Mathematical Connection of Prospective Mathematics Teachers in Constructing Graph Based on Real-Life Problem N R Prihartiwi*, Yulia I El Milla
Mathematics Department, Universitas Negeri Surabaya
Jalan Ketintang, Surabaya 60231, Indonesia
*ninaprihartiwi[at]unesa.ac.id
Abstract
Mathematical connection ability is one of the important abilities that students should have. Connecting real-world problem to mathematical concept can make learning mathematics become more meaningful for students. In everyday life, there are many information presented in graph. Graphing competence consists of graph interpretation and graph construction. Even though graph construction is crucial yet neglected skill. From the previous explanation, the purpose of this study is to describe the ability of students in constructing graph based on real-life problem. This descriptive qualitative study is collected from 37 prospective mathematics teacher in a university. All students had to answer one question about constructing graph based on real-life situation given. The result of this study, students^ mathematical connection between everyday life and mathematics itself was still low. Using indicator in this study: 10.81% of the students could not represent the real-life situation in the graph that they constructed- 75.68% of the students made graphs but many features of the graphs did not represent the situation well- and 13.51% of the students made more representing graph but some features of the graph did not relevant. Therefore, in mathematics learning the teacher should give more experience to the students to explore every-day life situation using mathematics and courage students to write their thinking down so that mathematics become meaningful for students.
Keywords: mathematical connection, constructing graph, real-life problem
