The Power of Lifelong Learning: Equipping Children for Success

and math skills is therefore plausible but this has not been the popular belief in most teaching resources due to the idea that language and numbers occupy opposing sides of the brain. This research study aims to determine whether there is indeed a relationship between reading comprehension skills and problem solving. The aim of this study is to provide evidence of the association between reading comprehension and the ability to work with math problems which in turn would contribute to theory building in the sense that language and numbers are not opposing concepts but are related to each other.It is hypothesized that reading comprehension skills is positively associated with math skills and higher scores in reading and math is associated with academic achievement. The significance of this project is that it would aid in the design and implementation of teaching strategies and instructional materials to target developing reading comprehension and math skills. Also, this study is significant for educational training as it would change how language and numbers had been taught to future teachers.

Research Statement This study attempts to determine the relationship of reading comprehension and problem solving skills and whether these two skills predict academic achievement. Research Questions 1. What are the reading comprehension and problem solving skills of middle school students? 2. Is there a significant relationship between reading comprehension scores and problem solving scores of middle school students? 3. Does reading comprehension and problem solving scores predict academic achievement?Methods This study uses the quantitative research approach; the positivist tradition hopes to find answers to problems or research questions in the form of statistical analysis as it finds evidence in how test scores

reflect skills and abilities especially in a school setting. The study is basically a correlational study because it seeks to find relationships and associations between two or more variables (Wersma, 2000).

In this study, reading comprehension scores, problem solving scores and academic grades will be tested to determine if any relationships exist between them. Correlational studies does not establish causality but it can be used to test assumptions between two variables and later on further studies that looks into causality can be conducted. Sampling Since the study will be conducted in a middle school, the sampling procedure used is captive and convenience. In this case, the grade 6, 7 and 8 students will be included in the study.The middle school grades was chosen for this study based on the cognitive developmental stages of Jean Piaget (1964), roughly, middle school students are already able to handle abstract concepts and reading comprehension and problem solving though are concrete tasks but require abstract thought processes.

On the other hand, only students in the regular classes will be included in the study, students in the special education classes and those in the slow learner’s classes will not be included since they have conditions beyond the scope of the proposed project.However, parents will be informed of the study and informed consent will be sought before the research procedures are initiated. Since the school caters to a diverse population, the students’ ethnicity, gender and age and academic grades will also be considered after the students have taken the tests to measure their reading comprehension and problem solving skills. Procedures The researcher will first communicate with the school administrators and seek permission to

conduct the research study in their school.When approval has been granted, the researcher will then communicate with the teachers and parents to solicit their cooperation in the study by helping the researcher administer the tests and to have parents consent to the participation of their children in the study. This research study will utilize the scores of the students in the Stanford Achievement Test 9th edition in reading comprehension and math problem solving subtests only.

Participants will be asked to take the SAT after the first term thus all students would likely have received some form of instruction or skills training on reading and problem solving.After which the students’ scores will be tallied and then tested using the correlation formula. Aside from the scores in the SAT, the academic average of the participants at the end of the term will also be gathered to be tested against the SAT scores; this would tell us whether reading comprehension and problem solving scores do predict academic performance. The results of the study will then be communicated to the host school and possibly used as basis for developing programs to increase reading comprehension and problem solving skills.Data Analysis The data gathered for this study will all be interval data and hence can be appropriately analyzed using the Pearson moment correlation “r” formula (Wersma, 2000). All the statistical analysis will be done at .

05 level of significance and the effect size will also be considered in the interpretation of the data analysis results. Since the SAT scores will also be compared to the academic average of the said students and correlation does not actually allow more than 2 variables

at the same time to be tested, each SAT score will be correlated against the academic average.