INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 7, ISSUE 5, MAY 2018 ISSN 2277-8616 90 IJSTR©2018 www.ijstr.org Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract Approach On Students’ Attitude And Performance In Mathematics Nino Richard R. Salingay, Denis A. Tan Abstract: This study inspected the effectiveness of CPA approach to Grade 8 students of Bukidnon National High School in terms of stude nts’ attitude and performance. Specifically it aimed to a.) describe the attitude of the students when exposed to CPA approach and to those exposed to non-CPA approach before and after the intervention in terms of: attitudes toward success in math, Math anxiety, motivation, usefulness of Math and confidence in learning math, b.) compare the level of performance in Mathematics of the students once exposed to CPA approach and those exposed to non-CPA approach in terms of: pre-test scores, post-test scores and retention test scores, c.) differentiate the students’ attitude as exposed to CPA approach and those exposed to non-CPA approach, and d.) ascertain the significant difference between the performance of the students exposed to CPA approach and those exposed to non-CPA approach in terms of: post-test scores and retention test scores. A quasi-experimental research design was used in this study; it uses two sections of Bukidnon National High School. One is the experimental group and the other was the controlled group. These two (2) group undergone pre-test, post-test and retention test. The materials used to determine the achievement of the students is a teacher-made test. The material used for the attitude is Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Test. Descriptive statistics and ANCOVA were used for the analysis of the study. It was found out that the attitude of the students during the pre-test and post-test are positive. The level of performance of the two groups in the pre-test is below average level. During the post-test and retention test, the performance of students in non- CPA group is on average level and students in CPA group are on above average level. It was also found out that students have positive attitude towards success and usefulness of Math and undecided on their anxiety level, motivation level and on their confidence in learning Math during the pre-test. During the post-test, all components remain the same instead to the confidence in learning Math of CPA group of student wherein form neutral during the pre-test, it becomes positive during the post-test. The study also found out that the attitude of the students are comparable or has no significant difference. However, the performance in the post-test and retention test of CPA group of students is significantly higher than the performance of non-CPA group of students. This study would benefit the future researchers, mathematics educators, students and administrators and this will give them an idea about CPA approach. Index terms: Attitude, Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) approach, Performance in Mathematics ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Mathematics is accepted as the partner of Science in improving one’s knowledge. It plays a great role in any field of knowledge for it solves the numeric problems that may help in acquiring new set of inventions. It is known to be the back bone of science. Even the amazing works of engineers, architects, technologies and in all other fields of knowledge are greatly associated with the concept of Mathematics. A good foundation in Mathematics will lead to a greater performance of the students in their advance Mathematics. Teachers in elementary and secondary schools should ensure strong foundation in Math to provide more chances of the student to acquire another set of knowledge for the tertiary level easily, because if the student was not able to master the basic skills in Math, it will lead to a greater chance of having a low performance in the tertiary level. Basic skills should be developed and mastered by the student in early years in school. Otherwise, a negative attitude and performance will occur. A part of the vision of the Department of Education is to continuously improve itself to better serve its stakeholders. From traditional way to more effective teaching strategies and approach, and every possible means were used by the institution just to improve the performance of the students. However, despite the dream of the Filipinos to enhance the curriculum; the students still fail to achieve the competencies in the curriculum guide. In fact, the National Achievement test (NAT) result of Bukidnon National High School (BNHS) in Math for School Years 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 are 52.17, 63.17 and 44.47, respectively (NETRC, 2015). For School Year 2014-2015, Mathematics NAT result in BNHS is the lowest of all the other fields. A low mean percentage score in NAT exam indicates that students have low performance and retention level in Mathematics. One factor that may affect the performance of the students is on how the teacher provides meaningful representations and situations to the students (Kang, 2012). Thus, a challenge given to the teachers is to provide quality experience to help students perform better and even retain the knowledge given to them. The book of Corpus and Salandanan (2013) stated that researchers found out that the most effective approaches- resulting in 75 percent and 90 percent retention rate are learning by doing and learning by teaching others, respectively. This means that students want to be part of their learning and need to be given a meaningful learning experience on the topic given to them. A good learning experience will also improve the attitude level of the student. A positive attitude of the students towards Mathematics is governed by their experiences (Durmus and Karakirik, 2006). The more they appreciated their learning experience, the more that a positive attitude will follow. Thus, students should be given meaningful experience on every topic given to them to ensure a positive response on their attitude. Teachers, ___________________________________  Nino Richard R. Salingay is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in Educational Administration in Central Mindanao University, Philippines. He is a secondary high school teacher at Bukidnon National High School. +639362341063, salingayrichard21@gmail.com  Denis A. Tan is a faculty of the College of Education, Central Mindanao University (CMU), Philippines. She is currently the School Principal of the CMU Laboratory High School and the Director of the Office of Admissions, Scholarships and Placement in the same university. +639177103100, teacher.tansined@gmail.com