Mathematical representation is one of the goals to be developed in learning mathematics. For classroom learning, students not only need to master a single representation, but they must be endeavored to master various mathematical representations. The ability of students to change the form of representation can be seen from their ability to translate between Mathematical representations.

.

This     qualitative study aims to describe the students’ ability of translation between mathematical representations (visual and symbolic) whose visual, auditory or kinesthetic learning styles. The students’ translation ability between mathematical representations is seen from the process undertaken during the translation, namely: Unpacking the scource, Preliminary coordination, constructing the target, and determining equivalence. The Subjects of this study are three junior high school students who have different learning styles, but have the similar mathematical ability. Subjects were given a translation ability test between mathematical representations and followed by semi-structured interviews.

 

The results of this study showed that at the unpacking the scource stage, they are able to unpack the representations (visual or symbolic) of a given resource by identifying the information contained in the source representations (visual or symbolic) (Table 1). At the preliminary coordination stage, they can prepare a formula or strategy as a first step to determine the target representations (visual or symbolic) (Table 1). In the constructing the target, they can transfer information obtained from the source representations (visual or symbolic) to form a target representations (visual or symbolic) (Table 1) . At the determining equivalence, they consider the target representations (visual or symbolic) made by the representations (visual or symbolic) of the given source (Table 1).

 

Table 1. The results of students’ Translation between  Representations

Translations Process

Subjects

Visual

Auditory

Kinestetic

Unpacking the Scource (v-s)

Identifying the information:

and

Sketching the graph

Identifying the information:

and

Sketching the graph

Identifying the information:

and

Sketching the graph

Preliminary Coordination (v-s)

Instance the   and

Instance the   and

Instance the   and

Constructing the Target

(v-s)

Be able to make the graph from the line equation that through   and

Be able to make the graph from the line equation that through   and

Be able to make the graph from the line equation that through   and

Determining Equivalence

(v-s)

Remake the  line equation from graph that have been sketched

Look back the accounting wheather the accounting is relevant to known information

Remake the the line equation from graph that have been sketched

Unpacking the Scource (s-v)

Indentifying the information:    dan

Construct the line equationt

Indentifying the information:    dan

Construct the line equationt

Indentifying the information:    dan

Construct the line equationt

Preliminary Coordination (s-v)

Use formula:

 

Use formula :

 

Use formula  :

 

Constructing the Target

(s-v)

The simbolic representation that is goten

 

The simbolic representation that is goten

 

The simbolic representation that is goten

 

Determining Equivalence

(s-v)

Remake the graph  from line equation that have been constructed

Make similarity coordinate of the graph  with  coordinate of the line equation that have been constructed

Remake the graph  from line equation that have been constructed

 

Based on the result of the study, we can concluded that the students’ of visual, kinesthetic and auditory styles are able to translation between mathematical representation (visual and symbolic) through the translation process (1) Unpacking the scource; (2) Preliminary coordination; (3) Constructing the target; (4) Determining equivalence.