Real-World Context in Mathematics Teaching: Teachers’ Insights

The 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) painted a concerning picture of mathematics education in the Philippines, revealing that Filipino students ranked among the lowest-performing groups worldwide. There are 12 Grade 7 Mathematics teachers from the 12 secondary schools in Castilla who are the key informants of this research. A questionnaire and interview guide were utilized to gather data which was analyzed for common themes. The results revealed that all the mathematics teachers commonly perceive the benefits of the integration of Real-World Context (RWC) in the students’ learning and have diverse perceptions regarding their capacity to integrate RWC into their lessons. The perceived strategies that emerge are direct, indirect, experiential and interactive instruction. There are also uncontrollable challenges as perceived by the teachers such as curriculum alignment, prerequisite knowledge of the students and limited resources while lesson planning falls under the controllable challenge. There are five (5) proposed lesson exemplars highlighting the integration of RWC using a variety of strategies considering the perceived challenges. This study has positive implications for the insights of teachers regarding the integration of RWC into the lessons and to provide them with additional resources to plan and design their lesson.