The analysis of junior high school students’ mathematical abstraction ability based on local cultural wisdom

Abstract

Mathematical abstraction is widely used in everyday life. For example, pengereteret ornaments derived from Tanah Karo culture, North Sumatera, Indonesia, are composite of a parallelogram resembling the image of a lizard that has two heads. This study aimed to develop a model of mathematics learning based on local cultural wisdom to improve communication and mathematical abstraction ability of junior high school students in North Sumatra. This paper examined the profile of students’ abstraction ability of year 7, that were used to develop mathematical learning models and tools. The data were obtained from observation, interview, and mathematical abstraction ability test from two regencies in North Sumatera, Tanah Karo and Mandailing Natal. The participants were 119 students in Year 7. The findings of this study showed that: (1) student could not bring up the abstraction process in solving problem, (2) students paid attention to the characteristics of the observed objects, however, they could not see the relationships among the observed objects, and (3) students noticed the characteristics of the observed objects but they have not done the actions that were supposed to be done on the objects to be manipulated. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a model of learning mathematics based on local wisdom that can improve students’ abstraction ability.