Hello, Ms. Rifdah.
Thank you for your excellent presentation.
I would like to ask a question about the learning model used in this research.
You explained that learning with MEAs is based on problems that are often
encountered by students in daily life, working in a small group, and presenting a
mathematical model as a solution. I think that the basic concept of MEAs is similar
to the PBL model. Do you have any preference for why you choose MEAs rather
than PBL?
Please kindly give me an explanation. Thank you.
Hello Mr. Yohannes
Thank you for the question, Let me to try answer the question.
Why I choose MEAs rather than PBL because the time required for PBL is longer
than the MEAs. This is in accordance with the opinion of Coleman (1995) who
said that students may need to invest as much as two weeks to complete a PBL
task, whereas a MEA may often be completed in about an hour and
mathematical solutions may be discussed in another hour.
According to my observations, time management in implementing PBL learning
doesn^t work maximally, it often makes the teacher accelerate the learning
process, or the learning process doesn^t finish one meeting. As a result of less
than the maximum
time management, students lack practice solve problems and quizzes to hone
students^ critical thinking skills are often not given. PBL and MEAs are strong
examples of what is
meant by non-routine tasks because they are ill-structured. They are not trite
problems
that can be easily solved with a mathematical formula. Instead, these problems
force the
invention of unique solutions. Both types of problems have an important place in
mathematics classrooms and help students achieve the goals of mathematics
standards
related to non-routine problem solving. However, MEAs may be more
challenging in mathematics than PBL tasks and they link to mathematical
content areas often better than PBL tasks do. Hence, it may be easier for
teachers to identify what mathematics is
learned by students with MEAs with greater precision than with PBL.
