Exploring the elementary school’s teacher’s perception of students ‘mathematical thinking in mathematics teaching

Abstract

Mathematical thinking serves as a core of mathematics instruction in schools. These research goals were identified 1) The elementary school’s teacher’s perception about thinking based on Bloom’s Taxonomy in mathematics instruction, and 2) The elementary school’s teacher’s perception of scientific approach in mathematics learning. This research was descriptive-qualitative. Data were obtained by using open-ended questionnaire methods for nine fifth-grade elementary teachers and passive participation observation toward two fifth-grade elementary school teachers in Semarang. The result 1) the elementary school’s teacher’s perceptions about the students’ thinking is that in theory and practice, the teacher has sufficient knowledge and facilitates the students’ thinking of remembering aspect and applying optimally to the students, and 2) Elementary school teachers’ perception about the scientific approach is in theory and practice the teacher understands and applies the observing, questioning, associating/processing information/reasoning, and communicating facilitations, but practically of collecting information, teacher’s facilitation is still less varied. The professional teachers noticing students’ mathematical thinking must be studied and developed in mathematics teaching.