Performance-Based Learning to Strengthen Grade 10 Learners' Understanding of Slope

Slope is a foundational concept across school algebra, calculus, and statistics, yet learners frequently fail to move beyond memorized procedures toward flexible, transferable understanding, and traditional testing rarely reveals or remediates these difficulties. This study investigated whether performance-based learning activities improved Grade 10 learners' achievement in, and communication of, slope concepts, and identified the specific areas in which improvement occurred. A one-group pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design was employed with 90 Grade 10 learners from two intact classes (basic curriculum, n = 49; science curriculum, n = 41) at a public high school in Iligan City, Philippines. Learners completed two performance tasks: an outdoor activity measuring the slopes of surfaces around the school, and a choreographed slope formula action song. A validated 10-item assessment scored out of 20 points (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82) was administered before and after the intervention. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an item-level misconception analysis, a paired-samples t-test with a Wilcoxon signed-rank robustness check, and rubric-based evaluation of the performances. Mean scores improved from 5.04 (SD = 1.63) to 19.20 (SD = 1.46) out of 20, t(89) = 61.83, p < 0.001, with a very large within-subjects effect size (Cohen's d = 6.52), although a pronounced ceiling effect qualified the magnitude of this gain. Misconceptions identified at pretest were largely resolved, and learners' written and verbal mathematical communication improved. The findings indicate that performance-based tasks embedded in slope instruction can be a practical, engaging means of developing both procedural fluency and conceptual understanding, providing classroom-ready tasks and rubrics that teachers can adapt, while underscoring the need for controlled, longitudinal replication.

slope; performance-based assessment; authentic assessment; mathematics education; conceptual understanding

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