A Relational Thinking Process of Elementery School Students with High Capability

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the relational thinking process of the fifth year students with high capability in mathematics when they face mathematical problems. Two students, girl and boy, were chosen as subjects with high-capability in mathematics. Data were obtained through in-depth interviews based on the task of problem solving. All data were video-recorded. To obtain credible data, consistency and perseverance (improving perseverance), time triangulation and member check were observed. The obtained data were analyzed using a flow chart consisting of three-flow activities occuring simultaniously namely: data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing. The results suggest that the relational thinking processes of male and female students when facing mathematical problems by constructing inter- and intra-relation between two core elements in solving mathematic problems are that they understood the problems and answered the questions in the problems. The relations made by the male students were richer than those by female students.