The purpose of the study was to develop modules for a one term course on Introduction to Set Theory and Logic (XSETHEO) in the summer of schoolyear 1999-2000 for the students of the Summer Institute of Graduate Studies at the De La Salle University. XSETHEO is one of the major courses of the Master of Education major in Mathematics program. The students were provided with 15 modules, 10 of which were on Symbolic Logic and the remaining 5 were on Set Theory. Ten modules were mailed to the 20 SIGS students in March, 2000. The remaining 5 modules were distributed to the students during the summer enrollment in April, 2000. The students were asked to read the modules and submit all the exercises on the first day of classes. The submission of the exercises was not part of the requirements of the course.
Questionnaires were given to students to determine their level of diligence in reading the modules, and doing the exercises before, and until the end of the summer term. The exercises were checked to find out the level of logico-mathematical thinking of the SIGS students at the start of the 7-day sessions on XSETHEO. Their final grades were used to determine the level of logico-mathematical thinking of the students as they complete the course. The amount of modules read and exercises done were correlated with the final grade to find out if linear correlations exist among them. Based on the results of assessments made, the following conclusions can be made:
1.SIGS students should be provided with modules on the course they are scheduled to take in summer some months before the summer term, for learning to become really meaningful to them. This is supported by the very satisfactory mean final grade of students in XSETHEO.
2.SIGS students are very diligent and conscientious in their studies. There were significant differences in their diligence level in reading the modules and doing the exercises before and after the term. Even if these tasks were not required in the XSETHEO class, they continued reading the modules and doing the exercises.
3.SIGS students gain confidence in a subject matter even on the first day of classes when they are provided with materials like modules to prepare them for the summer sessions. Consequently, they are motivated to learn the course and perform very well in class.
4.The modules on Set Theory and Logic can encourage academic achievement among the learners. The students’ diligence in reading the modules and in doing the exercises correlate significantly with their performance in class.
5.The students find the modules on Set Theory and Logic very helpful in learning the course. They gave the modules an excellent evaluation.
6.As long as they syllabus for a certain course is well defined, any researcher can prepare the modules for a course and another teacher can teach it. When properly used, the modules can help significantly in the academic achievement of students.
The teacher strongly recommends the preparation of modules for SIGS students, for meaningful learning to take place during the summer term. This should be a joint effort of the DLSU administrators and faculty.
