MISEIC 2018

Surabaya,  July 21, 2018

 

Mathematical Writing Profile of Junior High School Student With High Social Arithmetic Ability  in Solving Social Arithmetic Problems

M. Yulianti*¹, D. Juniati2 and S. Khabibah3

 

¹ Mathematics Education Student, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, INDONESIA.

(E-mail: maulidayulianti16070785031@mhs.unesa.ac.id)

^{2, 3} Mathematics Department, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, INDONESIA.

(E-mail: dwi_juniati@yahoo.com, khabibah_khabibah@yahoo.com)

ABSTRACT

Learning mathematics was more than solving problem or imitating teacher’s explanations. Students have to communicate their mathematics idea. Writing was one of media for student to communicate their mathematics idea. Writing was pedagogical approaches based on the belief that reasoning asking to write about topics or concepts will help students gain understanding. There was a writing activity in learning mathematics. Writing activity in learning mathematics can found in solving mathematical problems process, that was when students write the steps of completion and explanation it. Writing activities in learning mathematics called writing mathematics, which is a combination of mathematics and writing.

 

The result of writing mathematics was a written visual language, symbols, or pictures to communicate mathematics idea. It called mathematical writing. Mathematical writing defined as written words of visual languages, symbols, or pictures to communicate the mathematics ideas. In solving problem, mathematical writing can said as written description of problem solving process. It explored how student communicated their ideas in solving mathematics problem, how student’s representation in solving mathematics problem, and how student’s justification about their strategy in solving mathematics problem. There were four important aspects in mathematical writing.

1. The use of precise mathematical language.
2. Explanation of the solution process.
3. Reasoning about why the solution process produced the correct answer.
4. Connections between abstract mathematical procedures and the context of the problem.

Students need to train their ability in solving a simple arithmetic word problem to master all subject in school (Lubin, Houde, & Neys, 2015). In daily life, student close to social arithmetic and have to solved some social arithmetic problem and understand it. with students mathematical writing, student’s understanding in social arithmetic and how student communicate their idea in solving social arithmetic problem well known. So that, researcher want  to know how student’s mathematical writing in solving social arithmetic problems.

 

The subject of this research was junior high school student with high social arithmetic ability. In this research, student was given a writing mathematics assignment. The test consist of social arithmetic’s word problems with additional question to explain and wrote the justification of problem solving steps. Student should try to get a right solution with right procedure such as get some word that represented the problem, and then represent the problem till form a suitable calculation process. After that, student had to explain and wrote the justification of problem solving steps. After the assignment, student was interviewed to make sure the data.

 

Table 1. Indicators of Mathematical writing.

 

Aspects

Indicator

1

1.1.        Using math vocabulary in solving problem.

1.2.        Using Indonesian rules of good and right.

1.3.        Using right symbols/notation.

2

Writing the explanation of solving problem steps.

3

Writing the reasoning of used to solved the problem.

4

Writing the explanation about the connection of  final answer and the context of the problem.

 

The data was analyzed by the indicator of mathematical writing. The result is, form the different social arithmetic ability, the mathematical writing had different look from how clearly student write the explanation and the justification of their problem solving steps that their used in solving social arithmetic problem. Student who understand social arithmetic was clearly used accurate math vocabulary to communicate ideas, clearly provides the mathematical steps used to solved the problem, clearly described the reasoning used to solved the problem Includes connections between the numbers used in the strategy and the problem context, and then the final answer was clearly explained in the context of the problem.

 

Keywords: Learning mathematics, Writing, mathematics writing, mathematical writing, arithmetic.