Using Journal Writing and Remedial Lessons to Correct Misconceptions in Mathematics
International College Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University
ABSTRACT
The purposes of this action research were to investigate the effects of using journal writing and remedial lessons for correcting student misconceptions and to explore student satisfaction towards employing journal writing and remedial lessons. The participants of this study were 45 grade-10 students studying additional mathematics in the second semester of academic year 2014 at Satrinonthaburi School, Nonthaburi, Thailand. The interested topic here was the linear equation system and matrix. Journal writing was used to investigate student misconceptions in the process of thinking and remedial lessons were applied to correct misconceptions. Experimental results show that misconceptions mostly occurred in three subtopics including the sum of two matrices, the product of a scalar (number) and a matrix, and the product of two matrices. Applying journal writing twice, before and after assigning the corresponding remedial lesson, yielded the results which showed that students could correct misconceptions through the application of the remedial lesson. Further study also showed that students performed better in doing homework and assignments when misconceptions were corrected. The satisfaction level of students towards the instruction using the proposed methodology is at high level (4.47 out of 5.00).
KEYWORDS
Journal Writing, Remedial Lessons, Misconceptions in Mathematics, Student Satisfaction