MEDIATING EFFECT OF STUDY HABITS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATHEMATICAL READING COMPREHENSION AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study aimed to determine whether study habits significantly mediate the relationship between mathematical reading comprehension and problem-solving of students in mathematics of Grade 8 students in the Division of Davao del Norte. A descriptive-correlational research design was used. The respondents of this research were 302 Grade 8 learners from four public secondary high schools in Davao del Norte. A stratified random sampling was utilized. This study used one adapted questionnaire and two researcher-made questionnaires. Mean, spearman rho, standard deviation, and bootstrapping were used as statistical tools. Results of the study revealed that mathematical reading comprehension is infrequently manifested, problem-solving skills of students is rarely manifested, while the study habits of the students are oftentimes manifested. The findings further revealed that the variables mathematical reading comprehension and problem-solving skills are significant with one another but infrequently manifested that they are not significant with study habits. Moreover, mathematical reading comprehension exhibits a direct significant effect on problem- solving skills but study habits do not significantly mediate the relationship between mathematical reading comprehension and the problem-solving skills of the students. The results conclude that mathematical reading comprehension is contributory factor to improve the problem-solving skills of the students. The researcher recommends that the school administrators provide an opportunity to the teachers in professional development programs to improve students’ mathematical reading comprehension and problem-solving skills. KEYWORDS: Mathematics education, problem-solving skills, mathematical reading comprehension, study habits, descriptive and correlational design, bootstrapping, Davao del Norte, Philippines