The analysis of the application of discovery learning in improving student’s combinatorial thinking skill to solve local super antimagic face coloring problem

Abstract

This research aimed at discussing the analysis of the application of discovery learning in improving student’s combinatorial thinking skills to solve local super antimagic face coloring problem. The method used in this research was mixed method research which combined the quantitative and qualitative research methods. 42 students were chosen to be the control group, whereas 44 students were selected as the experimental group. In addition, this research was also intended to determine the portrait of the student’s thinking phase in solving the problem of local super antimagic face coloring which involved 3 students from experimental groups. The normality and homogeneity tests that were carried out on the results of pretest and posttest of the control and experimental groups showed that the data were normal and homogeneous as the sig value was > 0.005. Moreover, an independent sample t-test was performed on the results of the pretest and posttest. Independent sample t-test on the pretest of two groups brought up the result that sig value was 0.897. Since the sig value > 0.005, H0 was accepted as there was no mean difference between the scores of pretest in control and experimental groups. Meanhile, the result of the independent sample t-test on the posttest of two groups showed that sig = 0,000, which means that the sig value was < 0.005. It led to the rejection of H0, so that there was no mean difference of the posttest scores in the control and experimental groups or it can be said that there was an effect on the implementation of discovery learning in improving student’s combinatorial thinking skills. While the students combinatorial thinking skills indicates that 43,18% is categorised as high level of combinatorial thinking, 50% is categorised as moderate level of combinatorial thinking, and 6,82% is categorised as low level of combinatorial thinking. Thus, it can be concluded that the application of discovery learning is able to improve student’s combinatorial thinking skill in solving local super antimagic face coloring problem.