Analysis of Students’ Creative Thinking Skill in Solving Algebra Problem

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the students’ creative thinking skill in Junior High School to solve the problems in two-variable linear equations system. The indicators of creative thinking skill included fluency, flexibility, and novelty. This research was a qualitative descriptive study with 8 students in SMP N 4 Playen Gunung Kidul as the subject. The data collection used in this research was tests that were adjusted to some indicators of creative thinking skill. Researchers also conducted validated interviews by using triangulation methods. The results showed that 12.5% of students conformed with two indicators of fluency and novelty (it could be categorized as creative), 37.5% of students conformed with one indicator of flexibility or novelty (it could be categorized as adequate creative), and 50% of students conformed one indicator of fluency (it could be categorized as less creative). Based on the results, it could be concluded that most of students were categorized as less creative. This was caused by the difficulty of students in changing the story questions into mathematical form, misunderstanding of algebraic concepts, and lack of practice working on problems that refers to students’ creative thinking skill. Therefore it was necessary to emphasize the understanding of algebraic concepts and the appropriation of questions based on the students’ creative thinking skill.