Communication Ability in Resolving Open-Ended Problem in Mathematics

Abstract

Open-ended problem solving is problem solving that presents a problem that has more than one correct answer or has more than one correct settlement method. The use of problem solving is not far related to communication. Communication ability is very important ability in problem solving. The purpose of research was to know student’s communication abilities in solving open-ended problems with the material equation and quadratic function. The type of the research is descriptive qualitative research which involving two students that is student with high communication ability and student with low communication ability from one of SMPN Wonogiri. Data collected through the results of written test and interview the used triangulation methods to validate the data. Based on research analysis show that: (1) written communication of the students in solving problems have different solutions; (2) the student with high communication ability is better at open-ended problem solving than the student with low communication ability. This shows that students’ high communication ability have more than one solution or answer especially in calculation problems, they have various solution to explain detail answer.