Mathematical Abstraction of Junior High School Students on Function Based on Gender Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to describe the mathematical abstraction of junior high school students in learning the concept of function between male and female students. This is a qualitative descriptive study with total participants were 28 students in grade 8th. There were 14 female students and 14 male students in two different classes. The data were collected through written tests and interviews. In this study, the researcher gave abstraction test questions. Furthermore, from the test results, the interview was conducted. The researcher chose 4 communicative students from the high ability. Based on the data analysis result, mathematical abstraction of the students can be classified into 4 levels: 1) Recognition, 2) Representation, 3) Structural Abstraction and 4) Structural Awareness. The result of research showed that female students achieved mathematical abstraction levels, namely: recognition, representation, structural abstraction and structural awareness. Meanwhile, male students only achieved the level of recognition, it means that commonly the male students do not yet have the mathematical abstraction ability in function concepts. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct further research on the differences in the abstraction process of male and female students in learning context using the SCL approach.