PRIOR KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD THE MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION ABILITY IN GEOMETRY
Widi Aulia Widakdo1, Dian Usdiyana2 and Muhammad Amin Fauzi3
1Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia, widiwidakdo@student.upi.edu
2Dr., M.Si., Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia, dianusdy@upi.edu
3Dr., M.Pd., Universitas Negeri Medan, Indonesia, aminunimed29@gmail.com
Abstract
Representation ability is one of the most important abilities that must be had by students to process the information, answer the questions, and solve the problems. Prior knowledge becomes the most crucial thing that makes students able to connect all of the exist information that they have to build new knowledge. The purpose of this study was to analyze the missed prior knowledge that led the students had difficulties, in understanding and answering the questions, about geometry. The study involved one instrument of 2 questions of geometry and it was given to 19 students of 12th grade students that were chosen randomly in a senior high school in Dolok Masihul, North Sumatera without any intervention on learning process in the class. The questions given was adjusted to the operational form of mathematical representation ability which have the Cognitive level 4 (C4) for question number 1 and C5 for question number 2 based on Bloom’s taxonomy. This study showed that prior knowledge become an essential thing to build the students’ representation ability to make new knowledge, especially in geometry. The most trouble topics which make them diffficult to understand the question are ratio, line and angles, power and square operation, and the last rectangular and triangle. Reflecting to the result, it is better for teacher to make sure that students have enough prior knowledge to make them easier to build new knowledge and make a fun and meaningful learning process in order to make information saved well in student’s long term memory.
Keywords: Mathematical representation ability, geometry, prior knowledge, learning obstacles
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