anxiety management. Students might be actively engaged in the interactive activities maximizing learning benefits also in the future might investigate longitudinal or experimental studies investigating the long-term effects of interactive teaching techniques on mathematics learning outcomes even more. Keywords: Anxiety and stress level, critical thinking skills, interactive teaching techniques, interest, Mathematics understanding skills