Interleaved Practice in Teaching Grade 11 Mathematics
Interleaved Practice in Teaching Grade 11 Mathematics
Interleaved Practice in Teaching Grade 11 Mathematics
Florante P. Tabudlong
Researcher
II. Abstract
The study examined the effect of using worksheets employing Interleaved Practice in
teaching Grade 11 Mathematics. Focus was on General Mathematics subject for Grade 11
They are divided into two groups called the control and experimental group. The experimental
group undergone teaching that uses worksheets employing interleaved practice. While the control
The intervention lasted for a period of ten weeks. A pre-test was given in the first week
followed by eight weeks of instruction. A post-test was given in the final week. A series of
used. These worksheets can be downloaded in the DepEd Learning Portal website using
https://lrmds.deped.gov.ph/list/subjects/615.
Results shows that using the worksheets coupled with interleaved practice has a positive
effect in teaching grade 11 mathematics. Since interleaved practice involve spacing of lessons,
the students are given an opportunity to review topics. Thus, assisting math teachers in
emphasizing important information from previous topics which is essential for student
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1. Introduction
An alarming event happened when the researcher administered the first month
topic test in Grade 11 mathematics because the average score is only 52%. The average
score is short by 23% to have a passing score of 75%. This prompts the researcher to
Researchers (Kang, 2016; Metcalfe & Xu, 2016) points that the possible reason
for students low scores in math exams might be caused by mathematics teachers have
been accustomed to Blocked Practice, in which they give mathematics home works
requiring the same strategy, that is, basing assignments entirely on only one topic. For
requiring students to use that formula. This means that learners know the suitable
strategy before they read each problem (Rohrer, Dedrick, &Stershic, 2015).
And researchers (Patel, Liu & Koedinger, 2016; Carpenter, 2014; Rohrer, Dedrick
& Burgess, 2014) suggested a different approach called Interleaved Practice, in which
some questions within each assignment will be strategically drawn from previous lessons,
High School.
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1.2. Problem Statement
the students of Grade 11 students in Amparo Senior High School. Specifically, it answers
1. What are the test scores of students before and after the intervention?
2. Is there a significant difference in the test scores between the control and
Grade 11 Mathematics between the control and experimental groups after the
intervention?
2. Methodology
Nonequivalent Control Group Design which involves two groups, the experimental group
and the control group. Both groups received different treatments. The experimental group
receives classroom instruction which uses interleaved practice whereas the control group
In this study, the independent variable is classroom instruction. And the dependent
variable is students’ test scores. Pretest and post-test were administered to the samples
in both groups.
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2.2. Research Procedure
The quasi experiment study was conducted over a period of ten weeks. Pre-test
was administered to the experimental group and the control group in the first week of the
study.
From the second week to the ninth week the experimental group receives
classroom instruction which uses interleaved practice whereas the control group receives
normal classroom instruction which uses blocked practice prepared by the teacher. On
2.3. Participants
The study took place at Amparo Senior High School, during the 1st semester,
school year 2017-2018. After seeking parents permission the final participants of the
study were a total 65 Grade 11 students. The experimental group consists of 35 students;
18 males and 17 females. While the control group consists of 30 students; 10 males and
20 females.
2.4. Materials
Mathematics Learner’s Material First Edition 2016, pages 135 to 295. The questions
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Sixteen worksheets were constructed. The worksheets contain interleaved
problems, that is, some questions within each worksheet were strategically drawn from
As suggested by (Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R., & Agarwal, K., 2017) two thirds of the
questions uses block practice and one thirds uses interleaved practice. The teacher
ensured that the students see the correct solutions. Students were given chances to
Data of this study were gathered during pre-test and post-test. Inferential statistic
was analyzed using SPSS software. In selecting the classes for the experimental group
and the control group, there was no random selection among the students; random
selection only involved in selecting the intact group to treatments. The inability to
randomly assigned the students for treatment groups causes difficulty in controlling the
difference of group samples at the beginning of the study. Thus, to statistically equate the
ceiling effect i.e. students with very low scores in pre-test will have better opportunity to
show higher gain score, whereas students with very high scores in pre-test have only
small opportunity to show better gain score. Thus, ANCOVA was used to solve the
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Results
Figure 1 shows the test scores of students before and after the intervention. The
pre-test score of the control group is 26.70% and for the experimental group is 26.50%.
While the post-test score of the control group is 66.10% and for the experimental group
is 76.50%.
76.50%
Post-Test
66.10%
Mean Score
26.50%
Pre-Test
26.70%
Experimental Control
Figure 1. Pre-Test and Post-Test Results of The Experimental and Control Groups
Students under interleaved practice obtained higher test scores than did students
under blocked practice. Students’ scores after using interleaved practice showed a large
benefit of interleaving, 76.5% (SD = 10.2%) vs 66.1% (SD = 9.7%), t(63) = 5.826, p
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Ho1 : There is no significant difference in the adjusted mean score on the Post-Test in
Grade 11 Mathematics between the group of students who received classroom
instruction which integrates interleaved practice and the group of students who
received normal classroom instruction prepared by the teacher.
Levene’s test result is not significant showing that the error variances appear to
be equal across groups.
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Table 3 shows the ANCOVA result.
Table 3. ANCOVA Result Showing The Effect of Instructions On The Post-Test Results
In Grade 11 Mathematics
Dependent Variable: Grade 11 Mathematics Post-Test
Total 84695.000 65
Table 3 shows that there was a significant difference at the level p < .05 between
the adjusted mean scores of subjects in experimental group and the adjusted mean score
of overall Mathematics post-test of subjects in control group (F(1, 62) = 465.637, p = .000).
Thus, Ho1 is rejected. As a result, it is concluded that the students in the experimental
group possessed better scores in Mathematics compared to the students in the control
group.
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Conclusions
The following conclusions were derived based on the findings of this action
research:
2. Since interleaved practice involve spacing of lessons, the students are given an
mathematics.
Recommendations
Based on the results of the study the following recommendations were drawn:
lessons. This not only gives students chances to review their previous math
lessons but also for math teachers to emphasize important fact from past topics
2. Using interleaved practice is not limited only for teaching mathematics. It can
also be used in teaching other subjects. Thus, other subject teachers are
students’ benefits.
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References
Carpenter, S. (2014). Spacing and Interleaving of Study and Practice. Applying Science of
Learning in Education. Infusing Psychological Science into the Curriculum. Division 2,
American Psychological Association.
General Mathematics Learner’s Material First Edition 2016. Department of Education, Republic
of the Philippines.
Kang, S. (2016). Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and Effective Learning: Policy Implications
for Instruction. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2016, Vol. 3(1) 12 –
19 © The Author(s) 2016 DOI: 10.1177/2372732215624708 bbs.sagepub.com
Metcalfe, J., & Xu, J. (2016). People mind wander more during massed than spaced inductive
learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. Advanced
online publication. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000216
Patel, R., Liu, R. & Koedinger, K. (2016). When to Block versus Interleave Practice? Evidence
Against Teaching Fraction Addition before Fraction Multiplication. https://mindmodeling.org/
cogsci2016/papers/0360/paper0360.pdf
Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. &Stershic, S. (2015). Interleaved practice improves mathematics learning.
Journal of Educational Psychology. 2015, Vol. 107, No. 3. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1037/
edu0000001
Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R., & Burgess, K. (2014). The benefit of interleaved mathematics practice is
not limited to superficially similar kinds of problems. Psychon Bull Rev. DOI 10.2758/s13423-
014-0588-3
Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R., &Agarwal, K. (2017). Interleaved Mathematics Practice Giving Students
a Chance to Learn What They Need to Know.
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Appendix A
Worksheets
= 100,000(1.113025) = 500,861.25.
𝐼𝑐 = 𝐹 − 𝑃 = 500,861.25 − 450,000.00 = 𝟓𝟎, 𝟖𝟔𝟏. 𝟐𝟓
r = 8.33%
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 1 Number 2
Topic: Future Value, Simple Interest & Compound Interest (page 149, #16)
2. Nora is thinking of investing an amount of P30,000 for 2 ½ years. Find the future value based
on the following investments:
a. Simple interest at 8.5%
Solution: P = 30,000 r = 0.085 t = 2.5
F = P(1 + rt) = (30,000)(1 + (0.085)(2.5)) = 36,375.00
𝑃 = 𝐼𝑟𝑡𝑆 =(0.10)(2)
3,000
= 𝟏𝟓, 𝟎𝟎𝟎
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 2 Number 1
2. How much should you invest at 6% annual interest rate to obtain a simple interest of P72,000
in 3 years?
Solution: r = 0.06 Is = 72,000 t = 3 years
𝐼𝑠 72,000
Solve: P Now, 𝐼𝑠 = 𝑃𝑟𝑡 ⟶ 𝑃 = 𝑟𝑡 ⟶ 𝑃 = (0.06)(3) = 𝟒𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 2 Number 2
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 3 Number 1
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Topic: Compound Interest, Investments (page 157, #20)
3. Yani has a choice to make short term investments for her excess cash P60,000. She can
invest at (a) 6% compounded quarterly for 6 months or (b) 5% compounded semi-annually for 1
year. Which is larger?
a. Solution: P = 60,000 i(4) = 0.06 t = 0.5 m=4
𝑖(4) 0.06
𝑗= 4
= 4
= 0.015 n = mt = (4)(0.5) = 2
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 3 Number 2
The present value of the loan is equivalent to present value of the deferred annuity
1−(1+𝑗)−(𝑘+𝑛) 1−(1+𝑗)−𝑘 1−(1+0.015)−(7+20) 1−(1+0.015)−7
𝑃=𝑅∙ 𝑗
−𝑅∙ 𝑗
= 10,000 ∙ 0.015
− 10,000 ∙ 0.015
1−(1.015)−(27) 1−(1.015)−7 1−0.6690 1−0.9010
= 10,000 ∙ 0.015
− 10,000 ∙ 0.015 = 10,000 ∙ 0.015
− 10,000 ∙ 0.015
= 10,000 ∙ 22.0667 − 10,000 ∙ 6.6 = 220,667.00 − 66,000.00 = 𝟏𝟓𝟒, 𝟔𝟔𝟕. 𝟎𝟎
Topic: Conversion Period(page 168, #24)
3. At what interest rate compounded quarterly should an amount be invested if the interest
earned is 20% of the invested amount for 5 years?
Solution: P = principal F = 1.2P t = 5 years m = 4 n = mt = (4)(5) = 20
= 1 + 𝑗 → 𝑗 = 0.0092 𝑜𝑟 0.92%
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 4 Number 1
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 4 Number 2
Thus, j = 0.000499. Therefore, the interest rate per daily payment interval is 0.0499%.
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Applying the formula in finding the future value of a general ordinary annuity using the computed
equivalent rate
(1+𝑗)𝑛 −1 (1+0.000499)30 −1 0.015079
𝐹=𝑅∙ 𝑗
→ 𝐹 = 20 ∙ 0.000499
→ 𝐹 = 20 ∙ 0.000499 → 𝐹 = 𝟔𝟎𝟒. 𝟑𝟕
(𝑚) 𝑖 (12)
n = mt = 240 payments 𝑗 = 𝑖𝑚 = 12
= 0.008333
Find: P
1−0.112759 1−0.826244
= 29,000 ∙ 0.008333
− 29,000 ∙ 0.008333
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 5 Number 1
Find: Outstanding balance after 5 payments (or present value of the remaining 2 payments)
1−(1+𝑗)−2 1−(1+0.06)−2 1−0.889996
𝐵3 = 𝑅 ∙ [ 𝑗
] = 5,000 ∙ [ 0.06
] = 5,000 ∙ [ 0.06
] = 5,000 ∙ [1.8334]
= 9,167.00
That is, the outstanding balance after the 5th payment is P9,167.00.
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b. How much of the 6th payment goes to pay the interest?
Solution: The 6th payment of P5,000 is partly used to pay for the principal, and partly to pay
for the interest.
Step 1: Get the outstanding balance after the 5th payment (the balance after the 5th payment
is what the 6th payment will be for).
Since the outstanding balance after the 5th payment is P9,167.00, we will skip to step 2.
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 5 Number 2
c) If Ted’s score is less than 50, then Ted will fail the course.
Answer: Compound proposition
Simple Components: Ted’s score is less than 50.
: Ted fail the course.
Logical Connector: If and then
d) What time is it?
Answer: This is not a proposition since it is a question.
g) If a, b, and c denote the lengths of the legs and the hypotenuse of a right triangle, then 𝑎2 + 𝑏 2 =
𝑐2.
Answer: Compound proposition
Simple Components: a, b, and c denote the lengths of the legs and the hypotenuse of a right
triangle.
: 𝑎2 + 𝑏 2 = 𝑐 2 .
Logical Connector: If and then
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 5 Number 2
d. 𝑝 → ((𝑞 ∧ (∼ 𝑟)) ∨ 𝑟)
Answer: “If Rena eats at the Spanish restaurant, then either she orders the restaurant’s special
paella and no dessert, or she order dessert.
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e. 𝑝 → ((~𝑞) → 𝑟)
Answer: “If Rena eats at the Spanish restaurant, then she orders dessert whenever she does
not order the restaurant’s special paella.”
f. ((~𝑞) ∧ (~𝑟)) → (~𝑝)
Answer: “If Rena does not order the restaurant’s special paella and does not order dessert, then
she does not eat at the Spanish restaurant.”
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 6 Number 1
Name: _______________________________ Grade & Section: __________________
Instructions: Feel free to provide your complete solutions for the following problems on the
spaces provided.
Topic: Proposition Truth Table, Tautology (page 262, #2)
1. Show that the following statements are tautologies by constructing the truth table for each.
a. ((~𝑝) ∨ 𝑞) → (𝑝 → 𝑞)
Solution:
p q ~p (~𝑝) ∨ 𝑞 𝑝→𝑞 ((~𝑝) ∨ 𝑞) → (𝑝 → 𝑞)
T T F T T T
T F F F F T
F T T T T T
F F T T T T
Hence, ((~𝑝) ∨ 𝑞) → (𝑝 → 𝑞) is a tautology.
b. ((~𝑞) → (~𝑝)) → (𝑝 → 𝑞)
Solution:
p q ~q ~p ((~𝑞) → (~𝑝) 𝑝 → 𝑞 ((~𝑞) → (~𝑝)) → (𝑝 → 𝑞)
T T F F T T T
T F T F F F T
F T F T T T T
F F T T T T T
Hence, ((~𝑞) → (~𝑝)) → (𝑝 → 𝑞) is a tautology.
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Hence, [𝑝 ∧ (𝑞 ∨ 𝑟)] → [(𝑝 ∧ 𝑞) ∨ (𝑝 ∧ 𝑟)] is a tautology.
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 6 Number 2
29
f. If the housing market crashes, then all of my investments will suffer. My investments have not
suffered. Therefore, the housing market has not crashed.
Answer: Let p: “The housing market crashes”, q: “all of my investments suffer”. In proposition
form[(𝑝 → 𝑞) ∧ (~𝑞)] → (~𝑝). Hence, the argument is valid by virtue of the “Modus Tollens”.
g. Either Derrick was not informed about the meeting or he made the decision not to attend.
Derrick was not informed about the meeting. Thus, he did not decide not to attend the meeting.
Answer: Let p: “Derrick was not informed about the meeting”, q: “Derrick made the decision not
to attend”. In proposition form[(𝑝 ∨ 𝑞) ∧ (𝑝)] → (~𝑞). Hence, the argument is invalid as exhibits
the “Affirming the Disjunct”.
h. It is known that f is a polynomial function and it is a one-to-one function. Therefore, f is a one-
to-one function.
Answer: Let p: “It is known that f is a polynomial function”, q: “f is a one-to-one function”. In
proposition form 𝑝 ∧ 𝑞 → 𝑞. Hence, the argument is valid by virtue of the “Rule of Simplification”.
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Amparo Senior High School
Worksheets in Grade 11 Mathematics
Inspired by Interleaved Practice
Week 6 Number 2
c. If √2 is a rational number, then √2 = 𝑎𝑏 for some integers a and b. It is not true that √2 = 𝑎𝑏 for
some integers a and b. Therefore, √2 is not a rational number.
Answer: The argument is valid by “Modus Tollens”. However, it is not sound because the first
premise is false.
d. If the polygon is a quadrilateral, then the sum of its interior angles is 360𝑜 . The sum of the
interior angles of the polygon is not 360𝑜 . Therefore, the polygon is not a quadrilateral.
Answer: The argument is valid by “Modus Tollens”. The first premise is true by the property of a
quadrilateral. If the second premise is taken to be true, then the argument is sound.
e. If at least one of two numbers is divisible by 5, then the product of the two numbers is
divisible by 5. Neither of the two number is divisible by 5. Therefore, the product of these two
numbers is not divisible by 5.
Answer: The argument is invalid as it exhibits the “Fallacy of the Inverse”, and hence it is
unsound.
Topic: Propositions, Compound Propositions, Components, Connectors (page 245, #8-13)
3. Determine whether the following statements are propositions. If the proposition is a
compound proposition, identify the simple components and the logical connectors used.
a) Timothy’s average is at least 92 and he is getting an A for the course.
Answer: Compound proposition
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Simple Components: “Timothy’s average is at least 92” and “he is getting an A for the
course”
Logical Connector: and
b) -5 is not a negative number.
Answer: Compound proposition
Simple Component: “-5 is a negative number”
Logical Connector: not
c) A password must be at least 6 characters long or it must be at least 8 characters long.
Answer: Compound Proposition
Simple Components: “A password must be at least 6 characters long” and “it must be at least
8 characters long”
Logical Connector: or
d) If Jerry receives a scholarship, then he will go to college.
Answer: Compound Proposition
Simple Components: “Jerry receives a scholarship” and “he will go to college”
Logical Connector: “If” and “then”
e) If you fix my computer, then I will pay you P2,000 and if I pay you P2,000, then you will fix my
computer.
Answer: Compound Proposition
Simple Components: “you fix my computer” and “I will pay you P2,000”
Logical Connector: “If” and “then”
f) If you do not run 1 kilometer a day or do not eat properly, then you will not be healthy.
Answer: Compound Proposition
Simple Components: “you do not run 1 kilometer a day”, “you do not eat properly” and “you
will not be healthy”
Logical Connector: “If”, “and”, “then”
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