Characteristics of students’ mathematical representation in solving algebraic thinking problems

Abstract

Facts in the field show that there are still many students who have difficulty in understanding concepts of algebra and have a low ability in algebraic thinking. One of the factors that influence the situation is because students find it difficult to change their thinking processes from arithmetic thinking to algebraic thinking. There are three abilities in algebraic thinking and one of them is mathematical representation ability. The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of students’ mathematical representation in solving algebraic thinking problems. This research is a qualitative research conducted on 34 students’ grade 6th elementary school and 34 students’ grade 7th junior high school. Based on the analysis of the results of written tests and interviews, it was found that elementary and high school students have similarities and differences in the mathematical representations they use to solving algebraic thinking problems. In addition, the researcher found that both elementary school students and junior high school students tended to use a combination of several representations to express mathematical ideas found in the problem.

Karakteristik Pemecahan Masalah Matematika Siswa dalam Menyelesaikan Masalah Berpikir Aljabar ditinjau dari Jenjang Sekolah

“…Penyelesaian masalah atau problem solving, menurut istilah adalah proses penyelesaian suatu permasalahan atau kejadian melalui berbagai upaya pemilihan dari beberapa alternatif atau opsi yang mendekati kebenaran atau dianggap benar untuk suatu tujuan tertentu. Pemecahan masalah merupakan bagian dari proses berpikir (Nada, 2020). Kemampuan pemecahan masalah juga dapat diartikan secara khusus sebagai kemampuan untuk menggunakan strategi-strategi pemecahan masalah untuk memecahkan suatu masalah matematika.…”

Development of teaching materials on algebra using the mind mapping model with a scientific approach

“…The magnitude of the role of mathematics makes mathematics one of the compulsory lessons at the education level. However, most students do not like learning math because they view many topics in math subjects as very difficult (Meidia Sari & Afriansyah, 2020;Nada et al, 2020).…”