High level of visual-spatial intelligence’s students in solving PISA geometry problems

Abstract

Spatial reasoning and representation are two things that are often used in our daily life, especially in the field of mathematics and geometry. Therefore, this study aims to identify and describe the relationship between representation and spatial reasoning used by students who have high level of visual-spatial intelligence in solving PISA problems. This study is an explorative descriptive study through a qualitative approach. The subjects of this study were 2 third grade junior high school students with high level of visual-spatial intelligence. Data were collected by visual-spatial intelligence tests, mathematical problems related to PISA problems in the form of 3-dimensional dan 2-dimensional geometry problems with two open-ended problems and interviews. The results showed that: (1) there is a relationship between representation and spatial reasoning, (2) students combine their representations and spatial reasoning in giving and proving their answers. The results also showed that students applied their spatial reasoning in the form of spatial visualization and mental rotation. While the most dominant representations used by students are visual representation (76.25%) and symbolic representation (20%).