Spatial visualization is an important part of the world of mathematics, especially in relation to geometrical thinking. The ability of spatial visualization requires the existence of a perspective understanding, geometric shapes, connecting spatial concepts with numbers, the ability to translate mental images from visual images. Some of these are necessary parts in learning to learn math. Spatial visualization is the mental ability to imagine an object, manipulate objects, rotate objects and change elements in it, or change the object described into different shapes. Ramful (2015) explains that there is a visual and analytical strategy in spatial visualization related to the task of reflection. Visual strategy is a strategy that involves mental representation related to shape, location, position and orientation. Then the analytic strategy is a strategy that takes into account the properties of geometry. The visual strategy in this mirroring task is seen from "visual-mental folding" and "visual-mental reflection". The analytic strategy in this reflection task is to consider the mathematical perspective of reflection involving the preservation of shapes and angles. Two properties that can be used to reflect an object are "equidistance" and "perpendicularity".

 

This study aims to describe the visual and analytical strategies performed by students in completing the task of reflection based on the mechanism of spatial visualization. This research was descriptive with qualitative approach. Subject in this study there were two junior high school students. The first subject was a seventh grade student while the second subject is a grade 8 student. Subject taking was based on the cognitive level that has been able to think of spatial visualization and has known about the reflection. The subject was asked to complete the reflection task and continued with the interview to obtain more in-depth data in accordance with the purposes of this study. The task of reflection contains the command to reflect the line, plane, and the letters of the alphabet to the line of symmetry in the form of horizontal, vertical and oblique lines.

 

The results of this study indicated that the visual strategy used by both students was visual mental folding, although not consistently. While the first indicates that the analytical strategy used was with the technique attention to "equidistance" and "perpendicularity" of the object to the reflected or line of symmetry given, although not consistently he did for each assigned task. The second student has few barriers in determining the reflection results of the object against other than the line of horizontal symmetry. The strategy seen from the second subject was to use the technique of "equidistance", although not consistently he used it. From the answers of both subjects it can be seen that the visual and analytical strategy was not fully owned by the subject. The difficulty practiced the subject in general in reflection was when confronted with the task of reflecting objects through a sloping symmetry line. It was expected that more in-depth research on the spatial visualization of students will be done.