ARTS INTEGRATED LEARNING MATERIALS IN MATHEMATICS 8 FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AND ACADEMIC ENGAGEMENT OF THE STUDENTS

Mathematics is considered by many students as one of the tough subjects in any level of education. Due to this, academic engagement in mathematics is typically low. The challenge for mathematics teachers is how to improve the critical thinking skills and academic engagement of students in mathematics activities. This study attempted to determine the effects of using Arts Integrated Learning Material(AILM)in improving the critical thinking skills and academic engagement in Mathematics. The study used the Descriptive- Developmental Research Design. To verify this, a pre-test and a post-test and survey questionnaire were given to 40 Grade 8 students at Quezon National High School in Lucena City for the School Year 2020- 2021.Mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentages, paired t test and Pearson product moment of correlation were statistical treatment used in this study.The result showed a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores performance of the student-respondents which suggests that the use of the AILM helped students improve their critical thinking skills and academic engagement in Mathematics. A big percentage of the respondents perceived that the arts integration creative process contributed a lot to their ability to think critically as the level of critical thinking skills of the students in terms of identification and interpretation of information, information analysis, and evaluation of evidence and arguments improved after using the AILM. The study suggests that the use of AILM in Mathematics results to a constructive and substantial improvement in student’s critical thinking skills which promotes high academic engagement in learning.