THE EFFECT OF HEURISTIC PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH TO THE COMPETENCE OF STUDENTS IN LEARNING GEOMETRY AND STATISTICS IN HIGH SCHOOL

Improving problem solving capability of students has been the concern of many educators in the Philippines and a point of research and discussion by researchers. It gives emphasis on Mathematics Framework for Philippine Basic Education for students and Framework for Philippines Mathematics Teacher Education for educators. One of the approaches to problem solving is heuristics. This study aimed to find out the effectiveness of heuristic problem solving approach to the competence of students in learning geometry and statistics among Grade 7 students in a certain government national high school for the school year 2018-2019. This study utilized the quasiexperimental design of research, where pretest-posttest design were applied to the two groups’ respondents selected using purposive sampling. The study also employed the descriptive design of research to determine the general view of the respondents in terms of their level of interest towards heuristic approach. Specifically, the results showed that lessons in geometry and statistics such as angle measure, angles of a triangle, the sides of a triangle, the area of a polygon, quadrilaterals, circle and statistical data were developed using a heuristic problem solving approach. It was revealed that the pretest and posttest of each group were significantly different where the t-value is greater than the p- value. Comparison of posttest means also revealed that the two groups were significantly different with a t-value greater than the p- value. It also showed that the students’ level of interest towards heuristic problem solving approach got an average mean score of 3.53 which indicates the students are very interested. It is recommended that teachers adopt Heuristic problem solving approach in Geometry and Statistics, not only to improve the students’ competence in solving word problems, but also to help them develop more of their thinking and problem solving skills. Future researchers may also conduct the same study in other subject areas, not only in secondary but also in primary level.