Interactive notebook, students' study habits, and Mathematics achievement

Abstract

This quasi-experimental research aimed to determine whether Interactive Notebook (IN) had an effect on students' mathematics achievement and study habits. The students of two intact Fourth Year classes of a national high school were match-paired on the basis of their sex and mathematics ability percentile rank in the 2014 National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE) results. One group was exposed to interactive notebook (IN) while the other group was exposed to non-interactive notebook (NIN). The intervention period lasted for 6 weeks. This pretest-posttest experimental method of research involving 31 students from each group utilized the 40-item researcher-made achievement test on Circular and Trigonometric Functions and an adapted 45-item study habits questionnaire. Also, observations, interviews and students' reflections were used for qualitative data collection. The mean and standard deviation were employed for the descriptive analysis, £test for paired samples and Pearson rat .05 alpha for inferential statistics. The results revealed that both interactive notebook and non-interactive notebook groups had average achievement level in the pretest. In the posttest, interactive notebook group had improved to high achievement while the non-interactive notebook group maintained its level at average achievement. For the study habits, students of both groups exhibited good study habits in the pretest and in the posttest There were significant differences (1) between the pretest and posttest achievement scores of the students exposed to interactive notebook, (2) between the pretest and posttest achievement scores of the students exposed to non-interactive notebook, (3) between the pretest and posttest study habits scores of the students exposed to interactive notebook, and (4) between the interactive notebook and non-interactive notebook achievement mean gain scores. No significant differences were between (1) the achievement scores of the students before exposing to interactive notebook and non- interactive notebook, (2) the study habits scores of the students before exposing to interactive notebook and non-interactive notebook, (3) the pretest and posttest study habits scores of the students exposed to non-interactive notebook, (4) the interactive notebook and non-interactive notebook groups study habits mean gain scores. A significant relationship existed between the study habits and achievement scores in mathematics of students exposed to interactive notebook. Students, especially those who were exposed to interactive notebook, enjoyed using their interactive notebook and turned out better mathematics achievement than their counterpart in the non-interactive notebook group. Thus, it is recommended that the use of interactive notebook be applied to high school mathematics classes.