CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Dealing with radicals has a long history in Mathematics. For example, Galois Theory
emerged from the problem of solving radicals (Blomer, 1993). Many students view the concept
of a radical very abstractly and do not possess a concrete, geometric understanding a radical
actually means (Sirotic and Zazkis, 2007). Students are frequently thought to memorize
properties and shortcuts to work with radicals algebraically. Learning Mathematics in this
manner can actually hinder a students number sense and aid the development of committing
errors on operations of radical expressions (Gomez and Buhlea, 2009; Ozkan, 2011; Ozkan and
Ozkan 2012).
Learning to solve the different operations on radical expressions is one of the most
significant learnings that occur in any Mathematics class. In teaching and solving of different
operations on radical expressions, teacher must analyze closely all steps required in the process
so that they cant teach all the students, and the students themselves must recognize the steps if
they are to solve the different operations on radical expressions successfully.
The ability of students to solve on different operations on radical expressions depend
generally on their intelligence, their understanding of numbers and their ability to use basic skills
in dealing with different operations on radical expressions according to the cognitive perspective,
the crux of learning and the intelligence in general, lies in an individuals ability to mentally
represent aspects of the world and then to operate on these mental representations rather than the
world itself (Atkinson, et al.,1993).

Hence, there is not enough study Students who experienced difficulty in solving radical
expressions are found in every classroom. This situation cause for the data on students strengths
and weaknesses before a teacher can offer techniques to minimize such difficulty. An analysis
therefore of the students error in solving radical expressions is imperative.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, the study aims to find out the errors committed by the students of San Pedro
National High School on operations of radical expressions.
Specifically, the objectives of the study are:
1. What are the errors made by the students of San Pedro National High School in solving
different operations of radical expressions when taken as an entire group and when
grouped according to gender?
2. Is there any significant difference in the proportion of errors made by students in
operating radical expressions when grouped according to gender?

Hypothesis of the Study

1. There is no significant difference in the proportion of errors made by students in
operating radical expressions when grouped according to gender.
Significance of the Study
The result of the study will be beneficial to the following persons:
Administrator/Principal. The result of this study will enable school administrators or
principals to design the training program for the development of the teachers instructional skills.

Mathematics Teachers. Knowledge of the students errors in operating radical expressions

will guide the Mathematics Teachers in the choice of teaching strategies or approaches that will
facilitate the learning process.
Parents. This study will enable the parents to become aware of the errors made their
children particularly in operations radical expressions, thus, they can guide and have follow-ups
in learning at home.
Students. When the student errors in operating radical expressions are identified, then
they can have more practice on the skills they have missed.

Definition of Terms
For better understanding of this study, the following terms are defined:
Radical Expressions. Expressions containing a radical () symbol.
Error. Refers to the procedure employed by the respondents in every item which led to a wrong
response.
Operations. Means things like add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Gender. The state of being male or female.
LCM. Least Common Multiple; Is the smallest number that the two numbers divide evenly into.
Index. A number or symbol, often written as a subscript or superscript to a mathematical
expression, that indicates an operation to be performed, an ordering relation, or a use of the
associated expression.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

This study will identify the errors made in operating radical expressions of all the Grade
10 students enrolled at San Pedro National High School for the School Year 2015-2016.
The method of research that will be employed is descriptive method. The teacher-made
test will be used to gather the data for the analysis of the errors in operating radical expressions.
The respondents will be taken as a whole and will be grouped according to gender.

Conceptual Framework
Dealing on operations on radical expressions generally appears as an outgrowth of
computation, following the teaching and practice of arithmetic skills. The teacher of
Mathematics should guide the learning activities of children in such a way that the ability to deal
with operations on radical expressions is systematically and carefully developed through actual
experience in solving problems concerning radical expressions. By observing the behaviour of
the students in solving different operations on radical expressions, the teacher can discover the
strengths and weaknesses of the students in utilizing mathematical concepts.
The lack of strategy on operating radical expressions often creates difficulties for many
students, thus learners must be taught step by step in solving different operations on radical
expressions. These step by step processes in adding and subtracting radical expressions are
identified as: a) Simplify the radicals; b) Combine like radicals. Moreover, in multiplying radical
expressions, there are three ways. First is Multiplying Radicals Without Coefficients and the

steps are: a) Make sure that the radicals have the same index; b) Multiply the numbers under the
radical signs; and c) Simplify the radical expressions. Second, Multiplying Radicals with
Gender

Errors
Coefficients and the steps are: a) Multiply the coefficients;
b) Multiply the numbers inside the

radicals; and c) Simplify the product. And the third means of multiplying radical expressions is

Adding & Subtracting Radical Expressions

Multiplying Radical Expressions Dividing Radical Expressions

Multiplying Radicals with Different Indices and its processes are: a) Find the LCM (lowest

common multiple) of the indices;

b) Write
eachthat
expression
with
newradical
LCM as
Multiplying
Ensure
Radicals
the
without
index
Coefficients
ofthe
each
is the
theindex;
samec)
and that the de
Simplify the radicals

Find the number that you would need to multiply each original index by to find the LCM; d)
1. Makeofsure
that theinside
radicals
have the
same index
Make this number the exponent
the number
the radical;
e) Multiply
the numbers inside

2. Multiply the numbers under the radical signs

Combine like radicals
3. Simplify
the these
radical
expressions
the radicals by their exponents;
f) Place
numbers
under one radical; and g) Multiply them.
Convert the expression to one radical

Furthermore, in dividing radical expressions the steps are identified as: a) Ensure that the index
of each radical is the same and that the denominator is not zero; b) Convert the expression to one

Simplify where possible

radical; c) Simplify where possible; and d) Rationalize the denominator, if necessary.

Multiplying Radicals with Coefficients

Rationalize
thesolving
denominator,
In this connection, the researchers will analyse the errors
made in
different if necessary.
1. Multiply the coefficients
2. Multiply the numbers inside the radicals
3. Simplify the product

operations on radical expressions by the Grade 10 students of San Pedro National High School
for the School Year 2015-2016.

Multiplying Radicals with Different Indices

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Find the LCM

Write each expression with the new LCM as the index
Find the number that you would need to multiply each original index by to find the LCM
Multiply the numbers inside the radicals by their exponents
Place these numbers under one radical
Multiply them.

The framework in this study is stated in Figure 1.

Chapter II
Review of the Related Literature

The literature review discusses research and teaching strategies associated with radical
expressions. The review begins with an historical background which discusses the role of
radicals in the development of influential mathematical concepts. Following this section is an
analysis of how radical expressions are represented in the New York State and Common Core
State Standards as well as how radicals have been represented on past New York State Regents
Examinations. The review continues with an analysis of four textbook introductions to the topic
of radical expressions. The following section examines several articles, published in various
mathematics journals, on the subject of teaching radicals. Lastly, the review explores current
research on common student misconceptions regarding radical expressions.
Radical Expressions: A Historical Perspective
The concept of a radical expression, or more specifically square and cube roots, has a
recorded history thought to date back to 1800 B.C. in Egypt and Babylonia. The idea of square
and cube roots seems to have come from geometric representations, specifically finding the
length of a side of a square or cube with a known area (Eves, 1990; Gullberg, 1997; Hooper,
1948; Katz, 1993). The historical section discusses the importance of a geometric interpretation
of radicals in the development of the concepts of irrationality and complex numbers. Much of
our knowledge of ancient Egyptian mathematics comes from the Rhind Papyrus, which contains
collections of mathematical problems and recipe-like solutions thought to have been written
around 1800 B.C. The results for certain square roots are used throughout the Rhind Papyrus, but
their actual computation is not given. The Rhind Papyrus marks one of the earliest known
records for the result of a square root. All problems involving square roots in the Rhind Papryrus
contain a perfect square radicand. There is no evidence in the Rhind Papyrus that the ancient
Egyptians worked with irrational numbers. It is thought that Egyptians had square root tables

which they referred to when solving problems involving square roots, but these tables have yet to
be discovered (Katz, 1993).
The earliest known records of square root tables came from the ancient Babylonians.
Eves (1990) reports that ancient Babylonians are credited with the creation of the first recorded
table which calculates the square and cube roots of numbers from 1 to 30. These tables are
thought to have been created around 1800 B.C. Ancient Babylonians are also credited as the first
civilization to record accurate approximations of non-square numbers, like , which would
ultimately become known as irrational numbers. The Babylonians were able to accurately
approximate to five decimal places, but there is no record of how this approximation was
determined. The Babylonians also created a table of Pythagorean Triples, which suggests they
were able to correctly apply the Pythagorean Theorem over 1,000 years prior to the birth of
Pythagoras. Armed with a close approximation of and the Pythagorean Theorem, the
Babylonians were able to find accurate approximations of other irrational numbers.
Although ancient Babylonians are thought to have been able to
approximate irrational numbers by 1800 B.C., the concept of irrationality did
not develop for at least another 2,500 years. Hooper (1948) writes that the
Greeks were thought to be the first to discover the concept of irrational
numbers around 530 B.C. Hooper states that the famous Greek
mathematician Pythagoras believed at one time that everything in the
universe was connected in some way with numbers. Pythagoras and his
followers, the Pythagoreans, believed that any two lengths were
commensurable, meaning that they must have some common measure. For
example, the lengths 0.6 and 1.5 are commensurable, since they have a

common measure of 0.3. It was reportedly discovered geometrically that the

lengths

and 1 are incommensurable by a member of the Pythagoreans

while inspecting the diagonal of a square with an area of 1 unit squared. The
discovery of incommensurability refuted the Pythagoreans core belief that all
numbers were connected with some common measure. For this reason, it is
believed that the concepts of incommensurability and irrationality were kept
a secret by Pythagoras. The Pythagoreans were reportedly sworn to secrecy
by punishment of death to the first member that revealed the discovery of
incommensurability. The development of the concept of irrational numbers
was in turn delayed for about another 150 years until the Greek
mathematician Eudoxus found a way to work geometrically with irrational
numbers.
Another key mathematical concept that has been developed from a
geometric interpretation of radical expressions is imaginary or complex
numbers. Complex numbers involve the square root of a negative number,
such as

, which is today represented by the imaginary unit i. These

numbers are thought to have first come under discussion in 1525, but were
not viewed seriously at the time by most of the mathematical community.
The concept of complex numbers was originally dismissed because they
were thought to be useless and impossible to work with. Even the great
mathematician Leonhard Euler mistakenly argued that

2 3 = 6 ,

incorrectly generalizing the radical product rule to negative numbers. It was

not until 1799 that Caspar Wessel, a Norwegian surveyor, discovered a
geometric interpretation for complex numbers as points in the complex
plane. Wessel also determined a geometric interpretation for adding and
multiplying two complex numbers. The discovery of a geometric
interpretation for adding and multiplying imaginary numbers marked the first
time that the concept of complex numbers received any serious
acknowledgment from the mathematical community (Needham, 1997). The
historical section continues by tracing the development of the notation for
the radical symbol.

CHAPTER 3
Research Design and Methodology
This chapter deals with the research design of the study and methods of
research used to analyze the common error of the students in operating the radical
expressions.

The Research Design

A descriptive method will use in this study. Sevilla et. al. Citing Gay defines
descriptive research as involving collection of data in order to test hypothesis or to
answer question concerning the current status of the subject of the study. A
descriptive study determines and reports the way things are and measures what
already exists. (Sevilla et. al., 1992)
Locale of the Study
The study will be conducted at San Pedro National High School, San Pedro,
San Jose, Antique.
The Respondents
The respondents of the study will be the Grade 10 students enrolled at San
Pedro National High School for the school year 2016-2017.
Research Instrument
The data gathering instrument will be used in the study will be a 20-item
researcher-made test. The items will aimed to measure the following skills:

Validation of Instrument
The researcher-made test will be submitted to a jury of seven (7) persons for
validation who are all Mathematics teachers and who are experts to validate the
researcher-made test as to its face and content.
Each item will be rated as accept, reject and modify. Only items that will be
rated as accept or modify will be retain and improve as suggested while items that
will be evaluated as reject will be entirely eliminated.
To determine the acceptability of items, the researchers will make use of
agreement ration of 80% and above. Items with agreement ratio of 80% and above
will be accepted while items with a ratio below 80% will be rejected and modified as
suggested.

The formula for agreement ratio is as follows:

Number of jury members who choose the accepted options
AR% =

x 100

Total number of jury members

Where AR = Agreement Ratio
The result of the jury validation will show the percent of the items that will be
rejected, the percent of the items that will be accepted or the percent of the items
that will be modified.

Data Analysis Procedure

Before conducting the study, the researchers will get permits needed in
administering the instrument. After the permits will be approved, the researchers
will administer the research instrument to the respondents.
For clear understanding on the part of the respondents, the researchers will
explain carefully how to respond to the items and will ask to answer the items
honestly and without discussing the answers with their classmates. The process will
take for about 40 minutes.
After the administration of the research instrument papers will be checked by
the researchers and the data will be carefully tallied and tabulated. Frequency,
percentage and z-test will be computed.

In order to answer the question What are the errors made by the

students of San Pedro National High School in solving different operations of

radical expressions when taken as an entire group and when grouped
according to gender, the researchers will use the frequency count and
percentage.
To answer the question on significant difference, the researchers will
use the Chi-square.