Abstract
Students’ learning can be affected by different factors. One of these factors that is linked to how students acquire knowledge is their hand preference, widely known as handedness. This interconnection between handedness and brain lateralization shoots a tiny spark of thought to its influence on learning. This study determines the impact of handedness on the problem-solving skills and performance of junior high school students at Pilot Provincial Science and Technology High School. The test survey questionnaire for attitude towards problem-solving, the test questionnaire for problem-solving skills performance, and the test for handedness are the instruments of this study. The data are composed of the student's mean ratings in their attitude and mean scores for the test questionnaire on problem-solving. Descriptive statistics showed that the problem-solving skills performance of the right-handed and left-handed students in terms of understanding the problem, making a plan, carrying out the plan, and looking back are found satisfactory as shown by the mean 22.03 and 22.91, respectively, and this means both are proficient in solving Math problems. In addition, the mean ratings on the attitude towards problem-solving of both the right- and the left-handed students yielded positive results, and all showed “agree” in cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, as revealed by the mean values 3.145 and 3.115, respectively. This implies that both right- and left-handed students show positive attitudes toward problem-solving. It was shown that there is a significant relationship between the skills performance and attitude toward problem-solving of right-handed students (r=0.535, p=0.008). Further, there is a moderately significant relationship that exists between the skills performance of left-handed students and their attitude toward problem-solving (r=0.625, p=0.0002). It was also determined that there is no substantial evidence to show that the difference between the mean scores in problem-solving skills between the right- and left-handed students is significant (t=-0.558, df=19). Finally, there was no significant difference between the mean ratings in the attitude towards problem-solving of the right- and left-handed students (t=0.656, df=19).
