Perspective of Junior High School Students on Learning Mathematics: Learning at the Distance Due to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic had brought several challenges and difficulties to the educational sector, particularly in the implementation of distance learning methods. This paradigm shift in learning was felt globally, not just in the Philippines. The purpose of this study was to illustrate and determine the perspective of the Grade 10 junior high school students about their understanding and learning experiences in mathematics during the COVID-19 crisis. As well, this study would like to investigate the students’ preferences to either continue the distance learning modality or bring back the substantial presence of traditional face-to-face classes. More so, this research project employed a quantitative approach with a descriptive research design utilizing the developed and validated survey questionnaire. The sampling population consisted of 150 junior high school students from the private and public schools in Agusan del Sur and a few parts of Butuan City, and it was randomly chosen based on the standard criteria created by the researchers. As a result, the descriptive statistical treatment was used to obtain the mean value and standard deviation of scores, as well as descriptive and qualitative interpretations of the items. Based on the findings, the overall weighted mean value is (m=3.92) with a standard deviation of scores of 0.95, indicating a descriptive interpretation of "agree" with a qualitative interpretation of "the extent of the effect is high," which means to say that the respondents of the study are greatly agreed on the questions made by the researchers on their perceptions of learning math at distance learning due to COVID-19. The preference of the students is to have face-to-face classes, which had 142 responses with an equivalent percentage of 94.67%. This indicates that the students preferred to have in-person learning over distance learning. For future research, it would be better to conduct studies that focus on the learning styles to better understand them, as well as the detailed viewpoints of the participants, by gathering information through a qualitative approach. This will also explore how teaching techniques and methods could impact students’ impressions of distance and in-person classes