Last modified: 2018-07-07
Abstract
Education is training facility for students to develop ability or skills that exist within him. These skills will be useful for students to overcome the various problems and obstacles encountered in life. One of the abilities that should be developed by students is problem solving ability. Through problem solving, students are expected to be able to transfer possessed to face various problems (Dwiyogo, 2016). Skilled people in solving problems will be more able to survive in facing of various problems in his life.
Problem solving is part of the mathematics learning process that requires students to think. Krulik dan Rudnick (1988) said that problem solving has become major focus of the school mathematics curriculum. In fact, Indonesian government gives special attention to mathematical problem solving ability shown in K-13 curriculum which mathematical problem solving ability is one aspect of mathematical competence that is expected to be achieved by students. So, the purpose of learning mathematics is to develop students’s math problem solving ability.
This study aimed to analyze and describe the students’s mathematical problem solving ability about word problem of linear program. Analysis of mathematical problem solving ability in this study is based on IDEAL problem solver. IDEAL stands for identify problem, define goal, explore possible strategies, anticipate outcome and act, dan look back and learn.
This study is a descriptive qualitative to see picture of students’s mathematical problem solving ability using IDEAL problem solver. Subject in this study is 5 students in Senior High School Rodlotul Ummah Kradenan and 10 students in Senior High School PGRI Kuwu. Problem solving ability tests in the form are contextual questions regarding the content of linear program.The results of the study in the form of analysis of students’s mathematical problem solving ability can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1. Percentage  mathematical problem solving ability based on IDEAL problem solver
No.
IDEAL problem solver indicators
Analysis
The number of questions
Students’s score
Total score
Percentage
Qualification
1.
Identify Problem
3
7
90
8%
Very Less
2.
Define Goal
3
7
90
8%
Very Less
3.
Explore Possible Strategies
3
44
90
49%
Less
4.
Anticipate Outcome and Act
3
60
90
67%
Enough
5.
Look Back and Learn
3
28
90
31%
Very Less
Based on analysis of the results of obtained problem solving ability tests description of students’s ability to solve problem, can be seen that at high school level percentage of students’a ability to identify problem reached 8% and clasified in the category very less, percentage of students’a ability to define goal reached 8% and clasified in the category very less, percentage of students’a ability to explore possible strategies reached 49% and clasified in the category less, percentage of students’a ability to anticipate outcome and act reached 67% and clasified in the category enough, dan percentage of students’a ability to look back and learn reached 31% and clasified in the category very less.
The results of the analysis provide an illustration that students’s mathematical problem solving ability at high school level was not expected yet. Mostly students not able to identify the problem and define the goal yet which influence the intepretation result. Mathematics teachers is hoped can create learning which not only focus on calculation and formula, but also the intepretation of the result, so the teacher can gives experience to the students to solve the similar or different problems.
Keywords: IDEAL, linear program, mathematics, problem solving ability.
Acknowledgment: The author would like to thank the referees for improving the quality of this article and also Senior High School Rodlotul Ummah Kradenan and Senior High School PGRI Kuwu for the opportunity to do research.