A.I.M to Excel: A Structured Teaching Method to Improve Students' Conceptual Understanding

This study evaluated the effect of the innovative A.I.M. teaching method on the conceptual understanding of Grade 9 students at Timamana National High School, utilizing a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. The research compared an experimental group exposed to the structured scaffolds of the A.I.M. teaching method against a control group instructed via a traditional pedagogical method. Descriptive data analysis revealed that both groups demonstrated baseline improvements in conceptual mastery and affective metrics from pretest to posttest, but the group taught through the A.I.M. teaching method showed a more pronounced upward trajectory in academic performance. Inferential analysis using an independent-samples t-test confirmed a statistically significant difference in posttest mean scores between the two groups, demonstrating that the A.I.M. instructional model significantly outperformed the traditional approach in enhancing student outcomes. Ultimately, these findings indicate that integrating the A.I.M. teaching method into secondary mathematics is a highly valuable strategy for deepening conceptual comprehension, though future longitudinal research remains necessary to explore its generalizability across diverse student populations and varying mathematical sub-disciplines.