Students’ combinatorial generalization thinking skills in solving tessellation coloring pattern problems and its enhancement through problem-based learning

Abstract

Combinatorial generalization thinking skills are important to support understanding of mathematical concepts, particularly in solving tessellation coloring pattern problems. This study aimed to analyze the students’ combinatorial generalization thinking skills and improve them by using problem-based learning (PBL), then present them with phase portraits. This study applied explanatory sequential method that combined quantitative and qualitative sequentially. The subjects were 23 elementary school students in the experimental class and 23 elementary school students in the control class. The research findings show that the levels of students’ combinatorial generalization thinking skills divided into weak, moderate, and strong. The result of independent sample t-test indicated that there was significant impact of PBL implementation with the significance of 0.03 (p<0.05). N-Gain shows that PBL is more effective than the conventional one. The enhancement on strong and moderate categories showed an increase of 43.47% and 8.69%, while the weak one showed a decrease of 52.18%. The descriptions of combinatorial generalization thinking skills are presented with phase portraits. The results reveal that the implementation of PBL increases the students’ combinatorial generalization thinking skills in solving tessellation coloring pattern problems of elementary school students.