Comic Mathematics: A bridge to understanding the concept of social arithmetic for secondary school students

Abstract

Several studies have concentrated on the development of mathematics comics that are used to help students understand mathematical ideas. There are still a handful, however, who create mathematics comics at the secondary school level on social arithmetical content. Therefore, this study aims to describe the development process in designing mathematics comics and to analyze their effectiveness in helping students understand the concept of social arithmetic. The process of developing mathematical comics in this study uses the Brog and Gall[1] stage by modifying it into 8 development stages, including (1) initial observation; (2) plans; (3) making products; (4) product validation test; (5) limited scale test; (6) small size research revision; (7) field testing; (8) field performance review. In addition, the field test was carried out in one of the VIII Grade Secondary Schools in Indramayu Regency, Indonesia, for students. Based on the results of the analysis, the mathematics comic design that had been created was properly checked by media experts and mathematics teaching content design and students after observing the characteristics of the material. The feasibility test results achieved an average score of 3.61 for the very feasible category, while the feasibility test results tested by the students in the limited scale test obtained an average score of 4.65 for the very feasible category. In comparison, based on the field test, the mean score of the comprehension of social arithmetic content by secondary school students was 19.43 from the mean score of the successful criterion 15. Based on the effects of the parametric statistical test, tobs= 14.89 and tk= 1.94 were obtained. It can also be concluded that the use of comics focused on mathematics learning is successful in helping to teach concepts of social arithmetic.