Chapter 4 Data Collection, Analysis and Findings - DSpace@UM

Chapter 4
Data Collection, Analysis and Findings
4.1 Introduction
This chapter presented the data collection, analysis and findings for this study.
Mixed research methodologies were adopted such as questionnaires, observations and
interviews. Each is further elaborated and the results and outcomes obtained are analyzed
and summarized.
4.2 Key Personnel and Resources
4.2.1 School Authority – Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Assunta (SMK Assunta)
Students from lower secondary form from SMK Assunta are chosen as respondent
to participate in requirements gathering, system testing and giving feedbacks activities.
SMK Assunta is a reputable secondary school in Petaling Jaya, Selangor in Malaysia and is
well-known for its students’ excellent performance in both academic and co-curriculum.
Apart from these, a total enrollment of 1839 students from lower and upper secondary form
ensures adequate numbers of students for data collecting purposes.
4.2.2 History and Development of Assunta
The word 'Assunta' is derived from the Italian language - the English equivalent
being the word 'assumption' which commemorated the Virgin Mary's Assumption into
Heaven. The school was named in the memory of Sister Assunta, a nun who tended to
smallpox victims in Beijing, China during the Boxer Rebellion. She passed away in 1904.
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Assunta Secondary School was established in 1957, a year when Malaya was still in the
midst of turmoil following the communists' struggle for political power. Racial tensions
were still high and curfews had been imposed. Most girls then did not go to school; this
prompted the British as well as the local leaders to establish an all-girls' school to help
promote education and improve relationships between the races. This school was Assunta.
Today, Assunta is leaded by Madam Hong Yin Wah, with 94 academic staffs, 12
support staffs, and a total of 1839 students for both morning and afternoon session. The
school is well-equipped with facilities such as computer labs, science labs, audio-video
room, art and craft room, home science room and others facilities which aimed to provide
students the best learning environments.
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4.2.3 Organizational chart
Administrators of SMK Assunta of year 2010 are shown in Figure 4.1.
Assunta Administrator 2010
Hong Yin Wah
Principal
Normal Binti Ismail Eow Cheng Hwa Nur Aini Binti Murah Koh Bee Hong Gan Geok Tow
Senior Assistant Senior Assistant Senior Assistant Senior Assistant Senior Assistant
(Academic) (Students’ Affair) (Extra Curriculum) (Afternoon) (Form Six)
Chan Kim Gek Ho Choi Peng Noraziah Binti Mohd Noah Jamariah Binti Haji Ahmad
Head of department Head of department Head of department Head of department
(Language) (Science & Mathematics) (Technical & Vocasional) (Humanity)
Figure 4.1: Organizational chart of administrative staffs in SMK Assunta (Source: Adopted
from http://smkassunta.edu.my)
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4.2.4 The Participants
In the data collection stage, students from lower secondary form in SMK Assunta
are chosen as respondents to take part in the questionnaires for requirement gathering
purposes. To further validate the analysis outcomes, especially students’ learning behaviors,
interviews were conducted with Mathematics teachers from afternoon session teaching
Mathematics in lower secondary form. Table 4.1 depicts professional profile of
Mathematics teachers participated in the interviews.
Table 4.1: Mathematics Teachers’ Profile
Teacher Qualifications Experiences in
teaching
Mathematics
Khairiah Binti Haji
Mohd Noor
B. A. (Hons) (UKM)
Sijil Perguruan
(MP Perempuan Melayu)
14 years
Nur Izdihar Binti
MD Hapidz
ISM Sains dengan Pendidikan
(USM)
1 year
4.3 Data collection
The study is conducted based on the need for a personalized Mathematics
multimedia learning system that not only (i) concentrating in preparing learning materials
or assessment that suit the learners’ need individually but also (ii) the ability to enhance
their capability in analytical skill and the overall learning competency. Before conducting
the questionnaire, interviews were done with the relevance personnel. A precise
investigation is carried out to have an in-depth understanding of the structure of the school
and to ensure the amount of data collected are validated in term of data adequacy and
accuracy.
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In lower secondary form, Mathematics is the fundamental subject for around 500
lower secondary form students in SMK Assunta. The school has a total of 10 classes per
form, and seven teachers teaching Mathematics subject for lower secondary form. On
average, the ratios of teacher teaching Mathematics to students learning Mathematics are 1:
40 per class. Each class has to attend to Mathematics class for an average 3.33 hours per
week and subject assessments are carried out four times every year with two major
examinations and two minor assessments.
For the first phase of data collection, questionnaires were distributed to lower
secondary form students to gather information on students’ learning preferences and
attitudes towards learning Mathematics. A total of four hundred seventy three students have
actively participated in contributing their ideas on how to develop an all-rounded integrated
personalized Mathematics learning system from students’ perspectives.
Basically, the questionnaires are prepared in bilingual (English and Bahasa Melayu)
and consisted of four sections with the combination of open-ended and close-ended
questions. Section A, B and C consists of close-ended questions while Section D has been
designed in having both open-ended and close-ended questions. Section A is designed to
collect respondents’ personal details, Section B investigates on respondents’ computer
usage and skills, Section C aimed to collect the information regarding respondents’
learning styles and last but not least, Section D aimed to get information on what must be
included in the learning system to help learners learnt the best. Sample of the questionnaire
is attached in Appendix B.
For close-ended questions, the collected numerical data are countable. Data was
analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
Thus, through
questionnaire, a thorough analysis on individual’s characteristics, styles, and opinions can
be summarize with statistical proven outcomes. For open-ended questions, data is
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organized in a measureable way by grouping similar features into categories so that it can
be quantified and lead to the formation of a conclusion.
Earlier arrangement is made with the school authority for the observation to take
place in SMK Assunta. The exact date, time, place and duration are arranged after
permission is gained from the school authority. A total of five classrooms are visited for
observation. The criterions observed while the teachers deliver the lectures are listed below:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
Does teacher have proper teaching plan
What are the teaching pedagogies and interactive strategies adopted
Is learning objectives clearly delivered
How attentive the students are
Are student aware of what are they learning and doing
Are the students involved and actively participated throughout the whole
learning process
(vii)
What are the activities that are enthusiastic and able to grab students’
interest in learning
(viii)
How student normally react towards the problems they faced in learning
Finally, through the interviews with the Mathematics teachers teaching lower
secondary form, teaching pedagogies and learning outcomes to be achieved are identified.
This study exposes many insight such as methods on how learning objectives can be
achieved more effectively, how frequently assessment would have to be done to evaluate
the learning progress, what types of delivery of learning materials are best suit the students,
and understand the mistakes that students commonly made. The insight information
provides valuable information on what features that are to be included in the proposed
prototype learning system to improve the learning quality.
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4.4 Data Analysis
4.4.1 Questionnaires’ result analysis
Questionnaires were distributed to a total of 473 students in Form1 to Form3 from
Lower Secondary Form of SMK Assunta.
The first part of the questionnaire investigates the computer skills of students and
the computer usage’s frequency. Result shows positive feedbacks from respondents which
mean handling E-learning is not a problem for them.
The second part of the questionnaire, investigate further on learners’ preferences
and learning styles. There are 60.47% (286 out of 473) students who are ready to embrace
new learning styles but another 39.53% (187 out of 473) students still prefer the traditional
classroom teaching styles and waiting to get instructions from teacher. Figure 4.2 shows
the learners’ preferences on teaching methodologies.
Figure 4.2: Learners’ Preferences on Teaching Methodologies
In addition to that, 69.34% (328 students out of 473) students agreed that they do
prefer to works on their own pace and monitor their own progression. 81.80% (387 students
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out of 473) felt that they learnt better when they are exposed to the relevant activities
during the learning process especially when involved in group studies.
According to a handbook of research on the Psychology of Mathematics Education,
Presmeg (2006) introduced his review of research on visualization in Mathematics learning,
he mentioned Mathematics subject is a subject that has diagrams, tables, symbols and
others essentials component, thus, the importance of visual processing in learning
Mathematics was increasingly recognized. On the other hand, Gillies (2003) who
investigated into the effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students shows
that small group learning developed a stronger perception of group cohesion and social
responsibility for each other’s learning. Another interesting learning style in trend is
auditory learning. An auditory learner is an individual who has the ability to retain and
learn new information through the process of listening and discussing (Tannahill, 2009).
Students have preferences for the ways in which they receive information, thus, several
learning methodologies such as such as (I) visualization, (II) group learning, (III) individual
learning and (IV) auditory were suggested to students.
Figure 4.3 shows the learners’ preferences on learning methodologies. Majority of
the students, with 58.77% (278 out of 473 students) think that group learning help the most
in the learning process, followed by 32.98% (156 out of 473) of students think that learning
individually is another option to concentrate in studies. Another 16.28% students and
11.21% students out of 473 believed that visualization and auditory methodologies
respectively can improve learning competency.
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Learning Methodologies
11.21%
16.28%
32.98%
58.77%
Visualization
Group Learning
Individual Learning
Auditory
Figure 4.3: Learners’ Preferences on Learning Methodologies
There are 63.80% (302 out of 473) students claimed that they learn better when they
listen to someone rather than reading on their own. Vice-versa, 64.00% (303 out of 473)
students can remember more effectively when they read rather than listen to someone.
From both statements mentioned above, it can be concluded that students prefer to study
individually when remembering facts but prefer to actively involved in group discussion for
those non-facts learning contents. In addition, 61.70% (292 out of 473) students are likely
to improve their understanding through projects and assignments.
The third part of the questionnaire investigates the favored design of a mathematics
multimedia learning system from learners’ perspectives. For effective learners’ engagement
in e-learning systems, the design principles needs to be sounded pedagogical where an
implicit “learning triangle” seemed to come into play involving the LEARNER, the
CONTENT of what was being learned, and the CONTEXT to which the learning was to be
applied. Otherwise, the interactivity can end up as a time-consuming entertaining process
without real impact on the competence and development of the learner. As the proposed
prototype EMMLS system focuses on personalization, it is important to place students’
preferences in the first place when designing the system.
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Figure 4.4 shows that majority of 71.90% of the learners prefer double code mode
of multimedia presentation to provide them with an interactive learning system. The most
popular combination of multimedia components selected by the respondents is the
combination of auditory-narration, animation and on-screen text which are chosen by 166
students out of 473 students.
Figure 4.4: Learners’ Preference over the Presentation Mode of Multimedia Materials
The second combination type that preferred by learners is the combination of
animation and text-based learning content, followed by the combination which consists of
pictures and auditory-narration, ranked the third choice. Figure 4.5 shows the learners’
preference on the different type of combination of multimedia presentations.
Figure 4.5: Learners’ Preference on the Combination of Multimedia Presentation
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From the surveys, 345 out of 473 students agreed that time constraint act as a
motivational factor which encourages students to be more focus and to concentrate more
throughout the learning process. In addition, 67.90% (321 out of 473) students think that by
providing appropriate yet challenging questions will raise their interest in learning.
Appropriate questions mean challenging questions that can promote students to understand
better and able to overcome the problems they faced in learning Mathematics. This
indirectly managed to increase students’ self-esteem when they see improvement based on
their own efforts.
Summation of the learning preferences on key features that are essential to be
integrated into the personalized multimedia Mathematics learning system from learners’
perspectives is represented in Figure 4.6.
Prior
knowledge
Summary of
formulas
Contents
with
attractive
animation
Exam like &
real life
examples with
explanations
Games
Personalized
Multimedia
Mathematics
Learning
System
Interactive
Lesson
illustration in
video and
audio mode
Assessment
with time
constraints
imposed
Figure 4.6: Essential Key Features in Learning Model from Students’ Perspective
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4.4.2 Observation
Teaching and learning activities are observed on five classes of the lower secondary
form in SMK Assunta. The observations were made especially on students’ behaviors and
attitudes toward Mathematics learning. Observation’s results were revised and summarized
as following:
In classroom environment, lessons are delivered using traditional chalk and board
method. Teachers followed closely to the lesson programs regularized by the government.
Teaching is done well-planned and paced. Apart from the learning resources that are
already available for teachers, they barely use independent teaching materials or resources
to support their teaching. The most commonly found teaching aids are the textbooks that
act as reference books. Examples were retrieved from these reference books and are
discussed together with students. Yet, limited interactive strategies were manipulated to
stimulate learning interest among the students. Teachers-students interaction is limited to
the questioning and answering session which appeared to be the only interaction throughout
the whole learning process. This consequently results in one way communication with not
much interaction between teachers and students. Thus with limited students’ contribution,
teachers have difficulty to conclude that the learning objectives are achieved nor make
assumption on students’ learning progress. Learning objectives for each of the lesson are
made visible but it is not explained to students neither put into learning context. Students
with high learning competency appeared to be actively involved in the learning process and
are aware of what they are learning and doing. Some of the students seemed busy taking
down notes where this would claim a good deal on students’ attention instead of
concentrate on the lessons along the whole learning process. Subject knowledge delivered
is according to the required syllabus yet the learning content is insufficient to enthusiast
students. Students are seems to laze around without any constraint applied or motivational
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factors involved. Most of the students were found afraid to stand out and openly express
their problems. For those students who did voice out their learning problem, they might
not have sufficient time to get the complete process on how to solve the mathematical
problems due to the limited time available in lesson. Thus, lessons are mostly ended with
neither conclusions made on students’ learning progress nor teaching effectiveness.
4.4.3 Interviews
From the interviews conducted with the Mathematics teachers teaching lower
secondary form students, it is found that most students show interest in learning
Mathematics when they manage to understand and master most of the lessons concept.
These are the students who are able to manage their own learning with or without the
monitoring from school teachers. Some students needed guidance to be able to keep up
with the learning progress. In contrary, these students feel anxious when faced difficulties
in learning, they lose confident to cope with their learning problems in Mathematics
without guidance from teachers or peers. Finally, it becomes barriers preventing and
reducing students’ interest in further engaging themselves in learning Mathematics. In
order to instill more interest for the students to learn Mathematics, it is important to engage
them in the whole learning context and processes from the initial stage, to master all the
fundamental skills and concept, to make them felt confident and believed that they have the
skills to manage their own learning. The common mistake made by students is usually
related to mathematical problems that require long calculation where students is easily
getting lost midway due to the unfamiliarity with concepts and formulas required.
Furthermore, for students who are normally poor in applied Mathematics, they were unable
to identify the keywords from the problem statements as they have poor memory in
remembering all the mathematical concepts and formulas. Hence, effective teaching must
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show how Mathematics is applicable in everyday activities. Students must be guided
through practical examples related to the daily activities and not merely the theories alone.
Based on this finding, the Mathematical teachers suggested that a challenging environment
with interactive games such as puzzle or mathematics games will be good features to be
included in the proposed system to keep students intrigued in learning. In addition, it is
important to impose some constraints in a self-controlled learning environment to monitor
students learning paced. The teachers agreed that with the inclusion of assessment modules
that fit the students’ need, it can further enhances the students’ analytical and problem
solving skills. Assessment module must be designed carefully not to demotivate learners
but to enhance their learning skills.
Summarizing the information gathered from interviews with the Mathematics
teachers, it is important to develop necessary Mathematics learning skills in the preliminary
stage of learning so that learners will not feel estranged from the learning context, and
might then start avoiding problems faced in learning. With more real life examples showing
manipulations of Mathematics it can be made fun through its use in daily activities and
helps to overcome students’ fears toward learning. To continuously enhance one’s
performance, it is vital to keep students motivated, engaged, and believed about their own
learning capability.
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4.5 Data findings
4.5.1 Design principles
Cognitive load is varying from person to person, and consequently it may have
different effects on the efficiency of multimedia learning. Efforts have to be made in order
to narrow down the constraints of the users. Multimedia model with the following five
principles helps students to understand the scientific explanations without overburden the
working memory of most students (Mayer, 1997).
Multiple Representation Principle: It is better to present an explanation in
double mode (more than one media such as pictures and words) rather one
in single mode (words).
Contiguity Principle: Related words and pictures must be presented
continuously when giving a multimedia explanation
Split-Attention Principle: Words presented in auditory form instead of onscreen
text to avoid distraction. When giving a multimedia explanation,
present words as auditory narration rather than as visual on-screen text.
Individual Differences Principle: The foregoing principles are more
important for low-knowledge than high-knowledge learners, and for highspatial
rather than low-spatial learners.
Coherence Principle: Excessive words and pictures are not encouraged when
giving a multimedia explanation.
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Apart from the above design principles, educational characteristic of multimedia is
also important, thus, learning modules are suggested to be equipped with some strong
multimedia characteristic’s features as listed below:
i. Screen Design
Effective design enables potential learners to maintain and develop interest in
lesson content and promotes the active engagement of the learners with the
material and facilitates deep processing of important information (Stemler, 1997)
Screen appearance is recommended to be visually stimulate, be easy to read and
exhibit no distracting features (Richards, 2005). Good pieces of design fulfill
the followings (Nguyen, 2008):
No more three types and sizes of fonts should be presented per screen
Highlighting of text with colors and flashes helps to control selective
perception and focus attention on identified information
Graphic should be used to present information
Audio and video elements to stimulate young learners’ interest in
learning
ii. Interaction and Feedbacks
Meaningful interaction between users and courseware are an encouraging
scenario. Feedbacks are given immediately after students’ response, especially
for example when incorrectness is detected, hints or help will be offered. High
Learners will engage more actively if learners see learning response instantly
(Said, 2004).
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iii. Navigation
Normally users get confused with the complex multimedia modules. It is
significant to have a template which is consistently used in a module.
Navigation icons must be selected carefully, universal icons for audio and video
icons such play, stop, pause should be used as well as others navigational keys
like next screen, previous screen, tips key, exit key and main menu, to give
more complete control of the program to the learners (McFarland, 1995).
iv. Learner Control
Greater control over the content promotes satisfaction. Navigation control is one
of it, where it allows learners navigate at their own pace and ability.
Complicated menus should be avoided; some users may be confused if provided
with a wide range of options especially low ability learners. Navigation guides
need to be provided as a reference for the learners. Learner control guidelines as
listed below (Orr, Golas and Yau, 1994):
• Provide the learner control of the sequence when (a) lengthy instructional
sequences must be completed by the student in no specific order, (b) students
are familiar with a topic and are able to make appropriate sequence choices,
and (c) the training is for cognitive strategies or higher order problem solving
tasks.
• Do not provide sequence control to students in a situation where the materials
have a specific prerequisite order.
• Provide learner control of content when (a) students have significant previous
knowledge of the content; (b) students have higher ability; (c) there is a high
probability that students will succeed in learning the content regardless of the
chosen content; (d) cognitive strategies and higher order problem solving are
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eing taught; (e) the skills are not critical, the training is optional, and student
motivation is high.
• Do not provide full learner control of content when all topics in the
instructional presentation are required for successful completion of the
program and there is a hierarchical order to the materials.
v. Color
Consistent color scheme in multimedia modules can be more effective. Thus,
color selection must be carefully planned. Specific guidelines for using color
were recommended by a number of authors (Bailey & Milheim, 1991; Faiola,
1990; McFarland, 1995; Milheim & Lavix, 1992; Orr et al., 1994) which
include:
(a) allow no more than three to six colors per screen; (b) being
consistent in color choices within a program (c) highlight most important
information using the brightest colors (d) using a neutral gray or pastels as a
background, since it recedes optically (e) using significant contrast between text
and a background color to provide a higher degree of text readability (f) always
using dark letters on a light background for text (g) avoiding the use of
complementary colors (e.g., blue/orange, red/green, violet/yellow) and (h) using
commonly accepted colors for particular actions (e.g., red for stop or warning,
yellow for pause or consider, green for go or proceed). Avoid very hot colors
(such as pink and magenta) should be avoided.
vi. Graphic
Normally, in multimedia software the information are translated into texts or
graphics forms. Pictures illustrating the information do strengthen the learning
ability especially those complex facts or content which are hard to understand or
unclear to explain by reading the text (Gyselinck et al., 2008).
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vii. Animation
Animation used to highlight the important notes, foster students’ interest as well
as improve the recall ability of the learners (Orr et.al., 1994).
viii. Audio
Audio, a critical instructional component in multimedia courseware which it can
support the text based material, assist learners with poor reading ability (Stemler,
1997). In this case, play, pause, and stop buttons are important as they enable
students to go through again the modules, during the learning process. The
audio usage maybe restricted if the information is too much to deliver
(Kensworthy, 1993).
Through the analysis on learners’ preferences in learning as well as the findings
on design principles from literature reviews the important design principles and key
features to construct an effective multimedia Mathematics learning system for lower
secondary forms are derived and integrated into EMMLS.
4.5.2 How Assessment Assists in Learning
Apart from the unique learner’s profile in term of preferences and learning styles, a
person’s learning interest is critical in determining the continuity in learning especially in a
self-manage learning environment. Assessment is a valuable tool in learning to make
people learn more efficiently through constant practices of the problems and it helps to
develop the analytical skills faster and more accurately and help to improve the learning
weaknesses. In problem solving, learning by doing enables learners to have deeper
understanding into the steps taken during the process of finding the solution. Learners’
interest will be maintained when their efforts are ascertained along the learning process,
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which means when their efforts were paid off when seeing increased learning performance
through continuous assessments.
Based on a presentation by Dr.Heritage in Exploratory Seminar (Heritage, 2010), an
assessment module appeared to be helpful only when the assessments are able to develop
learning competency of students by leading students to learn from the past mistakes.
Current assessment modules however are static with the same and fixed amount of similar
questions provided to students. Assessments are not mapped with learning progression and
students’ learning skills. Apparently, there is a significance lack of assessment strategies to
keep learning moving forward. An effective assessment model is believed to be able to
keep students engaged throughout the learning process, to figure out to what extent they are
capable to achieve, and to understand what they need to promote their own learning
competency in a self-motivated learning environment. In addition, through assessment,
teachers could identify the level students have attained in their learning, to know what to
prepare to further enhance students’ performances while students are able to understand
their own strengths and weaknesses throughout the whole learning process.
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4.6 Chapter Summary
In this study, respondents are chosen from SMK Assunta, a reputable secondary
school in Petaling Jaya, Selangor in Malaysia. From the analysis of the responses of the
questionnaire distributed to lower secondary form students, proposed learning system is
designed to include features, namely (a) contents with attractive animations, interactive
video and audio components, (b) prior knowledge, (c) summary of formula and facts, (d)
games, (e) assessment modules with time constraints and (f) exam-like and real-life
simulation Mathematics examples. Through observations, student-teacher interactions are
found limited to only questioning and answering session before class lessons ended.
Problems faced by students are mostly ignored and left unattended due to factors
such as limited time available for questioning and students’ fear to openly address their
problems. With little contribution of students throughout the learning process, teachers can
hardly make assumption on students’ progression and to effectively identify the learning
and teaching effectiveness. To validate the conclusions made through questionnaire
analysis result and observation outcomes, interviews were conducted to have further
understanding towards students’ learning behaviors. From the questionnaires responses,
basically the students have positive attitudes toward learning Mathematics if they are able
to master the lessons. To continuously enhance one’s performance, it is vital to keep
students motivated, engaged throughout the whole learning process. Appropriate design
principles and assessment module are believed to be able to promote learning competency
as well.
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