Moving towards wellness: exploring the Senior High School students’ perspectives on Physical Education and lifestyle

The study aimed to determine the post-pandemic learning gap created because of the prolonged school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Mathematics. The study showcases the experiences of Mathematics Junior High School teachers in the Division of Gingoog City, illustrating how they tackle the identified learning gaps, the learning interventions they conducted, the different challenges they experienced, the potential risks they identified, and the importance of professional development support in addressing the learning gaps. The learning gaps identified by the Junior High School teachers include the lack of basic Mathematics skills among students, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Students also show a lack of knowledge in the operations of integers. To tackle these learning gaps, teachers implemented several interventions such as drills, worksheets to master the operations of integers, and even one-on-one tutoring. Despite the interventions, several challenges were experienced by the teachers. It was challenging for them to finish the competencies since they also allocated their time to interventions. It is important for teachers to review these basic skills to help mitigate potential risks if the problems are not addressed, such as Mathematics anxiety, a high failure rate, and students' difficulty in progressing to the next level of Mathematics. Lastly, teachers identified important professional development support that they deemed crucial in tackling the learning gap, such as the utilization of Learning Action Cells (LAC) and Mid-year In-service training. The teachers also identified that supporting their efforts in the National Learning Camp is also crucial professional development support to prevent learning loss. Based on the findings of the study, teachers observed a significant learning gap among students, particularly in basic arithmetic operations and the operation of integers. Students also experienced reading comprehension problems. The teachers conducted several intervention programs to help mitigate the learning gaps; however, this led to several challenges such as the inability of teachers to finish the learning competencies and burnout. As a consequence, the students' lack of prior knowledge could lead to Mathematics anxiety, hindering their learning and further aggravating the learning gap. On the other hand, teachers are confident that with enough professional development support, these problems can be addressed accordingly.