ENHANCING STUDENT'S HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS THROUGH CONTEXTUALIZATION OF A SOCIOCULTURAL MATHEMATICS TEACHING

Promoting contextualization in Mathematics teaching has been the advocacy of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the hope of enhancing students’ learning. Another important emphasis in the current setting is placed on the socio-cultural aspect of Mathematics education in the country. In this study, a socio-cultural Mathematics classroom adopted contextualization to enhance the higher order thinking skills of the students in a public Secondary High School in the province of Laguna. Moreover, it utilized a descriptive design but experimental in nature involving 112 Grade 8 students. Through data investigation and using Sample Paired T- Test and Pearson- Product Moment findings revealed that contextualization in a socio-cultural classroom has produced positive effects on the students’ higher order thinking skills since the performance of Grade 8 students as to their analyzing, evaluating, and creating skills significantly improved. Furthermore, contextualizing a sociocultural classroom by using everyday life scenario in connecting Mathematics to the real world and presenting the lesson with a contextual problem motivate students, challenge them to apply Mathematical reasoning to different circumstances, and deliberately involve them in higher order thinking.