Inquiry based learning (IBL) strategy is defined by Davis (2018), as a student, centered learning

experience with the instructor serving more as a facilitator or a coach. Students engage in a wide range

of idea but logically ordered and efficient. Scaffold sequence of problems that are rich and support

inquiry to the heart of being mathematical ideas. The problem may be worked on alone or in groups, at

home, or during the last time. The solutions are discussed in class, with the students leading both the

presentation and the questioning.

Moreover, Wagganer (2015), emphasizes that the students become the co-constructors of

knowledge through asking questions, justifying their work, and communicating their ideas to each other.

Hence, the teachers must guide and extend the students’ learning through mathematics discussion,

questions, sentence stems, asking for examples, and asking for justification of work. Suurtamm et al.,

(2015), The students are asked to explain ideas, justify their thinking, and question one another on their

work and compare and contrast ideas and solutions.

Added to the definition presented, Guido (2017) and you're worried that the four types of IBL.

The first type is called Confirmation Inquiry in which investigation and critical thinking skills is built

through asking students’ questions. Then, the Guided Inquiry that is typically done in groups. In this type

of inquiry, the students design investigation methods to reach a conclusion by the help of open

questions. And, the Open Inquiry in which the students were given time and support. The students

investigate through their own method, present their result to discuss and expand.

Since the students’ involvement was evident, Inquiry Based Strategy resolved to what Freeman

et al., (2013) stated that an active learning increases the students’ performance in science, engineering

and mathematics. He added that active learning is more effective than just lecturing.

Math Talk
 Math Talk as an Inquiry Based Strategy defined by Hufferd-Ackies et al., (2013), as a way to have

structured mathematical discussions that construct knowledge and meaning. The authors also define a

math talk learning community as a place where meaningful mathematical discussions construct

knowledge and support the mathematical learning of all participants. They added that teachers are not

bearers of knowledge, but instead, they guide and extend students thinking as the class listens and

learns to accept other students ideas.

According to Maguire and Neill (2013), mathematical classroom discourse as a whole-class

discussion in which students talk about mathematics in such a way that they can reveal their

understanding of concepts. Students also learn to engage in mathematical reasoning and debate. This

course involves asking strategic questions that elicit from students both how a problem was solved and

why a particular method was chosen. Students learn to critique their own and others’ ideas and seek out

efficient mathematical solutions.

Various researches stated the effect of Math Talk any students learning as Rowan (2015) reveal

the five reasons why teachers should use talk in math classrooms. First, talk can reveal understanding

and misunderstanding. If the students talk about the concepts that they are studying, the teachers can

easily point out the misconceptions. Second, talk supports robust learning by boosting memory. In the

classroom discussion, as multiple students discuss the same content, everyone benefits by hearing that

content verbalized in different ways, particularly students who may need more time to process

mathematical ideas. Third, box supports deeper reasoning. In the classroom, teachers can give students

practice of reasoning by using talk in strategic ways. Then, talk supports language development. When

talk is used intensively in classes, students may get a richer sense of what words and phrases mean and

of when to use them. And, don't supports development of social skills. When teachers use classroom

talk as a great deal, it gives students a chance to learn about respect and kindness.
 It was supported by the statement of Thompson (2015) that the more the students became

more comfortable with math skills the more opportunities they had to discuss the ideas in various

settings. Also, students discovered the importance of being able to share their mathematical ideas and

value the ability to verbalize their thoughts with others. Students’ Involvement in discussion can improve

the students ability to put ideas into paper, work through mathematical problems from start to finish,

and become more confident of their own mathematical abilities.

Zach and Graves (2013) Added that if all students are involved in math talk, meaningful learning

will take place. Students become co- investigators and holders of knowledge instead of the teacher

imparting all her knowledge to students.

Fuson (2013) building the teacher, learned mathematics when math talk was nurtured and

developed. Through this community, students may develop a math conversation culture specific to that

group. Particular questions will become part of a given classroom culture and can be asked across topics.

Teachers can support students by making their own question table as they get started and find questions

that work well with their classroom community.

According to Garcia (2013) students’ engagement in meaningful mathematical discourse has a

positive effect on their mathematical understanding as they increase the connections between ideas and

their representations. Teachers need to explicitly teach the social behaviors necessarily in engaging in

discourse on a whole group, small group, and partnership level. Although there are common behaviors

most teachers can initially address, most behaviors are unique to the dynamics of an individual

classroom.

Moreover, Stein (2013) concludes that participating in a mathematical community through this

course is as much as part of learning mathematics asked the conceptual understanding oh the

mathematics itself. As students learn to make and test conjectures, was strong, and agreed to or
disagree about problems, they are learning the essence of what it means to do mathematics. Your

students are to be engaged, teachers must foster classroom discourse by providing a welcoming

community, establishing norms, using supportive motivational discourse, and pressing for conceptual

understanding.

Lomibao et al., (2013) added that mathematical communication in mathematics class is an

effective teaching method to improve achievement and conceptual understanding, and reduce

mathematics anxiety. Hence, he recommends the use of mathematical communication as a teaching

strategy.

Thus, Bruce (2014) suggest giving students sufficient time to do math talk, and not to intervene

with probing questions or ideas too quickly. He also suggests that math talk could be part of the

classroom assessment.

Students’ Performance in Mathematics

Math talk was used to address the existing problem in the students’ performance in

mathematics. As stated by Daliva (2015) Based on the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS),

students’ four months and teaching styles in mathematics and science program of 50 countries indicated

that mathematics instruction can be characterized as “mile wide and an inch deep”. That is, it seems

many dozens of topics, but pauses little drink their essence. A further finding was that, in general,

students’ “number sense” lagged behind because it focused on procedures and to precedence over true

mathematics thinking and problem solving in the classroom.

It was supported by the statement of Altar (2014) That mathematics is still one of the fields in

which most Filipino students show poor performance. He cited the results of the National Achievement

Test which further showed that many of the Filipino secondary students are still performing low in

mathematics. He added that based on the Mathematics Teachers Association of the Philippines (MTAP)
Math Challenges result in 2014, the grade 7 students in both public and private schools in the country

showed low performance.

Araja (2014) Added that students are still weak in mathematics and science, based on the results

of the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study – Repeat (TIMSS- R). Report of the Department of

Science and Technology (DOST) he stated that the 6601 Filipino students who took the TIMSS round 36 th

in both science and mathematics tests out of the field of 38 countries. The DOST revealed the Filipino

participants garnered a score of 349 and 350 in signs and mathematics respectively, Below the

international average of 489 in both subjects. He also showed that when it comes to mathematics

instruction, Filipino students and teachers are still below far than what should we expect that compared

to the other Asian countries.

Moreover,Ocana (2014) he stated that in general, the deteriorating mathematics performance of

Filipino students was alarming as shown in the international and national mathematics assessments. I

showed in the result of the TIMSS, the science high school students in the country who participated in

the advanced mathematics category ranked the lowest among the ten countries. She also revealed that

in the National Review of Philippine education for all, the mean percentage score of the Filipinos from

the intermediate level to high school and the national achievement pass in mathematics over the eight-

year period has not yet reached the Philippine EFA target of 75 percent.

Problems Encountered in Teaching and learning Mathematics

But, What led to those poor performances of the students? Pacana (2017) Enumerated that

although some students have very strong memory skills, others struggle to remember simple facts.

Although some students make sense of mathematical concepts on their own, others struggle to

connect meaning to simple expressions. Although some students intuitively use their knowledge of 1

mathematics fact to find the solution to a related fact, others simply get frustrated and discourage
when they can't remember a specific concept. He added that students are so different, and yet the

goal for each is the same, that is to master basic facts to have a strong foundation for more complex

mathematics skills and procedures. The goal is to explore numerous strategies and activities that

support all students in understanding basic mathematics facts and committing those facts to memory.

Salao (2016) state the factors that contribute to the low achievement of the students in

mathematics. He's stressed out that the biggest factor to this is no quality of teachers in teaching

industry. He also said that quality mathematics evaluation or education is a function of instruction that

the teacher delivered. He further said that the success and failure of the holy column lies on the

teacher. He added that although the school may have excellent material resources in the form of

equipment, buildings and textbook if the teacher is misfits or are indifferent to their responsibility the

whole column is likely be ineffective. A best design curriculum was fated to fall in the hands of

ineffective teachers.

In addition, Altar (2014) stated that some teachers handling the subject find teaching

mathematics difficult. Some of them are frustrated with their students and they are blaming

elementary teachers for the kind of poor quality but rich in quantity products that they produced and

this led them to establish poor relationship and even large gap with their students. He added that

some students feel uncomfortable with mathematics due to their bad experiences with their

mathematics teachers. He considered that a big factor of having low performance in mathematics

what's the perception of his students that the subject is too complicated. Furthermore, he concluded

that even the mathematics teachers performed well on their job with various methods and innovative

strategies; there were always students that alienated themselves from the world of mathematics.

Pecana (2014) I believe that many teachers in the field seldom pay attention to fitting the

teaching strategies to specific learning styles. When they teach, they tend to apply a single approach
to all the students. The learning style must be considered greatly. He suggested that students should

learn to value mathematics, be confident on their own ability, and learn to communicate and to

reason out mathematically as well as to become a problem solver. He added that teachers should

provide opportunities to deepen their understanding of mathematics concepts and applications.

According to Tan (2014), the achievement of learners in mathematics and science in the

country was lower than in other nations. He also stated that one of the problems identified by some

experts at the university of the Philippines is a teaching method used by teachers. Rote learning has

been used in teaching mathematics and science in many institutions including high school. The

teachers believe that having the answers at hand helps on complex mathematical operations and in

learning advanced concepts. But, true learning is not only about memorizing concepts or by getting

the correct answer; It is more on deepening the understanding of concepts through inquiry. He

discussed that the problems in mathematics education in the country can be attributed to the

shortage of qualified mathematics teachers. He added that over dependence of the teachers and

textbooks but are unable to detect errors; Mathematics classrooms are still teacher-centered, the

budget of work for a particular period Has to be finished, and difficulty of the students in

understanding English.

Araja (2014) Concluded that what is missing with all the focus on teachers is the view of

mathematical knowledge in the context of teaching. He added that there is an important distinction

between knowing how to do mathematics and knowing mathematics in ways that enable its use in

teaching practice. It is not only what mathematics teachers know but also how they know it and what

they are able to mobilize mathematically in the course of teaching.

It was clear with aforementioned related literature and studies that the performance of the

students in mathematics is low. One of the possible reasons behind the low mathematics performance
of the student mentioned was the teaching methods. It was stressed out that true learning is not only

about memorizing concepts or by getting the correct answer; it is more on deepening the

understanding of concepts through inquiry. This thought was supported by various researches on

Inquiry Based and strengthen by the researchers about Math Talk.